2 weeks Ago By Dan Kingerski, Pittsburgh Hockey Now
VANCOUVER — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ best players are their biggest problem. There can be no other conclusion after the team dropkicked away a 2-0 lead against the Vancouver Canucks in the second period Saturday, giving up four goals in less than six minutes. Vancouver scored three goals in 65 seconds, setting a franchise record, and the Penguins lost their fifth straight (0-4-1).
It was the second time in four games the Penguins gave away a 2-0 lead. The level of play going back five games to the loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the game before the road trip has been more abyssal than acceptable. Sure, social media is up in arms, calling for coach Mike Sullivan to be lifted by his belt loops and ushered out like a drunk who tried to ignore Last Call.
And Sullivan deserves a healthy measure of blame for the recent no-show losses that too closely resemble the debacles from last season. But Sullivan isn’t the biggest problem. The Penguins’ best players are.
“I think a lot of it starts with the mindset, certain habits, or a certain resilience that we have to have. We need some pushback. And we need to do a better job–when you look at some of the goals they scored, give Vancouver credit,” Sullivan said.
“They’ve got a quick strike offense, but we didn’t help ourselves with our decisions with the puck when our defenseman would join the play. Karlsson No coach on the planet can be held responsible when Sidney Crosby leaves his defensive post, perhaps because he didn’t trust Erik Karlsson to be at his. Of course, Karlsson posted a minus-3 and looked maddeningly out of position doing so.
He allowed J.T. Miller to get behind him for a breakaway chance, then allowed Miller to knock him out of the way for the rebound goal.
Daniel Sprong –yes, the same player whom the Penguins traded back in 2019 for Marcus Pettersson after he failed to crack the lineup–the one and the same who has bounced around the league from Anaheim, Washington, Detroit, and now Vancouver–blew past Karlsson at the red line like Karlsson was a hitchhiker, setting up the game-winning goal. Karlsson finished at a minus-2 because Sullivan loaded up on his star players in the third period, and Crosby outsmarted three Canucks to create a breakaway chance for Evgeni Malkin . There are the failed clears and defensive assignment gaffes time and again.
The absolute collapses within games and extending over multiple games point fingers at the inside of the locker room. “(We) just can’t chase a mistake with another one. I think that there’s got to be a certain awareness when we do give up one that we’ve got to follow it up with a good shift or at least get the puck back and try to counter that,” said Crosby.
“We can’t get on our heels.” Saturday night, the perpetually reliable Bryan Rust charged into three defenders rather than simply chipping the puck deep into the offensive zone. The mistake directly led to one of the Canucks rapid strike goals.
“(We) turned the puck over the blue line. You can’t have the D joining the rush when there’s really nothing there; that’s a recipe for disaster. That’s one example.
There were a number of issues on defensive zone faceoffs. We don’t get it out because guys missed assignments on the line of scrimmage, which I think are elemental. Those are things that I think we can control, and I think we have the ability to get better in those situations.
“But it boils down to commitment at the level of the level of attention to detail.” It’s entirely bewildering that a coach of a veteran team has to lecture on basic or elemental details. It’s time to send that big message.
It’s time for Sullivan to take a stand and send an unmistakable and stinging message. It’s time to ruffle feathers and call out players. It’s time to set aside feelings or relationships and punish players who fail to execute the basics time and again.
There are only a few things some star players understand: decreased ice time, less power play time, or a heaping cheesy plate of press box nachos. And it’s time for the coach to tell the players if anyone doesn’t like it, there’s the door. First up should be Karlsson, whose laissez-faire defense has cost the Penguins dearly.
Accountability or Avoidance? The funny thing is that Sullivan spent years as coach John Tortorella’s hammer. As the assistant coach, Sullivan played the heavy in New York. In 2013-14, he was part of the internal battle with the Sedin twins in Vancouver, pushing them to conform to Tortorella’s game.
However, the friction in Vancouver went horribly awry for all involved. The Sullivan-Tortorella regime lasted just one year in Vancouver, and the pair never coached together again. Perhaps that experience is keeping Sullivan from delivering some badly needed messages with a verbal and coaching sledgehammer.
From the outside, it seems he’s protecting his relationship with the team in an effort to not lose the room, unlike the reaction the coaches received in Vancouver. The word hangs in the Penguins locker rooms, at the practice facility, at PPG Paints Arena, and on the road. And the team is badly in need of a real dose of it.
Note what happened in Boston this week. Coach Jim Montgomery ripped into captain Brad Marchand on the bench in full view of 19,000 Bruins fans and the TV audience. Marchand took it with a stiff chin and scored the game-winner.
In the locker room the next day, he put a licking on society by calling new generations too sensitive and saying that he liked the accountability. “People are very sensitive these days,” said Marchand, prior to their next game. “It’s unfortunate how coaches are scrutinized over things like that.
There’s a lack of accountability nowadays because people can’t handle the heat. If you make a mistake like that, you deserve to hear about it.” Sullivan Small Changes Sullivan changed three of his forward lines on Saturday.
Then he changed them all again. And again. The move followed the Yahtzee Cup lines from last Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets, which lasted only one game.
It doesn’t seem to matter who comes and goes from season to season because the virus has taken hold of the Penguins. Like they were a decade ago before Sullivan’s arrival in December of 2015, the Penguins are shakier than a Jenga tower on a wobbly table. Their ever-so-ungraceful nosedives don’t require a bad moment.
In fact, those faceplants typically follow their best moments. The Penguins staked a 2-0 lead in the second period and were genuinely and significantly outplaying Vancouver. There was no reason to think they were in trouble, which, of course, is when the Penguins are in the most trouble.
It all went south quickly on Saturday, just as it did Sunday in Winnipeg. Recent losses to Carolina and Edmonton started badly and only got worse. Sullivan is pushing buttons with the roster to affect change.
In the process, he’s trying to send a message that things can and will be changed, but he hasn’t sent the loud, shocking message yet. He needs another “SHUT ..
. UP!” moment like he yelled at Malkin in 2016. Back then, Sullivan was trying to gain control of the team.
Now, he’s trying to keep control by not delivering the message. The irony is that if it doesn’t deliver another loud message because of fear that he’ll lose the team, that’s exactly what might happen. This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Hockey Now and was syndicated with permission.
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