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PHN Blog: The Karlsson Effect, Identity & Thoughts from the Road
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- PHN Blog: The Karlsson Effect, Identity & Thoughts from the Road
Bryan Rust Pittsburgh Penguins pie-day
SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES — The sometimes wonderful chaos of the Pittsburgh Penguins is never ending.
As other writers in other cities sometimes lament the same old storylines and placid undercurrents of mediocrity or casually expected success, the Penguins are perennially a team that defines drama better than any Telenova.
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Tank for McKenna? Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas stocked the roster full of second-chancers and cast-offs in an earnest effort to find one or two keepers for the battles yet to come.
Instead Dubas and vice president of player personnel Wes Clark found flopped blackjacks like MIT card counters.
Nearly every free agent the Penguins signed has posted a career year. Parker Wotherspoon is a feisty, aggressive top-pair defensive counterbalance to Erik Karlsson . Anthony Mantha is not only filling the net but pushing the play with his size and vision. Justin Brazeau has not had a particularly strong last 20 games, but he has already blown past his career-best numbers, too.
The Penguins engaged in an offensive brawl with both Colorado and Carolina in the last two games. Colorado is the best team in the NHL, and Carolina is perhaps the best team in the Eastern Conference.
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The first takeaway from this road trip, which more resembled the jungle gyms built on concrete parking lots that we Gen X'ers broke bones upon and loved throughout grade school, was that the team finally began to find its identity.
The Penguins have been dramatic and produced storylines, but they lacked identity. Were they a well-structured, disciplined team? Were they an offensively aggressive team, a defensively buttoned-up team, perhaps a fast team?
They were sort of all of the above. If there was a silver lining to Sidney Crosby's MCL injury that nearly derailed their surprising season, it was that the scrappy band of underdogs embraced what they do well, and that's "find a way."
The Penguins were not necessarily the best team on the ice in any game of the five-game road trip. They certainly weren't the most talented in any of them, but they finished their crucible at 2-1-2.
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In the absence of their best defensive game on the trip, and largely since the Olympics, we, and perhaps they, learned they can compete with different styles.
Depth. Finish. Determination.
After a lot of searching for typical archetypes into which to plug the team, they don't fit any. Perhaps the one thing they are is doers.
Erik Karlsson
Sure, you saw his exceptional 125-foot headman pass to Mantha in Utah. He embarrassed Sebastian Aho Wednesday with a move at the blue line that seemed to defy physics.
What you are not seeing are turnovers, defensive mistakes, or defensive indifference, either. Karlsson is fully engaged on the ice.
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Also, what you are not seeing is Karlsson driving the Penguins locker room. Yes, he pie'd Bryan Rust in Utah on March 14 (Pie Day, 3.14), but he also elevated a few inside jokes into locker room causes, such as getting Acciari 10 assists.
Acciari is 34 years old and has a distinguished NHL career going back to 2015 with the Boston Bruins , but had never reached 10 assists in a season. Karlsson made it a thing, and if you've seen the postgame video of coach Dan Muse handing out the game puck to Acciari in Colorado for reaching the double-digit mark, you hard Karlsson's big laugh and loud cheer.
After a couple of seasons of surviving under coach Mike Sullivan, Karlsson is flourishing (again) under Muse, both on the ice and in the room.
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Karlsson has dropped more than a few nuggets to the media, and done so with colorful language and unfettered amusement.
He, too, is having fun. If I get a chance to chat with Karlsson, he's always willing to engage and talk about the small details of the game, but he habitually says the things everyone is thinking but won't say. He'll usually flash a smile or a smirk just before dropping a bomb that he knows us media slugs eat up.
It's all part of the game and the life to him, and he is obviously, and infectiously, enjoying the hell out of it again.
One wonders how the former Penguins coach would have reacted to a pie face in the heat of a playoff race?
