I was brooding all morning about our Penguins’ latest loss (okay, so they picked up a point – kissing their sister). Watching our Penguins squander a 3 goal lead has left me colder than their mascot’s homeland.
How could our favorite team fall this far, this fast?
In the depths and darkness of my musings a question our own Phil Krundle recently posed in a reply on another post here on these boards started echoing in my head, “When was the last time you saw someone lay out to block a shot?”
Well Phil, I can’t say for sure, but I will have to say, since Ian Cole was discarded.
As my mind continued down this path, all I could hear in my head was the Fabulous Thunderbirds,
“I’d wrestle with a lion and a grizzly bear
It’s my life baby but I don’t care
Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff
Ain’t that tuff enuff”
Some Neanderthals would only measure toughness by the number of penalty minutes a player may accumulate, or maybe refine that judgement to the number of fighting majors to which a player dances.
Still some others would add into that equation the number of hits a player dishes out over the course of a season. However, looking at hits to measure a players’ toughness is often confounded by puck possession. A high number of hits could simply mean the player plays on a team that can’t control the puck. After all, by the rules, you aren’t supposed to hit players who don’t have the puck (Referees, particularly NHL referees, please pay close attention to that previous statement).
Perhaps, one of the more over looked facets of toughness is a players’ willingness to sacrifice his body by laying out in front of a shot. Like hits, quantifying toughness from looking at the block shot stats kept by the NHL can be misleading. The NHL doesn’t differentiate body blocks and stick blocks. They just count all blocks. A lot of players wave their sticks in front of opponents to block shots. In their attempts to block shots they often times tip shots passed their own goalies.
Perhaps it is only anecdotal, but it would seem to me that when players have the intestinal fortitude to place their body in harms’ way, in front of the shot instead of waving their stick at it, the shot is truly blocked and not simply redirected. A human body represents a much larger surface area, giving a greater chance of blocking the shot.
When our boys in Black-n-Gold were winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, there were 3 devote followers of this now ancient art (ancient in terms of Penguins who practice it); Ian Cole, Nick Bonino, and Tom Kuhnhackl. Yes, all 3 of these shot blocking cultists spent time on the Injured Reserve (IR) due to their disdain for their own bodies when games were on the line. However, watching the fearless machismo of these men called others to follow.
In this past off-season, GM Jim Rutherford went out in search of leadership on a team that still boasted a large proportion of Stanley Cup winners on it. One would think ,after back-to-back Cups, leadership was the last thing that this team needed but perhaps they do have a need of leadership. To that end, Rutherford resigned grizzled veteran father figure Matt Cullen. Although Cullen does bring leadership, the team may need a different type of leadership. The team may need is a player who leads by example. The team may need a leader with the toughness necessary to throw his body in front of frozen vulcanized rubber traveling at around 100 mph to hold on to that 4 – 1 lead to keep momentum on the Penguins’ side.
Perhaps Lady Luck only likes alpha male types that are bold enough, fearless enough, and tough enough to risk it all to win. Perhaps Lady Luck only smiles on the rough guys.
What was the question Bonnie Tyler asked in 1980s song?
“Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the hockey tough Hercules to fight the rising odds?”
(Okay, so I paraphrased that one – I am going to do that again – paraphrase in just another sentence or 2)
Our Penguins could certainly use such a hero.
Unfortunately our coach, Mike Sullivan, well he takes his cue from REO Speedwagon
“He doesn’t like the tough guys
He says that they’ve got brains all where they sit
They think they’re full of fire
He thinks they’re full of …..”
Nick Bonino left Pittsburgh on his own – chasing the big money. That is true enough. However, 2 time Cup winning coach but totally ignored for the Jack Adams trophy, Sullivan ran Ian Cole out of town. He forced Rutherford to trade the big left handed defenseman by not playing him. Oh yes, that is right, he also didn’t like playing Ryan Reaves doling out ice time to the fan favorite Reaves with an eye dropper.
As for Tom Kuhnhackl, he may never have truly stood a chance on this team. With Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Daniel Sprong, and Bryan Rust, he was an afterthought at Right Wing (RW), so Sullivan tried playing him on his natural Wing, but Kuhnhackl never look good on the port side, only on the right. In the end, although Rutherford offered him a contract, he went in search of greener pastures.
It seems to me that the Penguins, as a team, will only be spinning their wheels until they get themselves a hero, a white knight on a fiery steed who will lead the team in the area they seem to be sorely lacking, toughness, the toughness that it takes to sacrifice the body and start funneling shots back to the perimeter again.
Odds and Sods
Did anyone else notice Daniel Sprong and Phil Kessel back checking like demons last night? I believe it was Bob Errey that pointed it out.
Hey tOR,
That’s been on my wish list for a while. When you bring up this point in other forums, you’re likely to be booed, then lambasted as a goon. Of course, I don’t advocate goonery and I don’t think anyone here does, but banging bodies, especially against faster teams, can be a useful strategy.
I think they’re tougher than they were, or could be if they chose, but I still don’t think it’s any considerable measure of their philosophy. Sully will continue to preach speed and playing the game the right way, i.e., his way, and that’s that. I have no issue with that, until it doesn’t work. But, when it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t it’s anything but.
I talked about shot blocking elsewhere, in a reply to Phil’s post. I won’t repeat it here.
— 55
Hey 55,
It is funny how people refuse to critically look at the team. They will fight and argue with you any time you don’t pretend everything is perfect, even when the Pens are sitting on the bottom of the division; Sullivan doesn’t make mistakes, Letang is a Norris candidate, etc.
