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Penguins Grades: An Inescapable Reality and They Know It
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- Penguins Grades: An Inescapable Reality and They Know It
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The end is near.
There is a shelf in the Pittsburgh Penguins dressing room, and on it rests the game puck from every win. After 15 games this season, there are just five pucks, and it seems there are an increasing number of dejected players.
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And possibly a coach, too.
The Penguins were able to limit the eye-rolling mistakes, but their special teams took the dirt nap for them instead, as they wasted a 5v3 power play with four minutes remaining before giving up a power play goal with 32 seconds remaining to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2.
"I think (structure) has been a focus for us the last handful of days, just staying structured," said Tommy Novak , who had a goal and an assist. "You know, coming back to the house, stopping, not giving up so many great looks. So just a lot of focus on that ice, and staying in battle. So yeah, I think (we were) probably better, but it sucks not to get the win."
It wasn't a great performance, but it was good enough to win. And make no mistake, more so than some of the bewildering losses, this one was a heavyweight gut punch. A team can fight, and it can chase improvements, but it cannot outrun reality. And that ominous cloud of rebuilding seemed to creep ever closer over the horizon Tuesday.
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Even without saying it, the players know it.
And that very negative reality is becoming impossible to ignore. The Pittsburgh Penguins are not only far behind their opponents in terms of structure and cohesion, but collectively aren't good enough. When coach Dan Muse was asked about limiting Vegas for much of the second and parts of the third period, because indeed the Penguins were playing a more structured brand of hockey, Muse went immediately to the soft defending and mistakes.
The second part of Muse's answer is enormously telling. They are defending in the right spaces, but not engaging. An Xs and Os question became an indictment of his team's squishy, soft lack of defending.
"I thought it was better, and then early in the game, I still think we were…it wasn't so much the structural piece. There were a couple of breakdowns there, one in the neutral zone, just letting a guy behind us. Hockey is a game of mistakes, we just need to limit them. We've got to limit the big ones, and so I thought for the most part we did a better job with that," said Muse. "But it was more early in the game, definitely the first period. I just felt like even though we were in areas, we had to be in the fight, more at the puck battles."
"And there are opportunities where we could have gotten stops in the defensive zone. So, we're doing the right things defensively, but now we have to add more to it where we're recovering pucks. We're not just relying on that structure, and that's the piece that I feel like, coming off tonight, for too much of the game needed to be better."
Muse's specific answer opened the gateway to the pressing reality of the current team. They are poorly constructed. They simply do not have enough players who naturally engage in those basic puck battles in the defensive zone. Overall, the Penguins are a puck possession team without enough players to create possession and are not hard to play against in any of the three zones.
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And too many players who are not good defensively will ultimately make bad defensive plays.
There was not a run of belligerent mistakes as there has been, but instead terribly timed gaffes that do not plague better teams. Kris Letang pinched shortly after Rickard Rakell scored a mid-third-period go-ahead goal, allowing Trevor Connelly a breakaway goal, thus punting the hard-fought lead just 1:23 later.
Defenseman Declan Carlile had his stick in the wrong hand and in the wrong position, and he left a passing lane across the crease for Tomas Hertl 's game-winning goal.
Penguins Room
The Penguins' room was sullen. Dejected. The sighs were audible. The grimaces unmistakable. All the while, their disappointing performances live in the shadow of growing trade rumors and the obvious reality that the last stop for this current team is close, and wise men at their end know dark is right.
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The Penguins have raged against the dying of the light for too long, but this season has almost irretrievably slipped away, and they haven't been able to do anything to stop it. The team now resides in next-to-last place in the Eastern Conference, tied with the imploding Philadelphia Flyers with only 12 points, already six points behind the second wild-card spot with six teams in between them and a playoff spot.
This is what happens to bad teams. Even when they limited even-strength chances, another facet broke. Tuesday, it was the typically reliable penalty kill that yielded a pair of slam-dunk goals just feet from goalie Arturs Silovs.
"They have a really good power play. I don't think there's any question about that. They played yesterday, and you know, they played a smart game today to stay in it," said Karlsson. "They were probably tired, and they capitalized on the chances that they got. And the power play is a big generator for them, and obviously it sucks for us. I think our PK has been good enough to be able to not let in two."
