I saw a headline on a different web site and quickly scanned it. The main point of the essay was to allay the fears of reactionaries who feel that the loss to the Buffalo Sabres last game was a warning sign of a relapse to the snooze fest that has become Pittsburgh Penguins playoff hockey over these last couple of seasons. This cursory scan prompted an interesting discussion among some hockey fans at Rick B and my favorite training center. The discussion prompted this, my latest post and interruption of a look at how this team would have looked had I been at the helm this past several seasons.
The author of the inspiring piece started off by sarcastically pointing out that the world isn’t ending just because our favorite flightless fowl lost a game to a contender for the first pick in the draft. It would take a collapse of almost Biblical proportions to keep our boys of winter from the playoffs. On that point, said author and I are in perfect agreement – mathematically possible but high improbably.
And although one could cite several reasons why this current incarnation of Penguins is different from the past, there is one constant that scares me – a constant that invokes Robert Plant intoning
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, California sunlight
Sweet Calcutta rain
Honolulu starbright
The song remains the same
Calm down with your “come on Other Rick, this time things are different.” Hear me out.
First, although home ice will matter to some degree, since our hometown heroes are nigh invincible at home. However, it may not mean all that much since our Penguins have won few series on home ice in the recent past and to get out of the divisional rounds a team will have to play 2 of the 3 other playoff teams. Therefore, with a fairly large lead over the 5th place New York Rangers and a very favorable schedule that matches Sidney Crosby and Crew up against serious competition only 4 more times over the last 11 games there is time for a good, forward thinking Coach to rest veteran players who may be piling up bruises and to play younger players.
The core pieces of this team are now 10+ seasons old. The wear and tear of those many winters takes it toll on even the most conditioned athletes. Now add to that the compressed schedule that our current unpleasantness has imposed on our favorite sport and it could only benefit come playoff time to at least reduce some ice time if not give an extra day off to some invaluable pieces now before the playoff wars begin.
Second, there is a strong probability of attrition that hangs over every playoff. An injury is incurred by a veteran (Marc-André Fleury) and a kid comes out of the woodwork (Matt Murray) and steals the show. Now is the time to get those kids feet really wet, playing alongside NHL talent against NHL talent. Risking a loss here or there, as kids gain experience, can only help win the final prize. You don’t have to win every battle to win the war.
Third, with an expansion draft coming up this off season and a new General Manager and President of Hockey Operations, moving forward they need to know what is here in the organization to know what to look for and add to complete the team.
But there’s the rub, the song remains the same, Coach Mike Sullivan continues to play veteran dunsels like Mark Jankowski, Even Rodrigues, Colton Sceviour, Markus Pettersson, etc rather than give the kids; Anthony Angello (who is apparently healthy again), Sam Laffery, Juuso Riikola and I will even throw in guys like Jordy Bellerive into the mix.
Yes, I still like the kid and am lobbying for a chance for him. He has 8 Goals (G), 12 Points (Pts) and 36 Penalty Minutes (threw that in for you Rick B) in just 19 Games Played (GP) for the Wilkes Barre – Scranton Penguins. Yes, he is a -7, but Jason Zucker is carrying a huge minus number here in the ‘burgh and unlike Zucker, Bellerive has turnstiles in front of his net almost ensuring any shot turning into a goal. The combo of Alex D’Orio, Emil Larmi, Max Legace, Shane Starrett, and Tommy Nappier have a combined Save Percentage (Sv%) of 0.863.
Robert Plant may be right, “There’s still time to change the road you’re on” but Sullivan has already squandered the 5 previous opportunities, 2 against these very same New Jersey Devils, in the last week and a half. If things don’t change, if Sullivan fails to take advantage of these late season opportunities for rest and teaching, sorry, the song does still remain the same and I will be preparing for another May snooze.
The Penguins Stretch Run a Real or a Missed Opportunity
ByThe Other Rick
Apr 20, 2021
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12 thoughts on “The Penguins Stretch Run a Real or a Missed Opportunity”
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Hey All!
This will likely be a bit of a sarcastic post. Somehow sarcasm seems right about now.
Just watched our Pens turn a six goal lead into a cliffhanger. Yes, a win is a win, and the two points are a plus, but they ought to be embarrassed by this one. Seriously embarrassed. I mean like ripping-a-wet-one-in-front-of-that-girl-you’re-trying-to-impress embarrassed. I know I was, and I was watching alone.
As I said in a previous post, beware the Devils, Rangers, Sabers and I’ll add the Flyers in there, too. Taking any, or all, of these teams as lightly as they took the Devils tonight is like crawling out on the limb with a saw in hand. It would take a pretty deep dive for our boys to miss the playoffs, but tonight’s no defense defensive fiasco is evidence anything’s possible.
I’m trying to remain optimistic this season. They’ve played some great hockey under difficult circumstances. However, games like this one can kill that optimism faster than the Devil’s three-on-four goal that kicked off their third period rally.
