September 29, 1973. Brantford (Ontario) Civic Centre. The Pittsburgh Penguins squared off against their arch-nemesis—the truculent St. Louis Blues—in an NHL exhibition game.
Early in the second period all hell broke loose. The Pens’ pint-sized policeman Bryan Watson—an early version of Bobby Farnham—was hunched forward into the wheelhouse of big Blues defender Steve Durbano. With unmitigated savagery, “Demolition Durby” teed off on Watson with both hands.
Soundly beaten, Watson was escorted to the penalty box moments later. It was hardly a safe haven. A cadre of Blues, including Barclay Plager and Gary Sabourin, gathered a few feet away to menace the chippy Pens defender. Durbano, thinning hair pinned in place by a headband, dark eyes flashing, threatened to vault a Plexiglas partition, leading either to the stands…or the opposing penalty box.
Surrounded by swashbuckling Blues and in obvious distress, poor “Bugsy” resembled General Custer at Little Big Horn.
Across the way, Bryan Hextall could see Watson was in trouble. He motioned to the Penguins’ bench for help. No one budged. Finally, Hextall rushed to his teammate’s aid. He was intercepted mid-flight and pummeled by a Blue.
I watched video highlights of the game on the news the following evening in muted horror. It was like witnessing a crime unfold before your very eyes and being powerless to stop it.
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Why did I open with a retelling of this dark event from the Pens’ distant past?
It reminded me very much of the NHL’s latest installment of Beauty and the Beast. The one that played out last night in the gauntlet that doubles as the Nationwide Arena, home of those modern-day Filthy McNasties, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Yes, our Penguins (Beauty) wrenched two points from the grasp of the beastly Blue Jackets with a pulsating 3-2 victory played out before a raucous enemy crowd. Outgunned physically, thanks to coach Mike Sullivan’s nervy decision to sit heavyweight Tom Sestito, they showed a ton of guts in hostile territory.
At Sullivan’s behest, our boys stuck to hockey. For the most part, they artfully avoided the extracurriculars and scrums so obviously favored by their hosts. When push came to shove, as when Rene Bourque flattened Bryan Rust with a jarring check along the boards in the opening period, Ian Cole stepped up to defend his teammate.
Still, the hits kept coming. Cody Goloubef decked Rust as he sped into the Blue Jackets’ zone on a partial breakaway. David Savard drove Pens defenseman Brian Dumoulin head-first into the boards. Tom Kuhnhackl got mashed by a Jacket, too.
Make no mistake. In today’s NHL they don’t come any heavier—or meaner—than Columbus. Jared Boll, David Clarkson, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Hartnell, Boone Jenner, and Dalton Prout would’ve done the old Blues proud.
Prout, in particular, was a one-man wrecking crew. Although fairly innocuous given the violent tenor of the contest, his second-period bump on Evgeni Malkin sent No. 71 to the dressing room with a gimpy left arm.
A mere prelude to his misdeeds in the final period.
Minutes after laying waste to Scott Wilson behind the Columbus net—knocking the woozy black-and-gold winger out of action—Prout spied a spent and exhausted Rust crumpled on the ice near goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. While Rust lay helpless, the Blue Jackets’ defender grabbed him roughly by the jersey and hauled him away from the goal cage like so much trash. The Penguins gave Prout an extra-wide berth as he skated to the bench.
Like Moses parting the Red Sea.
Perhaps the Pens were wise in not challenging the hulking 220-pounder. No one could’ve handled him, anyway.
Which brings me to the point of this admittedly long-winded post. Why pay countless millions for a core of elite talent and do nothing to protect it? It’s like purchasing an ultra-expensive car—say a Jaguar—and parking it outside all winter long, leaving it exposed to the elements.
It doesn’t make sense.
Mind you, I don’t necessarily advocate carrying an enforcer like Sestito. As big and ornery as the former penalty king is, there’s only so much one guy can do. I understand Sullivan not wanting to dress a player of limited ability who might play four or five minutes, tops. He wants to roll four lines. I get it.
Still, Penguins management acts as though skill and toughness are mutually exclusive qualities. As if a player can possess one or the other, but not both.
Bull. The aforementioned Hartnell and Jenner are 20-goal scorers. Nick Foligno had 31 last season. Skaters who blend talent with a physical bent do exist.
We sure could use a few. Personally, I’d love to see what the Pens would accomplish with even two or three guys who thrive when the goin’ gets tough. It would be a nice compliment to all that speed and skill. Sadly, that’ll never happen. Not as long as GM Jim Rutherford continues to make like an ostrich with his head stuck firmly in the sand.
We can whine all we want about the refs not calling penalties. But, like it or not, this is the NHL. Mario’s “garage league.” Not the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Bottom line? One day someone’s going to get hurt. The Pens will scream bloody murder and implore the league to take action. By then it will be too late.
Did I mention Malkin was injured last night? He’ll be out six-to-eight weeks. Long enough to torpedo our hopes for an extended playoff run.
