“I don’t have a good explanation," Lars Eller was saying late Friday night at his PPG Paints Arena stall. "We should have plenty of energy and will to play in front of our fans this early in the season in a divisional game. We've just got to look inward. Everybody has got to look inward and bring a little bit more. Everybody can be a leader and drag us into a game, whether it’s a goal, a hit, something. We need to find a way to drag ourselves into the game when we’re not emotionally there. We should be emotionally there, but I don’t think we were today.”
The man's a truth-teller, and he's telling nothing but the truth in that assessment.
So was Kris Letang in saying, "I just think today came down to work ethic. They just worked harder than us, and they got rewarded for it."
My goodness, all concerned can only hope that comprises the entire truth. And, attempting my own truth-telling, I can't be sure it does.
See, it's like this: There's no way these Penguins should get away with a showing this shoddy, this 4-1 loss to the Hurricanes in which the opponent out-everything-them from front to finish, by simply sharing the final score. Not when the opponent conducted mini-clinics in the Pittsburgh zone for minutes at a time. Not when the opponent was so omnipresent over all 200x85 of ice that it's at least a minor miracle that Frederik Andersen, their goaltender, will collect a game check. And most assuredly not when the opponent attempted 81 shots.
Eighty.
One.
As in, 38 official shots on Joel Blomqvist, 26 more that were blocked, and 17 more that misfired. As in, 1.35 shot attempts every minute. As in, 22 of those qualified as high-danger chances, meaning they were attempted from within the patch of ice immediately in front of Blomqvist. As in, five clean one-on-one breaks on Blomqvist, all of which he'd reject, as if that'd matter in this broader context.
As in ... yikes.
As in ... maybe it wasn't merely some momentary lack of motivation.
Mike Sullivan was informed afterward at the podium of the remarks by Eller and Letang and, when asked if he agreed, his response didn't require a second syllable: "Yes."
Well, my thoughts on this team are about as scattershot as the 3-3 record itself, the three losses all coming against 2024 Stanley Cup playoff teams and the three wins all against non-playoff teams. And because I'll be missing my annual pilgrimage to Winnipeg for the first time since the Jets were restored to their rightful home -- those other Jets happen to be in our city on the same Sunday -- rather than packing up, I'll unpack a few of those right here:
• Every lineup Sullivan puts together begins with what's best for Sidney Crosby. That's as it should be. As such, and because of who Sid still is, I'm going to guess that, when his line's on the ice five-on-five for six shot attempts for the Penguins and 25 shot attempts given up, it's almost certainly not the living legend's principal fault. And further, I haven't seen from Day 1 of camp what the coaching staff liked about Anthony Beauvillier on the top line alongside Sid and Bryan Rust. He's offered next to nothing to date.
• Put this young man up there instead:
With three goals so far this season, Drew O'Connor is taking off! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/BOFGjA1KTr
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 18, 2024
Sid's got two even-strength points through six games, whereas O'Connor, who was a fine fit with Sid and Rust down the stretch last season, has again proven to be capable of creating his own offense. This doesn't take Scotty Bowman to piece together: O'Connor goes to the first line and, if Beauvillier can't help on the bottom-six, then he can pull up a chair in the press box.
• Also relevant to the top-six, Michael Bunting's zero goals, one assist and eight shots don't exactly align with how both of his linemates, Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell, have been off to dynamic starts. See above for solutions.
• Couldn't be happier for Rakell, on that note. Seriously struggled last season through a shoulder injury, one he'd seldom cite. Good hockey player. Great dude. Still represents one of my swing-vote players for the season, right now in the positive sense.
• No one will ask me, but I'd suit up Valtteri Puustinen, who's been a healthy scratch the whole way, and have him next to Eller and Jesse Puljujarvi -- this was a high-grade preseason line, so I'm not being original -- while happily promoting O'Connor to the Sid line.
• Odd-man breaks can't keep being the oversized problem that they've been for the Penguins for far too long. As a consistent proponent of the Sullivan system, I'm also plenty comfortable saying that, if the defensemen can't pick the right time to pinch, stop pinching. And if the forwards can't recognize the right situations in which to cover for pinching defensemen, stop pinching. No rule stipulates that the system comes first.
• There's no greater myth associated with the current roster than that Noel Acciari's some defensive necessity:
Hurricanes rookie Jackson Blake scores for the second game in a row! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Voisi7b2t7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 18, 2024
This could be considered a hat trick, actually. Acciari whiffs on picking off the pass, then whiffs on not blocking the shot ... but a few seconds earlier, it was his giveaway at the far end that allowed the Hurricanes to counter.
• Stop forcing bad contracts onto the rink. No reason for everyone to suffer for overpayments.
• That goes triple for Tristan Jarry.
• Blomqvist's been beautiful, and he was again here. Might've been his best start, actually. And after the commendable Kyle Dubas-staged competition at all positions that began with his summer signings of a billion forwards, the segued smoothly into camp, it'd be outstanding to think Blomqvist could stick when Alex Nedeljkovic returns. And at the same time, I couldn't count a handful of hockey-loving humans around here who'd buy that it's got a prayer of occurring. Which is when, I'm sorry to say, the whole competition concept combusts.
• Ask the 17,074 paying customers for this game which goaltender should stick and which one should wake up every morning on NHL waivers. They erupted for Blomqvist in the pregame introductions and then had his back the whole night, adroitly recognizing he was the only one who kept the score civil.
• Sullivan on Blomqvist's night: "I thought he competed hard. He made some big saves. They had a fair amount of zone time in our end, so he was forced to have to make some big saves. I thought he competed hard all night.” He sure did. Which Jarry sure didn't. But again, wait and watch how all this unfolds.
• Matt Grzelcyk came cheap, but I'm still not seeing what he brings. I'm always hearing about his positional smarts and reliance, but what I'm seeing is this:
Jack Roslovic's SNIPE puts Carolina up by 3!#RaiseUp pic.twitter.com/imzjuiVoL8
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) October 19, 2024
Grzelcyk over-pursuing Jesperi Kotkaniemi at the far boards is the only reason Jack Roslovic entered the zone unmarked. Letang had to cut across to cover. That was game over, a senseless risk not even halfway through the third period.
• No, I don't know what kind of team this is. What's more, I don't know what "identity" it's ultimately seeking, to borrow a word that Letang bandied about afterward. But I do know nothing will materialize from inconsistent effort.
• How hard a team works is controllable. Has been forever. Goes like this: Player X doesn't try hard enough? Player X sits. Or gets sent down. Or, in the event of an established and high-grade veteran, loses power-play duty or something like that. I can't stress this strongly enough: It was never going to be enough to have the camp competition, if Sullivan won't carry the accountability factor into the games that count.
• My mind remains blown that Puljujarvi was a healthy scratch in Toronto. Yeah, still. It's the exact antithesis of all that'd been put forth from Dubas to Sullivan to everyone.
• This four-game Canadian swing comes with an ominous feel: The Jets and Flames, first two on the tour, are both 4-0. The Oilers are the defending Western champs. The Canucks will host the borderline unwinnable final-game-out-west-less-than-24-hours-later game. And if the Penguins think they can get away with giving up odd-man breaks out there, they're about to see a gargantuan gap between, say, the Sabres and these four.
• The remainder of the Sid-Geno-Letang timeline won't wait out the bad contracts. Might as well make those a non-factor sooner rather than later.
• Thanks for reading my hockey coverage.