Sullivan and the Pens showed the importance of speed a couple of years back, but what Sullivan seems to forget is that those teams also had youth and balance. Since then Sullivan sacrificed both. He forced the trading away of Cole and Reaves and made environment so uncomfortable for Pedan and Bengtsson that they opted to go play in the KHL rather than watch Sullivan be a hypocrite.
An unbalanced team will look like the Pens do right now. They will look like they are starting to get it over the course of a couple games, when the opponents weaknesses align with the Pens strengths but then they will turn into Hyde and tank against the other teams.
I think every season we debate this, ever since I joined Penguin poop I have stated the Pen’s need more big, tough guys to do the little dirty work.
And a lot disagree and agree with me, I loved the Reaves trade, but he wasn’t allowed the ice time.
The Pen’s play a speed, puck possession, up tempo game. It works but there is no room for the gritty guys, who block shots, push and shove in the corners and in front of the net and throw their weight around with big checks.
Yes we do need a couple of these types of players, but that is not Pen’s style.
Hey Pen’s4ever,
I wish I could say I loved the Reaves trade, but I can’t. I do love Reaves but on a team that hadn’t had a 1st round pick in centuries and hasn’t played a big tough player since the 8th grade picnic, I though we paid too much for him. Had Sullivan shown that he was willing to adapt his strategies to protect his stars and maybe push other teams around for a change, instead of getting pushed around, I may have felt different.
Even though I wasn’t a fan of the initial trade, I liked the 2nd trade even less. I thought that once he was here and started showing his value, Sullivan would start using him. I guess Sullivan showed me, he forced JR to trade Reaves and Cole.
The sad part is that Reaves started to show that he could play a more up tempo game and we got rid of him anyway.
The sad part is that even though the Pens have picked up points in 3 games in a row, they have also shown that they are a very fragile team. They have shown that they are 1 injury to Crosby, Malkin, or Brassard away from cellar dwelling. And without a player like Reaves to dissuade the competition from running those players and taking liberties the chances are one or more of those players will end up on the IR.
Yes, I put Brassard into that list because , even though I am not a fan of the Brassard trade, the team tanked when Brassard was injured; possibly because Sullivan stubbornly, egotistically, refused to call up Blueger or Angello, oreven Lafferty and keeps trying to fill the gap with Sheahan, Cullen, and Grant.
I like Grant’s face off ability and his size so I don’t mind him on the 4th line, but even though Cullen can still skate, his play of late has been much ado about nothing. And Sheahan? well Sheahan did have a decent run right before the Brassard trade but took forever to reach that streak and hasn’t been able to get back there since. Over the last couple of games I have seen Sprong set Sheahan up for 4 golden scoring opportunities, opportunities that anyone else would have a least converted for 1 goal and most true NHL caliber scorers would have converted into 2 or 3 goals. Even the Penguins’ announcers commented on the number of opportunities Sprong was giving Sheahan. When is Sullivan going to notice and acknowledge?
Other Rick,
This is fantastic! GREAT article and so very, very creative … 🙂
I really don’t have anything constructive to add to what you’ve written, other than to say I agree. FYI…the Pens were on a 10-1-1 tear when Cole was traded. They’ve gone 19-15-6 since.
Excellent stuff … 🙂
Rick
We went from all the players that were willing to stand in front of a slap shot for a win to what we have today. I’m not prepared to blame the coach or Rutherford. Well, maybe Rutherford a tiny bit.
The players that left won Cups and earned contracts above what they normally should have been paid. There is a salary cap, hockey is a business, you are going to lose players.
It’s hard to tell players like Bonino not to take the cash that he had rightfully earned.
Rutherford needs his scouting unit out looking for speedsters that have heart and will sacrifice. They don’t need to be scoring a ton of goals. They just need to keep the other team from scoring. Basically, what they used to call a checking line. Let the Crosby’s Malkin’s & Kessel’s score.
*FYI: I did take Sprong twice in my sections dollar goal poll last night. I really thought after picking on him that he would show me up like players usually do. I did win once yesterday with Pearson!
Hey Phil,
I consider myself a pretty solid history buff, particularly military. Many times I have thought about Picket’s Charge and D-Day, particularly when I have watched movies like Gettysburg and Saving Private Ryan. I has always impressed me at how those soldiers stood there, shoulder-to-shoulder, in the face of enemy fire, with every veteran knowing the probability that they would be at least severely wounded if not killed. The leadership of those around them kept them there.
Yes, I agree, I understand Bonino and Kuhnhackl, in both cases they had the opportunity to move up and they took it. Neither of these players were around when Crosby, Malkin, and Fluery all took lower contracts (all three could have asked for far more) to keep a core together with enough cash left over for other players (unlike Tampa Bay). They didn’t personally watched this commitment.
Unfortunately, I can’t take the high road like you on this one. It does seem to me that Sullivan does not want those types of players around. I may be wrong, I am not on the inside, but it appears to me, from my vantage point, that he doesn’t like any strong personalities around him. He doesn’t want players who have the charisma and strength to lead players to dive in front of shots. All it would take is 1 player like that to start a snowball effect. The right type of tough leader would cause the rest of the bottom 6 to follow suit.
You almost got both of them. Sprong had a great opportunity and was visibly beside himself after shooting an open shot right into the goalies glove.
I don’t think that Sullivan dislikes those players. I think most of them were lost to salary.
Maybe we are missing an even bigger picture and that is the loss of Tocchet. You used to see him behind the bench patting guys on the shoulder and revving up the troops. You don’t really see Recchi doing that at all. Recchi is engaged and you always see him helping, but not as much in a cheerleader fashion as Tocchet was.
Maybe they need an energy guy as an assistant coach to keep the guys pumped.
I believe that your one player is Hornqvist, I think they need more.