DK: Nedeljkovic, Penguins embracing their new edge
JEANINE LEECH / GETTY
Alex Nedeljkovic has a clear sightline toward the Predators' Roman Josi in the first period at PPG Paints Arena.
The other night in Salt Lake City, Kevin Hayes was among the last to unlace the skates and pluck off all the pads. He's kinda like that. He'll take the extra time to let it all soak.
His expression revealed not a thing, so yeah, I approached and asked.
"Maybe we needed this," he'd share with me after a pensive pause. "I'm serious. Nobody likes how we got here, but we're here. And now ... maybe we needed this kind of challenge to bring the best out of ourselves and out of each other."
Look, I know ...
... the standings are the standings.
But I also know that six points are six points, this being the current separation between the Penguins, following their 3-0 shutout of the Predators here tonight at PPG Paints Arena, and the Eastern Conference's second and final wild-card playoff spot.
I further know that six points are there to be had between now and the beginning of the NHL's two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament:
• Tuesday: Devils at home • Friday: Rangers in New York • Saturday: Flyers in Philadelphia
All Metro, no less. And with the latter two opponents stuck in this same pack.
I even further know, though, that something snapped -- in a good way -- among this team's leadership somewhere between San Jose and that aforementioned scene in Utah, to the extent that, within minutes of Sidney Crosby's overtime goal at the Delta Center, player after player was citing this same slice of the schedule in a similar context.
Maybe being on the outer edge of that pack ... made them edgy?
Bryan Rust spoke in the strongest terms that night, telling me with an air of defiance -- again, in a good way -- "Despite the noise, despite maybe everything that may be talked about and what's going on on the outside, we've got four games until the break. And if we get six, seven or eight of those points, who knows what the heck's going to happen coming out of that break?"
All right, then. Two down. Six to go.
I'm OK with this. All of it. I really am. And that's partly because there's no plus to the Penguins sitting out the Stanley Cup playoffs three years in a row.
Not with Sid still producing a point a game with bended-knee beauties like this:
Not with the crushing effect it can have on a culture that's been built up over decades. (See also Red Wings, Blackhawks.)
And certainly not when Kyle Dubas might -- that's might -- be done with trades in the aftermath of sending away Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor, his two most prominent pending unrestricted free agents -- to the Canucks for Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, a forward prospect and my-God-that-still-happened a first-round draft pick.
This was Dubas earlier on this day in Cranberry: "If there are moves that make sense for us, we'll make them. But I think we'll use this time to gather information and be prepared for the time leading up to the draft and the offseason."
The NHL's trade deadline is March 7. The draft and the offseason are many months away. But general managers across the league have been discussing this deadline as if it's pretty much now, in advance of the two-week break, and it'd appear Dubas, the Canucks and now multiple other teams are acting accordingly, given all the activity the past 48 hours.
So ... maybe just go ahead and make the playoffs?
"It’s huge," Alex Nedeljković would say of this one after his 25 saves brought the season's first shutout. "Like I said the other night, every game now is important."
He initially spoke that in Salt Lake City.
"Not that they weren’t before, but we dug ourselves a hole, and we know what it’s going to take to get out of it. We've gotta bring our A-game every single night and, if we don’t have it, we gotta find a way to win with our B-game and we can’t have much worse than that, quite frankly. Like, we gotta bring it every night. That’s what it’s going to take."
They did that here. Outshot the Predators, 36-25. Out-attempted them, 70-57. Forechecked and backchecked. Fought for 50/50 pucks and -- gasp -- pushed and shoved and this mess between Sid and Juuse Saros ...
A feisty Juuse Saros gets into it with Sidney Crosby.
It's like they were ... not just focused, not even fired up, but outright angry.
"I think when you win those tough games, those close games, the physical ones, those are probably ones you build a little bit more off," Sid would say. "There’s no win that’s easy, but when you go through ones like that, I think you appreciate them a little bit more. They have some big bodies and are pretty physical, and I thought we did a good job of playing through it and being physical ourselves when need be."
He's sounded like that a lot of late. Played like it, too. Again, in a good way.