Notes: Muse shuffled his defense pairings, putting Sam Girard with Erik Karlsson and Spencer Stastney with Kaedan Korczak. The lines were the same as those in practice Monday.
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Xs and Os
The rosy view of the first period would be that the Penguins stabilized their trackback and even-strength defensive zone coverage. They lacked attack, controlled zone entries, and largely yearned for puck possession, but at least they weren't breaking down.
Nay, the breakdown came shorthanded when Erik Karlsson and Nick Robertson vacated the low zone, leaving Arturs Silovs to face a pair of Golden Knights. Tomas Hertl easily put back a rebound, and the Penguins were lucky to escape the first period down only one, despite a largely feckless attack.
The Penguins did not create separation for controlled entries, nor were they able to put pucks deep. A pair of power plays provided the Penguins offensive zone time.
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Second period, different story.
They began to jell in the second, though their attack lacked the knockout punch. What changed in the Penguins' approach was significantly more puck pressure. Somewhere between a forecheck and backcheck, the Penguins harassed the Vegas possession, largely keeping the visitors on the Penguins' side of the red line.
They began playing tight gaps, essentially a man-to-man in the neutral zone, and Vegas flubbed and fumbled the puck for the better part of the second.
The other key separator between periods was the structural integrity. The Penguins' defense indeed began in the offensive zone, just as Kaedan Korczak and coach Dan Muse said it would Tuesday morning. The Penguins kept a high F3, which sometimes omitted a stick from the attack, but it did keep the game on their stick. A few good chances resulted, though the puck possession was still a little too passive and perimeter against the bruising VGK defense.
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In the third period, the Penguins began to find their better game, but as quickly as they got it, they got greedy, and Letang got burned.
Report Card
Team: B-
It was a better effort than the wild swings of the Montreal loss. The Penguins lacked the energetic highs but also avoided the catastrophic lows. It was a professional effort befitting a team just trying to get its game together, playing a more talented, bigger opponent.
They should have won the game but ultimately proved unworthy; as soon as they played with energy in the third period, those mistakes came right back.
"I thought there was going to be a lot of parts of the third period that we're going to come out liking. I mean, game-tying goal, at the time … there were parts of that play there that I didn't agree with how it was called, but at the end, you've got to work through that," Muse said. "We looked to make a play, and it ended up that they got to stick on it and bounced the other way. Overall, I thought the third period–there was more from that period until the end that I think we can take away, and we need to be doing more of it."
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Better Performances
Rickard Rakell: Persistently dangerous for 60 minutes. His skill level even in the parts of the game that were a slog stood out, as did his underrated physicality on the puck. He was one of five Penguins to be a plus-2.
Sam Girard: It was a curious decision to put Girard with Karlsson. Girard was very good and pushed the play with assertiveness.
However, in doing so, there wasn't a second puck for Karlsson, who was relegated to junior partner at even strength.
Spencer Stastney: A strong game in which he moved the puck well and remained responsible in the defensive zone. He was deservedly a plus-2.
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Sidney Crosby: He's just fine and getting pretty close to his typical best game. Crosby was a plus-2, and his line led the team…as it should be.
Arturs Silovs: Another stellar performance. One thing to watch with Silovs is the improvement of his technique. It's more consistent and clean. He's holding his angles and positioning; he made a few saves in the first period by simply being in the right spot and keeping the butterfly to absorb deflections.
Not So Good
Declan Carlile: When you're in the eye of the storm, the puck finds you. Muse limited Carlile's ice time to just 15:21. It will be interesting if the Penguins quickly demote Jake Livanavage, who was called up Tuesday in case Korczak couldn't go. Carlile has been a liability, and Livanavage has been quite good with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (with eight points in nine games, too).
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Hendrix Lapierre: After a strong run, his game has slipped. He had a rough go in the first period, and Muse kept him close by with only 10:55 of ice time. The third line was largely invisible at even strength, with just one scoring chance.
Andrei Kuzmenko: No shots, none attempted, and scored with three giveaways.
Kris Letang: A 21-year veteran should know better than to crash with a third-period lead. He's been much better this season, but that was a costly mistake.
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