"Yeah, obviously, they played a full 65. We were able to push in the first and second period, and I think it was just a little bit of puck management in the third period and ... obviously, there were a couple of bounces that went their way."
What's above was Tristan Jarry's response late Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena when he'd been asked to assess in a non-specific way what went awry for the Penguins in yet again wasting a late two-goal lead over the Islanders and ultimately losing, 4-3, on Brock Nelson's overtime goal. And predictably, if only because he's part of this all-around accountability-free operation, he addressed everything except his own part.
Which began with this bizarre positioning on fourth-line winger Hudson Fasching's stuff with 5:29 left:
Then this passive approach to an abandoned Anders Lee to tie with 1:15 left:
Then this self-shrinking maneuver on a Nelson breakaway at 2:47 of the three-on-three:
I'll stop right here and state this empathically: Jarry's anything but alone in blame.
All three of the above sequences contain mistakes galore: Jeff Petry allowed a forward, Mikael Granlund, to follow Fasching on the first, but only after Drew O'Connor failed to set himself properly on Petry's initial breakout. Brian Dumoulin confusingly crossed over on the Fasching goal, then made sure that Lee, one of the NHL's most feared net-front scorers, had all the space he'd need on the second. On the winner, Rickard Rakell's pass attempt for Marcus Pettersson was deftly sticked away by New York's goaltender, Ilya Sorokin, springing Nelson free.
But that's not my point. Rather, it's the accountability.
Focusing solely on the goaltending, Sorokin not only assisted Nelson but also served up three spectacular stops in the overtime, whereas Jarry was beaten on three of the final six shots he'd see ... and had nothing to say on the subject. Twice more in the two minutes he spoke with reporters, he'd reference his teammates' "puck management" and other fare about a general letdown and "bounces."
And that, my friends, just might be the underpinning of all of this franchise's problems at the moment.
Tell me, please, who's accountable. Meaning truly accountable. To anyone. For anything.
Let's go at this bottom-to-top, OK?
Let's start with Dumoulin. Tremendous guy, two-time champ, even had an assist in this one, but also among the league's least effective defensemen all season per advanced analytics. Here, he was on the ice for 32 New York shot attempts, more than anyone else on his team, compared to 16 for the Penguins.
Cliff's Notes on the analytics: That's bad.
Where's his accountability?
The moment another lefty defenseman was acquired, Dmitry Kulikov, it was P.O Joseph relegated to the press box. Not on merit, either. Joseph's been better by every metric in existence, immensely so on some fronts.
Jeff Carter's a familiar target but a fair one. Like Dumoulin, he's among the league's least effective forwards. And like Dumoulin, he's got carte blanche to be that for as long as he'd like. In this one, he registered zero points despite linemate O'Connor's relentless forechecks, one shot on goal, one hit, one egregious giveaway late in regulation and went 2-5 on faceoffs.
To top it off, Carter touched a puck in the New York zone after it'd been visibly ruled to be hit by a high stick. That led to the defensive-zone draw that led to Lee's tying goal.
What'd Carter have to say about all that?
Not a syllable. Always the first to bolt the locker room. Heck, it's the fastest anyone sees him move anymore.
Let's not leave out the stars.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and Rakell are all having statistically satisfying years as individuals, but that same quintet's been brutal at converting on the power-play unit when it's been needed most: Since the start of February, they're 6 for 41, or 14.6%, and they haven't achieved multiple goals once. And in this one, they were 0 for 3 with two total shots.
I asked Mike Sullivan what's needed to fix the power play, as well as whether he'd consider making any changes to it:
"I just think movement and execution," he'd reply without hesitation. "And no, we're not going to consider changes. We like that group. They've been one of the best power plays in the league since January. Their expected-goals figure has been, like, top three in the league. So that suggests that the process is there."
He's right on the latter. The Penguins' figure is 22.93, trailing only the Senators and Panthers. When weighing their actual power-play time, that figure is 8.82 per 60 minutes, ranking a still-decent seventh. But neither of those carries that calculation through to the only figure that counts.
"They're getting a lot of looks in the big picture and, if we could finish a little bit more, I think that would help," he'd continue. "We like the group. They have their ups and their downs. They had one tonight where it was a two-minute power play, they had the puck in the zone the whole time. They had a bunch of looks, and it just didn't go in the net for them. So we just got to stay with it. We got to stick with these guys and stay with it."