Tonight was a prime example of how success can go to one’s head. If they take any of these teams lightly, like they did in the third tonight, they’ll simply be sawing off that limb on the wrong side. They’ll deserve missing the post season, or getting bounced again in the first round. That would indeed be a shame because this is a good hockey team that with their wits about them is a contender.
Epilogue:
Just saw/heard Sully say, “We didn’t play well in the third.” Ya think? I wasn’t sure they came outta the locker room for the third. It was more like they picked 19 strangers out of the stands and sent them out instead while they stayed in and celebrated a six-goal win.
— 55
EDIT:
…Devils four-on-three goal…
Hey 55,
I hear you. They should be embarrassed.
However, I wasn’t surprised by the attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws. You wrote that they looked “..more like they picked 19 strangers out of the stands and sent them out while they stayed in and celebrated..” They would have been better off had they picked out 19 strangers from the stands.
That is why I wrote this piece in the first place.
Sullivan has to start pointing the finger at himself and no one else.
1) It is his job choose the line-up. As I complained above and elsewhere, I am sick and tired of watching 9 to 5, ho hum veterans coming in and picking up NHL paychecks and only playing once in a while, stealing oxygen and ice time from prospects who would be playing full throttle to try and impress the coach. And in this case I use the term loosely, since this coach coaches very little and only when forced to coach.
I wouldn’t be upset this morning if the 4th line was made up of Zahorna – Lafferty – Angello. Or better yet maybe the 3rd line Zahorna – Blueger – ZAR with Lafferty – Bellerive – Angello. In the 5:28 that Sullivan grudgingly afforded the 4th line, they couldn’t have done much worse than Jankowski – Laffery – Sceviour. And even though Rodrigues had 1 G and 1 A, 5 on 5 his line broke even 2 TGF with 2 TGA and of the 2 Pnts he had, only the A came 5 on 5.
I would not have been upset at giving prospects the experience and eeking out a victory, living with the mistakes by commission they would have made than the the mistakes of omission that the 9 to 5 veterans phoned in during the 3rd period.
The kids wouldn’t have taken anyone lightly.
2) A coach has to be part psychologist, finding ways to get the team psyche to the proper level (not overly psyched out or ho hum business like). I am not sorry, the onus was on Sully to press the right buttons to keep his hackneyed, jaded line-up from coming out as flat as the did. It was his job to keep the shark/barracuda feeding frenzy as stoked in the 3rd period as they were in the first, but no, the fade wasn’t really linear but predictable 4 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd.
With our Penguins winning and the Rangers losing last night, the magic number has been reduced by 4. Don’t know who owns the tie breaker so they are down to needing either 11 or 12 points now. It is hard to imagine them not making the playoffs but it is equally hard to imagine them doing anything once they get there. The leopard behind the bench hasn’t changed his spots.
Well thought and well written, Other Rick.
Funny, but I was ruminating about the fourth line, and I thought about a Zohorna-Lafferty-Angello combination as well. I like the idea of having at least one line that throws something different at the opposition.
Alas, Sullivan is just so drawn to his type of player, almost intractably so. So you have Sceviour…and I’m not down on him…playing in place of kids like Angello and Zohorna, who I think genuinely have an upside.
Is it me, or does Jankowski appear to have gone back into hibernation now that Gaudreau isn’t around to push him?
Rick
Thanks Rick,
Sullivan definitely has blinders on when it comes to certain players. The only way the team was able to get out from under Simon was to have him removed from Sully’s tool box.
And the funniest part, Simon is out of hockey now. No one but Sully seems to think he is any good. – and Sully had him playing top 6 minutes whenever he could get away with it.
I will not be able to get over Jankowski’s 22 game absence from the score sheet this year or Sceviour’s 26 game G drought. Rookies and prospects get summarily banished buy Sully for that kind of lack of production but hypocritically Sully keeps these veterans around even when he, himself, can’t trust them enough to give them but 5 minutes and change of TOI, keeping roster space from someone who can still develop.
Hey 55,
Great to hear from you. Eloquent and entertaining as always.
I agree, they really have played some great hockey, especially in March and especially given all the injuries. Malkin, Kapanen, Blueger, Tanev, Zucker, McCann and Gaudreau all missed significant time during that stretch. And we actually thrived.
Extraordinary.
Maybe it was too much to hope for us to continue that level of play, especially with players filtering back in and changing the mix. Although it was only together for a brief period of time, I really liked the Zohorna-Gaudreau-Angello line…they added a different and, in my mind…much needed element. I doubt if any of those guys will see significant ice time once we get healthy.
A mistake, I think.
Like Other Rick, I’m also a little worried that we might be wearing down a bit.
Anyway, I hope we can get things sorted out and regain our consistency. The lack of a bona fide physical presence aside, there’s a lot to like about this team.
Rick
The Other Rick
A few comments regarding your article:
1) Riikola can’t crack our top 6 – although a left-handed defenseman he’s
really not in our top 8 – I would put both Friedman & Ruhlwedel ahead
of him on the depth chart.
