Coaches see causes, not symptoms. They're kinda wired like that, wondering about the why way more than the what.

To most sets of eyes, for example, I'd bet the lowest of the lows of the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Flyers tonight here at Wells Fargo Center, would be the conclusion to this stomach-churning scene in the second period:

Uh-huh.

Look, I appreciate that Joel Blomqvist hadn't started since Jan. 25 in Seattle, and that young players don't handle being idle as well as veterans. But I also witnessed Blomqvist have several episodes of appearing uncomfortable -- or maybe rusty, or nervous because he'd seen how hard his teammates had been competing these past few games -- upon handling the puck. And I'd been sure, as a result, that he'd shown some hesitation in deciding whether or not he should chase that puck that'd landed between him and Garnet Hathaway ... before whacking it off Hathaway's and right back into his abandoned net.

So I asked:

"No," he began, and there was no hesitation this time, for sure. "It was kind of a 50/50 situation if I should go out or if I shouldn't, and I chose to go out. It was kind of close to me, so it was hard to shoot around him."

That's fair. He's out there. We're not.

Besides, at least as I see it, his part wound up being more of a symptom.

Whereas this was the cause:

Still just seeing Blomqvist's part?

OK, now try this one:

Right, it's that P.O Joseph pass, the one that, if not for the NHL's scoring guidelines, would've gotten him a well-earned assist in the wrong direction.

Yeah, Joseph's pinch down those left boards gets covered by Vasily Ponomarev, which is wonderful. That's how the system's supposed to roll. But for as much as Mike Sullivan's always wanted -- no, urged -- his defensemen to pinch, he does so primarily for the purpose of possession. And to take that further, he'd prefer that any passes in that shape get made by ... oh, say, any of the various guys who weren't healthy enough to participate in this one.

In this case, specifically, he'd want Joseph to make the simplest, highest-percentage, live-to-fight-another-day play on the docket, and that's to dish to Emil Bemstrom standing all alone to the left of the Philadelphia net.

No, really, find Bemstrom up there. It's staggering.

Instead, Joseph whips the puck blindly, backward and diagonally, a pass so random -- even if he's targeting Phil Tomasino in the general vicinity -- that it could, all by itself, undo the pressure being applied by a team that'd absolutely dominated the ice to that stage.

This was Sullivan on the subject of the the Penguins' overall play: “Obviously, we’re disappointed that we didn’t get the result, but I thought we competed hard all night long. And for long stretches, I thought we controlled the game. .... But sometimes when that happens, it gets good to you a little bit, and you don’t have the same diligence or same conscience defensively. I thought some of the chances we gave up, even though there weren’t that many in the first couple of periods, they were high-quality looks where we just didn’t manage the puck, we’re trying to force plays to the slot, we start their breakouts and the blind back-diagonals, which for me is not a recipe for success."

There it was: 'Blind back-diagonals.'

No question what and who Sullivan was referencing, and it wasn't Blomqvist.

I don't mean to isolate on the negative in covering an event where the visitors had a monstrous advantage in most metrics -- try 93-48 in shot attempts! -- but the making of the massive mistake remains an issue, albeit minimized, even as the collective concepts are coming together better than ever.

That's got to stop, not just for the now but for the further future.

If not, better be braced for more unpleasant symptoms.