"It’s not going to be easy," Nedeljković would say. "It’s going to be really hard. It’s going to be a lot of work. It’s going to take a lot of discipline and paying attention to details the rest of the way. All we can do is just focus on one game at a time. We’ll take the day off tomorrow, get back to practice Monday and then, whoever we play Tuesday, we’ll just deal with them Tuesday."
Whoever we play ... oh, that's gold!
Nobody has a better view than this guy, and I don't just mean that in the literal sense. He sees everything. He senses everything. And he's as cogent and conversant as anyone when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Right now ...
"I like what I see. There's fight. There's togetherness. There's a team working together to get this done. I like it a lot, to be honest with you."
Even the one part he didn't like, in losing two very real friends in Pettersson and O'Connor.
"Emotional," Nedeljković would say of his previous 22 hours. "Luckily, I was asleep when the news came out, otherwise, I wouldn’t have slept again last night. Obviously, it sucks losing two good players like Petey and OC, but I think everybody forgets the human side of it, and they're two really unbelievable people. I got really close with Petey over this last year and a bit. Then OC, the same thing. It sucks, and that’s the business side of it."
Big breath.
"But at the same time, we’re really excited and happy having Heino and Vinnie and seeing what they can bring to the team. It was obviously a great start tonight. I thought they were both solid in the roles that they were asked to do."
Others remarked on the trade departures, but none hit me quite like Kris Letang's when I asked, simply, about this defensive gem that was the immediate aftermath.
"I think we know, in this trip just now, we didn’t get the results, but we actually played really well," he'd reply, referring to the 3-4 record. "To come back home and try to climb in the standings before the break, it was important."
Nobody's a more animated angry guy than Letang, as he's shown occasionally over the years. This was nowhere near that, but when I then asked how determined this team's become, he replied, "You know, like I said, we’re trying to make a push before the break and put ourselves in a better position. We have great players on this team. It’s not like we’re packing it in because we’re getting some guys traded."
Edgy, yeah?
In a good way, of course.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
9:16 am - 02.02.2025UptownDK: Nedeljkovic, Penguins embracing their new edge
JEANINE LEECH / GETTY
Alex Nedeljkovic has a clear sightline toward the Predators' Roman Josi in the first period at PPG Paints Arena.
The other night in Salt Lake City, Kevin Hayes was among the last to unlace the skates and pluck off all the pads. He's kinda like that. He'll take the extra time to let it all soak.
His expression revealed not a thing, so yeah, I approached and asked.
"Maybe we needed this," he'd share with me after a pensive pause. "I'm serious. Nobody likes how we got here, but we're here. And now ... maybe we needed this kind of challenge to bring the best out of ourselves and out of each other."
Look, I know ...
... the standings are the standings.
But I also know that six points are six points, this being the current separation between the Penguins, following their 3-0 shutout of the Predators here tonight at PPG Paints Arena, and the Eastern Conference's second and final wild-card playoff spot.
I further know that six points are there to be had between now and the beginning of the NHL's two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament:
• Tuesday: Devils at home
• Friday: Rangers in New York
• Saturday: Flyers in Philadelphia
All Metro, no less. And with the latter two opponents stuck in this same pack.
I even further know, though, that something snapped -- in a good way -- among this team's leadership somewhere between San Jose and that aforementioned scene in Utah, to the extent that, within minutes of Sidney Crosby's overtime goal at the Delta Center, player after player was citing this same slice of the schedule in a similar context.
Maybe being on the outer edge of that pack ... made them edgy?
Bryan Rust spoke in the strongest terms that night, telling me with an air of defiance -- again, in a good way -- "Despite the noise, despite maybe everything that may be talked about and what's going on on the outside, we've got four games until the break. And if we get six, seven or eight of those points, who knows what the heck's going to happen coming out of that break?"
All right, then. Two down. Six to go.
I'm OK with this. All of it. I really am. And that's partly because there's no plus to the Penguins sitting out the Stanley Cup playoffs three years in a row.