2) I don’t think this team has what it takes to make a serious run at the
Cup. This is worth repeating – we’re more structured to do well in the
regular season and stumble in the playoffs. Swapping a few players
around is not going to change or modify the end result.
3) It looks like Lafferty is back on the 4th line for tonight’s game.
4) Also, with this roster constructed like it is, I would definitely tell you
to prepare for a May snooze. IMO this lineup with or without adding a player
inside the organization has zero chance of beating the Bruins or Caps in a
seven-game series.
GO PENS
Hey Mike,
I apologize if I sound like this team can make a Cup run. Rick B thought similarly, so I must have rushed my writing. The team’s needs are too many right now.
However, the team does have wiggle room before having to worry about missing the playoffs. And because of that wiggle room and Sullivan not taking advantage of the chance to rest a Crosby and give a kid like Zohorna an elevated role or kids like Lafferty and Angello any real experience.
As for Riikola, the best recommendation a D-man can get, at least for me, is that Sullivan doesn’t like him.Sullivan’s defensive concepts are way to soft. The team can beat up on bottom feeders but will find real teams a different story when they have to play them, which they will if they want to get to the Cup. Stick waving isn’t going to stand up to a heavy, furious forecheck. The puck will get trapped in the defensive zone from the fear induced give aways.
In the end, to get Mac postseason time Crosby has to have something left in his tank and the kids need to be gaining experience.
The continued use of 9 to 5 players like Jankowski, Pettersson, Sceviour and their type shows me that nothing has significantly changed for this team. The Coaching is still the biggest problem.
The Other Rick
I hear you but I don’t think sitting Crosby is an option. The guy has
more juice than anyone on the team plus he’s having a great year
and wants to play in every game.
As for Riikola no one likes physical players more than I do but I
soured on Riikola as well. I get the impression he doesn’t retain
schemes / assignments very well. Just an observation.
Hey guys,
Not that I don’t have a tendency to overreact just a tad. But I’m personally a little worried about us making the playoffs. I think the Rangers are for real. I can see them easily winning eight of their last 11, which would give them 68 points. Which means we’d have to go a minimum 5-6 down the stretch.
Certainly doable, I know.
But I’m seeing tendencies seep back into our game that are a little unsettling. Perimeter play, lack of second-chance opportunities, poor penalty killing and…perhaps worst of all…a lack of drive and spark. The same things that manifested at the end of last season when we finished 3-8 in our last 11.
I hope these last three games are just a little downturn or blip and that we’ll right ourselves.
Rick
PS–Great stuff, by the way!
Rick
I’m with you theirs some things in our play that are bothersome. I’m
also concerned that we looked gassed and slow to the puck. I haven’t
found our games to be overly physical but when you have a small team
that needs maximum effort game in and game out I imagine it would
eventually, take its toll.
We need 5 out of a possible 6pts vs the Devils. If we drop say 2 of the
next 3 games it will be a nail-biter.
GO PENS
Hey Rick,
Not going to argue with you that there are chinks in our Pens armor. Unlike Kingerski’s article trying to argue that this is a different team from the team that has been channeling the redoubtable Dwarf of Snow White’s fame, Sleepy. I am, in fact, arguing that although some of the names have changed, since Sullivan is still the Coach, this is still the same sleepy team.
As you note, there seems to be a back slide into the the Perimeter play, lack of 2nd chance/rebound shots, poor PK, and going thru the motions play seems to coincide with the Coach’s back slide into playing veteran 9 to 5 ers. Drive and energy are the hallmark of rookies and 2nd year men but they are getting copious press box, taxi squad, and demotion time while Jankowski, Sceviour, and Pettersson are underwhelming in their play but still getting TOI. And those personnel choices are the purview of Coach Mike Sullivan. He is the constant that will sink this team.
Rather than taking the chance that the kid will succeed, he opts to play the veteran that has a track record of failure. Last season, when everyone and his grandmother could see Marleau (no offense to the NHL GP King but he really didn’t fit in) Sully stubbornly kept trotting him out there. This season, Jankowski went 22 games without a point and although he picked up a couple of assists during his slump, Sceviour went 26 games without a goal.
The Devils and Sabres stunk during the first half of the season, staking some of our opponents to early easy points. Now at the end of the season, the dumped their 9 to 5 ers and are starting to beat some of the teams unlucky enough to have to play against their energized, driven kids.
Although I don’t see this team going deep into the playoffs with Sullivan at the helm rewarding pathetic veteran play with continued ice time. He is in desperation mode. He is so afraid to lose he is afraid of risking a kid on the ice. However, it is hard to envision the team not making the playoffs. Looking at the numbers, I believe they are down to a magic number of 15 with 11 games to go. Even if the Rangers go on an 11 game winning streak, the Penguins can still lose 3 games in regulation and 1 in OT and still make the playoffs.
That is to say the Pens only need to go 7-3-1 with 7 of those last 11 games against the Sabres, Devils, and Flyers and furthermore, 7 of those 11 games are home games, while the Rangers have to be perfect. Every loss the Rangers incur just pads the Pens cushion.