Or ... not.
If the issue's finishing, as it's been for most of this group, oddly enough, for the better part of two seasons, then I'd humbly submit formulating some way to plant a human -- or two -- in front of the opponent's net and banging away at rebounds. Like, oh, O'Connor, maybe? Even though he currently doesn't even see time on the second unit?
How about Jason Zucker?
This heart-and-soul maniac scored yet again and now has nine goals in his past 11 games, but he can't get a sniff of PP1.
For that matter, how about Jeff Petry?
In the period-plus Letang was forced to miss last week in Tampa, Fla., for a puck to the mouth, Petry singlehandedly seized control of the entire game, scoring twice and blistering shot after shot after shot, hard and on net. But Letang returned, and Petry went right back to non-usage where he just might be of greatest value.
Why not?
Same reason.
I mean, it's the second week of March. It's getting dark outside. The season record's 32-22-10, now two points behind these Islanders and just four ahead of both the Senators and Panthers. There are 18 whole games to extend professional sports' longest active playoff streak to 18.
And still, no real urgency ever seems to emerge. Not consistently, anyway. The same team that just put forth a solid 55-minute performance in this game was the one that sleepwalked through a 4-0 deficit to the awful Blue Jackets 48 hours earlier. The same team that's regularly patting itself on the back for periodic effort also can fail to report for work entirely.
I love Sullivan as a head coach, but so much of that's got to be on him, given his position. There's no task any coach tackles in any sport that's higher than his or her team's preparation, physically and mentally, and this team's been sadly lacking.
I don't love Ron Hextall as a GM in the slightest, so even more's got to be on him. I could begin and end any evaluation of his tenure by laying out that he lost Jared McCann in the expansion draft to protect -- and eventually extend! -- Carter. But this roster's outrageously flawed, predominantly via unforced errors.
I can't say that I love or don't love Brian Burke as a president of hockey operations, but I'm pretty sure his only job is to prevent Hextall from doing a lot of the dumber things that've been done, so ...
I've got absolutely no use for anyone at Fenway Sports Group, since there's no greater dereliction of duty for an ownership group than to vanish. And with all that's occurred around here this winter, for John Henry, Tom Werner or any of these other Bostonians to barely show their faces ... man, what a mess they're allowing to fester, presuming they're paying attention at all.
It's a mess, all right. Bottom to top. With none of them being accountable to the other. Not even Sullivan, who's signed to the longest-term contract of all and, thus, comes with more seniority than his immediate superiors.
It's all inexorably linked, too.
Because if there's a lack of accountability at the basic level of not believing it's OK to bench a damaged defenseman or a washed-up forward, then it also becomes acceptable for the front office to bring up an AHL All-Star, watch him utterly dominate his peripherals as a top-six winger in his overdue debut ... then send him right back to Wilkes-Barre the afternoon of what would've been his next NHL game. And even though Alex Nylander's demotion/recall legitimately will make more paper sense in the longer run, this was the opponent that needed to be beaten.
No, I'm not getting goofy and suggesting Nylander's some panacea. But his situation's a symptom. One of many symptoms, swinging all the way back around to a goaltender who apparently can't even bring himself to share blame for failing to do the one thing he's supposed to do.
Oh, and hey, to anyone who hates this column, it's definitely my keyboard's fault.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Anders Lee, Islanders LW
2. Brock Nelson, Islanders C
3. Jake Guentzel, Penguins LW
THE INJURIES
• Ryan Poehling, left winger, has a lingering upper-body injury and is on LTIR.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor-Mikael Granlund-Jeff Carter
Danton Heinen-Nick Bonino-Josh Archibald
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Jeff Petry
Dmitry Kulikov-Jan Rutta
And for Lane Lambert's Islanders:
Anders Lee-Bo Horvat-Pierre Engvall
Zach Parise-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Hudson Fasching
Simon Holmstrom-Otto-Kolvula-Josh Bailey
Adam Pelech-Scott Mayfield
Alexander Romanov-Ryan Pulock
Sebastian Aho-Noah Dobson
THE SCHEDULE
There's an off-ice workout Friday, 12 p.m., in Cranberry, Pa., with no media access. And there'll be matinee games Saturday and Sunday here against the Flyers and Rangers.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