Not with Sid still producing a point a game with bended-knee beauties like this:
Not with the crushing effect it can have on a culture that's been built up over decades. (See also Red Wings, Blackhawks.)
And certainly not when Kyle Dubas might -- that's might -- be done with trades in the aftermath of sending away Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor, his two most prominent pending unrestricted free agents -- to the Canucks for Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, a forward prospect and my-God-that-still-happened a first-round draft pick.
This was Dubas earlier on this day in Cranberry: "If there are moves that make sense for us, we'll make them. But I think we'll use this time to gather information and be prepared for the time leading up to the draft and the offseason."
The NHL's trade deadline is March 7. The draft and the offseason are many months away. But general managers across the league have been discussing this deadline as if it's pretty much now, in advance of the two-week break, and it'd appear Dubas, the Canucks and now multiple other teams are acting accordingly, given all the activity the past 48 hours.
So ... maybe just go ahead and make the playoffs?
"It’s huge," Alex Nedeljković would say of this one after his 25 saves brought the season's first shutout. "Like I said the other night, every game now is important."
He initially spoke that in Salt Lake City.
"Not that they weren’t before, but we dug ourselves a hole, and we know what it’s going to take to get out of it. We've gotta bring our A-game every single night and, if we don’t have it, we gotta find a way to win with our B-game and we can’t have much worse than that, quite frankly. Like, we gotta bring it every night. That’s what it’s going to take."
They did that here. Outshot the Predators, 36-25. Out-attempted them, 70-57. Forechecked and backchecked. Fought for 50/50 pucks and -- gasp -- pushed and shoved and this mess between Sid and Juuse Saros ...
... and did so from front to finish.
It's like they were ... not just focused, not even fired up, but outright angry.
"I think when you win those tough games, those close games, the physical ones, those are probably ones you build a little bit more off," Sid would say. "There’s no win that’s easy, but when you go through ones like that, I think you appreciate them a little bit more. They have some big bodies and are pretty physical, and I thought we did a good job of playing through it and being physical ourselves when need be."
He's sounded like that a lot of late. Played like it, too. Again, in a good way.
"It’s not going to be easy," Nedeljković would say. "It’s going to be really hard. It’s going to be a lot of work. It’s going to take a lot of discipline and paying attention to details the rest of the way. All we can do is just focus on one game at a time. We’ll take the day off tomorrow, get back to practice Monday and then, whoever we play Tuesday, we’ll just deal with them Tuesday."
Whoever we play ... oh, that's gold!
Nobody has a better view than this guy, and I don't just mean that in the literal sense. He sees everything. He senses everything. And he's as cogent and conversant as anyone when it comes to this sort of stuff.
Right now ...
"I like what I see. There's fight. There's togetherness. There's a team working together to get this done. I like it a lot, to be honest with you."
Even the one part he didn't like, in losing two very real friends in Pettersson and O'Connor.
"Emotional," Nedeljković would say of his previous 22 hours. "Luckily, I was asleep when the news came out, otherwise, I wouldn’t have slept again last night. Obviously, it sucks losing two good players like Petey and OC, but I think everybody forgets the human side of it, and they're two really unbelievable people. I got really close with Petey over this last year and a bit. Then OC, the same thing. It sucks, and that’s the business side of it."
Big breath.
"But at the same time, we’re really excited and happy having Heino and Vinnie and seeing what they can bring to the team. It was obviously a great start tonight. I thought they were both solid in the roles that they were asked to do."
They both really were.
Others remarked on the trade departures, but none hit me quite like Kris Letang's when I asked, simply, about this defensive gem that was the immediate aftermath.
"I think we know, in this trip just now, we didn’t get the results, but we actually played really well," he'd reply, referring to the 3-4 record. "To come back home and try to climb in the standings before the break, it was important."
Nobody's a more animated angry guy than Letang, as he's shown occasionally over the years. This was nowhere near that, but when I then asked how determined this team's become, he replied, "You know, like I said, we’re trying to make a push before the break and put ourselves in a better position. We have great players on this team. It’s not like we’re packing it in because we’re getting some guys traded."
Edgy, yeah?
In a good way, of course.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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