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What became of our Penguins back in 1973? They won the game, 5-3, but lost the war. Four months later, with his talented but timid team languishing near the West Division cellar, GM Jack Button decided to fight fire with fire. He acquired Durbano and Bob “Battleship” Kelly from St. Louis.
I’m just tossing this out as a discussion point.
What the heck has happened to Olli Maatta’s skating? My goodness, guys are just blowing past him. I don’t recall him looking this slow his first couple of seasons. Is that just my perception? Or has his skating always been substandard?
Fortunately, he has great instincts and he reads the game very well. But I thought he had better wheels. Is it possible he’s suffering some aftereffects from earlier this season when he got knocked through the bench door by Nino Niederreiter?
Hey Rick,
Great question ! It should spark some debate….
Maatta was never the fastest of foot,even playing in the OHL, however in my opinion the strength of his game was and is his Hockey IQ and the ability to make the right play at the right time. As we all know at the tender age of 18 he made the Pen’s line up and that was no simple task. He earned it.
Then came the injuries.Not his fault. He recovered very quickly given the severity of those injuries. He has just signed a well deserved 6 year contract extension that I believe will be seen as one of the greatest moves done by JR in his term as General Manager.( 6 years…4.1 million at age 21.)
So to the point of foot speed, I offer a couple of points.First,that the other teams are focusing on him more as they see him as the weak link and are forcing him to skate more and move the puck quicker. Second, he could be nursing a injury, or simply not fully recovered from the previous injury and the team is not going say anything about it in fear of giving an advantage to the opposing teams.Finally,with the right d partner some day, this perceived lack of foot speed can be over come because of all the other points of his game that are of an elite level. There is a reason this guy plays in ALL situations where as Pouliot is watching from the press box on some nights or playing in the AHL. I like Maatta and he is still just 21 years old.
Cheers.
Hey Jim,
Excellent insights on Maatta, my friend. Perhaps I viewed his skating in the past through black-and-gold tinted glasses.
It makes perfect sense that opposing teams would sense a vulnerability or weakness and try to exploit it. Hence, dump the puck down Maatta’s side and make him chase it down. Probably why his lack of foot speed has been more evident.
I do wonder if he’s suffering from a lingering lower-body injury, too.
Fortunately, as you pointed out, his hockey IQ is through the roof. Thanks, again, for sharing your thoughts and insights.
Why do the pens even have sestito? They’ll just scratch him for every playoff game like they have done the last several years with their so called tough guys. Management refuse to learn from history. Pens will be lucky to get into the playoffs now let alone past the first round. Sully isn’t half the coach I gave him credit for being if he continues to sit sestito.
Hey John,
Whether or not to dress Sestito won’t be an issue any more. At least not for the near future. I just learned the Pens returned him to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton yesterday when they called up Conor Sheary and Dominik Simon.
Not that I’m a proponent of carrying a heavyweight. I prefer guys who can play and play tough (we don’t have any of those guys, either). But it was nice to at least have the option of adding some muscle.
Now we don’t even have that. Sheesh.
AMEN, BROTHER!
Hey 55 on Point,
Sorry I didn’t respond to your comments on the “Forward Shuffle” post. I’ve spent the better part of the day pouring myself into this latest writeup. But I couldn’t agree more with what you had to say.
Always good to hear from you and to read your thoughts … 🙂
Hi 55 on Point, Hi Rick,
NHL news just posted that Malkin is gone 6 to 8 weeks !!!
If this is correct and the timeline holds true,…Get out the Golf Clubs boys… The next two players of importance that are going to get “injured” will be Letang and Hagelin. Sorry the AHL smurfs do not count on my survey.The bigger teams are going try to knock heck out of Letang and Hagelin between now and the playoffs.
Rick you said that if one or more of the core gets injured, “all bets are off” in terms of the Pen’s making the playoffs. I could not agree more.
We got 3 games against Phili …. They must think that they just won your State lottery with having Geno out for the season.
All of us have been saying all season long, get bigger, meaner,and faster and I am afraid that having just one out of three is just not going to get us to the playoffs. You need all three to make a serious cup run.
Your thoughts guys ?
Hey Jim,
I’m a lot less enthusiastic about our playoff chances with Malkin out of the lineup. There were three guys the Pens just couldn’t afford to lose. Geno’s one of them.
Again, going by my need-to-match-last-season’s-record-to-make-the-playoffs standard, the Pens have to go roughly 8-3-4 (20 points) in their final 15 games. The Pens were 5-4-1 during the recent 10-game stretch without Malkin.
The only silver lining in this decidedly ominous cloud? Maybe the Pens have gotten used to playing without No. 71. Still, his injury leaves an enormous hole. Matt Cullen did a superb job of filling in the last time (goodness, what an addition he’s been). But other guys—Kessel and Fehr the most prominent—need to step up and score on a reasonably consistent basis.
As you so aptly noted, the season could very well boil down to how we fare in those three games against Philly. It should make for some highly emotional, super-charged games…