Are the Penguins Suffering from Burnout?

After playing like a well-oiled machine through December and the early portion of January, the Penguins’ previously impressive structure seems to have gone completely by the wayside of late. Thursday night against Toronto we had an astounding 19 giveaways. Combined with the Leafs’ 11 takeaways, that’s 30 pucks turned over!

Think that’s an anomaly? Uh uh. We had 14 giveaways against the lowly Flyers on Tuesday. Thirteen in our win over the Devils last Sunday. While there’s a tradeoff between risk and reward inherent in the Pens’ style of play, you’re not going to win too many games with that type of puck management…or mismanagement as the case may be.

I don’t ever recall watching us yield as many odd-man breaks as we’ve allowed over the past six weeks or so. If it weren’t for the exemplary play of Tristan Jarry, I shudder to think of where we’d be.

Increasingly, our guys seem to have difficulty playing a full 60-minute game. While few teams turn it on as well as us when we sense blood in the water, it’s far from an ideal way to do business.

We’ve been able to mask our deficiencies to an extent thanks to an incredibly productive top line and a red-hot power play. But it’s kind of like putting lipstick on a pig.

The absence of crackerjack center Teddy Blueger has hurt. A bottom-six stabilizer and glue guy, he’s a much more vital cog than anyone realized, including yours truly. Losing him, and to a lesser extent, Jason Zucker, has had a negative domino effect on our forward lines, forcing guys like Brock McGinn into elevated roles they’re not really cut out to fill.

Of course, every team experiences injuries. And every team experiences peaks and valleys over the course of a grinding 82-game slate. Inevitable as death and taxes. But there’s something deeper. The Pens look tired. Counterintuitive in a way, given that core players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust have missed significant chunks of time and therefore should be comparatively fresh.

Yet the lack of attention to detail if not downright sloppiness that’s marred our play of late would seem to indicate a tired hockey team. If not physically, then emotionally. Perhaps an unintended consequence of playing a pedal-to-the-metal style that requires a maximum outpouring of effort and energy from superstars and grinders alike on a nightly basis.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that even with comparative behemoths Jeff Carter and Brian Boyle in the mix, with an average weight of 194 pounds the Pens have the third lightest team in the NHL. Presently, 11 of the top 16 teams in average weight are slotted in playoff spots. Only five of the bottom 16, including our Pens. But I digress.

This isn’t the first time a Mike Sullivan-coached team has played like gangbusters through the early going, only to unravel during the second half.

For example, the 2017-18 squad went a deceptive 11-7-2 down the homestretch. Only six of those wins came in regulation play. The following season the Pens won eight in a row and 10 of 11 in December and early January (sound familiar?), only to go a pedestrian 19-13-6 (16-13-9 in regulation play) the rest of the way.

In ’19-20 we rolled to a 37-15-6 record and a share of first place before the wheels fell off the wagon, resulting in an ugly 3-8 finish. Balanced scoring and depth were the hallmark of that team, too…until it wasn’t. Eerily similar to this year’s bunch.

With the tough part of our schedule looming, could we be poised for a similar fade?

It begs the question. Is there such a thing as being too competitive? Does the Pens’ early season intensity lead to burn out down the road? When you pour everything into beating Vancouver or Winnipeg on a Wednesday night in December, are you unintentionally emptying the tank for when you really need to bring your A-game come crunch time?

Might the Pens benefit from a more measured, counterpunching style? If we play the game “the right way,” as Sullivan is fond of saying, we certainly have the skill and speed to capitalize on our foes’ mistakes. It may also help us to conserve precious energy. Work smarter not harder, to borrow from a time-honored phrase. Yet increasingly we seem to be caught up in Globetrotters hockey, in effect chasing the game.

It might work against the bottom-feeders of the league. But not against the type of competition we’ll soon be facing on a nightly basis.