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Rapid Fire
**And we've learned the Penguins can rely on their goaltending. Cast aside the pedestrian numbers Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner have posted. After all, Skinner allowed six goals Wednesday and was just about spectacular, and had a bigger role in the Penguins earning a point than anyone.
Maybe neither are as talented as Tristan Jarry , but both are better goaltenders.
**If the Penguins earn a playoff berth, I think Silovs will start Game 1, but Muse will keep his rotation. Both have been good and both have a big-game pedigree.
**Mantha played at an All-Star level in Evgeni Malkin 's absence. He is on a six-game scoring streak (4-4-8), but more importantly, he was impactful.
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** Ben Kindel had a rough road trip, but he finished with a flourish. For several games, he lacked the same offensive output and made some defensive mistakes, and for the first time this season, he looked like an 18-year-old in the NHL.
In 10 games in March, Kindel has three goals, two assists, and a minus-6 rating.
So, PHN rolled up to him in the room for a chat Wednesday morning. The one thing I found was the same confidence that almost borders on indifference.
Are the games getting tougher at this point in the season? Not really. It's hockey.
Does he watch the standings every day? Not really, but the guys are always talking about them, so he's apprised of the situation.
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After a rough couple of periods Wednesday, Kindel had a big third-period goal and was an important part of the Penguins' late charge. Call it the arrogance of youth or being unflappable, the situation is never too big. Kindel just shrugs with a calm and self-confidence that few teenagers in his spot would have.
**The Penguins would do well to make space for Rutger McGroarty . They could have used his complete game against Carolina.
** Ville Koivunen 's game is maddeningly inconsistent. After playing some of his best hockey early on the trip, he followed that with some of his worst and justifiably lost his spot in the lineup.
In this job, I don't waste time asking about frivolous aspects of life. I've learned most guys don't have a life outside hockey, anyway. So, Koivunen and I have talked about the game. His game. And what the coaches have prescribed for him.
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I think we're uniquely qualified to assert definitively that the talent is there, but he quickly has to learn how to consistently bring his better self. He also needs to forget that he's a rookie. After all our conversations, some going back to Wilkes-Barre in February, it feels like he is too deferential to the situation and his lack of station.
When Utah challenged him physically, he elevated his game. He got angry and gave it back. That's his best game, and if he wants to be successful, he needs to be the agitator and aggressor; that's what seems to bring out his best.
When he's playing that way, he's better on his skates and he doesn't get knocked off the puck. He suffers those issues when he's thinking or being timid.
Koivunen needs to borrow a spoonful of Kindel's quiet and useful cockiness. And maybe just lay the lumber of a few defensemen.
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**The first Brett Kulak trade rescued Kris Letang 's season. His arrival immediately unlocked Letang's best. The second trade, Kulak's departure, sent Letang's game off the rails.
Letang seems lost, and perhaps some of that is finding a new identity as a player. With Kulak, he could play the game he's played for 20 years with some concessions. With Shea and Girard, he seems unsure of himself and where he fits.
Letang's turnovers and subsequently being trapped in the defensive zone Wednesday were jarring.
**Of all Dubas's off-season successes, finding Dan Muse might be the biggest. Muse is letting his team play, and he is letting them be themselves. His ego does not demand that he control small details, such as who speaks to the media or what they say. His lack of forced conformity has created a loose bunch with full buy-in to their head coach.
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Muse has not only earned respect amongst the players but also an eager willingness to follow. The win in Utah was a lot about Muse getting his team's attention and affecting real in-game change from a sloppy effort to a winning one.
**And I'm very happy the long road trips are done for the season. I will be quite happy to stop getting my night's sleep curled up in the window seat of an airplane while the poor schlub who drew the seat beside me watches my neck crane forward and lurch back like a rejected combination PEZ dispenser and bobblehead meant for the Isle of Misfit Toys.
But hey, at least I only slobbered on myself. I think.
These Penguins, they're never boring.
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The post PHN Blog: The Karlsson Effect, Identity & Thoughts from the Road appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now .
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