TORONTO -- One stupid thing happened, which led to another stupid thing happening, which led to one last stupid thing within the Penguins' 3-2 overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on this Monday night at Scotiabank Arena:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) April 9, 2024
All three stupid things, in order:
• Sidney Crosby was recklessly rammed into the Toronto net by Jake McCabe late in the second period and, in the process, lost the blade from his left skate. As Sid would retell it afterward, "My whole steel was pretty gone, and I don’t have the replacement steel, so I had to change the skate." Meaning the whole thing, boot and all.
• Complications with that same skate arose late in the third period, rendering Sid unavailable to start the overtime, as had been Mike Sullivan's plan. So, Sullivan sent out Lars Eller, Drew O'Connor and Erik Karlsson.
• That trio'd stay stuck on the ice for all 90 seconds, with more than two-thirds of that coming in the Pittsburgh zone, until McCabe scored.
Who was most at fault?
To be blunt, the fairest answer's probably that there's no time to fuss over it. Next game's Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena against the Red Wings, who ... oh, just look:
NHL
Uh-huh. One point back of the Islanders for third in the Metro. Tied in points with the Red Wings for the final wild-card spot, though that group's got a game in hand that'll be burned up Tuesday night against the Capitals, of all teams, who'll be burning up their own game in hand.
But hey, since our sporting society rolls on discussing and debating blame ... if there's any applied for this overtime, ask me, and it's sparse at best.
Sullivan, I suppose, could be second-guessed for prioritizing Eller over Evgeni Malkin on reputation alone, but Geno's never been some three-on-three ace, to put it mildly. Besides, Eller's the team's lead defensive forward, so he'd make a smart matchup with Toronto's top guns. And, like O'Connor and Karlsson, he'd been efficient with the puck all night long.
The equipment staff, I suppose, could be second-guessed for any equipment failure, including skate trouble. But I know that Sid's reference to not having "the replacement steel" means that he doesn't use the kind of skate where the blade can be smoothly swapped out within the same boot. He prefers it that way and, as a result, it takes longer for him than for most.
The three overtime skaters themselves, I suppose, could've been second-guessed for a couple decisions. Right away, Eller, O'Connor and Karlsson generated two rushes, each with a shot attempt that'd miss. After the first one, theoretically, they could've switched out for someone else -- possibly Sid, who was now sitting up at the bench, appearing ready -- but both those rushes had consumed a mere 22 ticks off the clock. And, more relevant, the Maple Leafs then gained immediate possession for a counter that allowed them to change their trio, then sustain an attack through to the end.
I spoke with all three of the overtime skaters, and all three were of a mind that there never was an opportunity to change.
“You can’t change when the other team has the puck," Eller would say flatly. "You’ve just gotta wait till you get possession or a stop.”
“We were looking to change at the right time," O'Connor would say. "You get into those situations in overtime where you have to defend when you’re tired. It’s tough to get a change. You don’t want to jump off and give them an odd-man rush. You just have to defend tired.”
"Can't go off if they have possession," Karlsson would say. "Just can't."
Nope.
I asked Sullivan if there'd be any circumstance in which he'd approve of such a change.
“That one of the challenges of overtime," he'd reply. "And quite honestly, I think that’s something we’ve talked about, just doing a better job with our own possession and putting other teams in that circumstance. We haven’t done a very good job of that as a group. The line changes are a critical part of overtime. On the offensive side, teams are trying to hang onto the puck, not allow you to change and then eventually take advantage of a tired group. But part of that, to make that happen, your shot selection and the puck possession is critically important. Otherwise, you have a tendency to give the puck back. So, I just think we’ve got to do a better job in that regard.”
Hm. OK.
Well, I stand by my statement.
I'm also going to stand by this, even if I'll end up biting me on the backside: These Penguins will make the Stanley Cup playoffs.
That's right, I said will.
If -- and that's right, I said if -- they keep performing with this passion, this precision and this much of a push. And accept it or not, all of that was every bit as present here as it'd been in the previous four games, all clean victories amid the ongoing 6-0-3 points streak, beginning with an overwhelming first period that'd include Rickard Rakell's icebreaker:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) April 9, 2024
And an equally buoyant third, highlighted by O'Connor banging home a tying goal that was richly deserved -- no one on either side stood out as he did -- with 6:22 left in regulation:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) April 9, 2024
I asked Alex Nedeljkovic, after 20 saves in his ninth consecutive start, what he'd observed of the effort in front of him:
"It's great. That's how you've gotta play," he replied. "We need every point. We need wins right now. We dominated that whole game. I don't really think that there was ever a time where they had anything really going … maybe in the start of the second period there, but, like, that was it."
He looked at me as if to see if I'd agree. I nodded emphatically. He was dead-on. The Maple Leafs owned the first five minutes of the second, but otherwise ...
"We were all over them. A couple bounces a different way and maybe we get three or four ourselves. But we played great. We’ll take the point and move on."
Yeah. That's the thrust of my own point here, as well. It isn't to offer attaboys. Rather, it's to stress that this team, at its collective peak and with all the requisite drive, really ought to get this done. It's good enough. It's got the gusto. And this point, deflating as it must've been in the moment, represents a continuation of all that rather than some dead end.
Put it this way: Grab all of that potential four-point swing from the Red Wings, and the one point here will show its true value.
See what I mean?
“I think we'll look at this as, hopefully, an important point down the road,” Sid would say. “It was a close game. Could've gone either way. Obviously, we would’ve liked to get the extra one, but we can't go back now. We did some good things in the game, and we've just gotta move by it.”
They believe. Trust me on that. Several quality conversations after this game convinced me of that almost as much as the game itself.
I'm buying.
Anyone else?
• Meanwhile, back home, the baseball club's 9-2. Behave. Or don't.
• As always, thanks for reading.
• And for listening:
