A few articles back, I wrote somewhat tongue-in-cheek about the curse of Jeff Petry. How his Canadiens morphed from Stanley Cup finalist in 2021 to the worst team in the league last season. Hinting that could be the Penguins’ fate with the 34-year-blueliner on board.
I was sort of kidding at the time. I’m not kidding any more. Given the way we’ve played over the past half-dozen games, coupled with the improvement of clubs like the Sabres, Devils and the resurgent Islanders? There’s a good chance our 16-season postseason run will come to an end.
Lots of folks are blaming our goaltenders for our present malaise. While Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith have hardly been airtight, I’m not one of them. I think they’re doing the best they can given the way the team’s performing (make that underperforming) in front of them.
There are just so many disturbing trends. The inability to play a full 60 minutes. The inability to play with and protect a lead. And I’m not talkin’ one-goal leads, but two- and even three-goal advantages. The fact that we’ve been outscored 13-1 in third periods and overtimes during our six-game winless streak. To say nothing about our decidedly unspecial special teams.
Games that feature lots of skating and up-tempo hockey used to be our meat. No longer. Wednesday night’s loss to Buffalo was a classic example. The Pens did well and even thrived during the first two periods when the action was fairly controlled. However, when the Sabres turned the third period into a track meet, we couldn’t keep up.
It was the second of back-to-back games you say? The same thing happened against the Bruins. And the Oilers. And the Canadiens. The more the games open up, the more our structural weaknesses are exposed and exploited.
Age has eroded our speed, at least among our core group. It’s wreaking havoc with our ability to effectively play Mike Sullivan’s system. Sully’s game is built around an aggressive forecheck and smothering pressure in the offensive zone. When you’re no longer fastest to the puck? Foes are transitioning before we’re able to establish a cycle. Leaving our forwards flatfooted and chasing the play.
Combined with the fact that our defensemen are often caught pinching? It’s contributing to the odd-man breaks against and the fire-drill feel to our defensive zone coverage.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new development but a continuation of a trend I noticed in the second half of last season when the Pens went 7-9-1 down the home stretch.
If we aren’t able to bounce back and make the playoffs? It casts a huge shadow over those long-term contracts GM Ron Hextall doled out over the summer. The alternative…allowing franchise icons Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang and a host of key free agents to walk…would have resulted in a brutally painful cliff dive to the early 2000s or worse. Still, I can’t imagine Fenway Sports Group is going to be too thrilled about paying for an aging, big-ticket team that struggles to win games, let alone make the playoffs.
Good coach and better man that he is, the Sullivan extension isn’t looking too good, either. Especially in light of the team’s increasing inability to effectively play his preferred style. Sully’s not known for his willingness to embrace a more structured game.
Yet, if the Pens are to shake out of the doldrums and nail down a postseason slot that’s precisely what needs to occur. Whether by design or due to fatigue, the Pens played a more controlled game during the first 40 minutes against the Sabres and it worked. They scored a pair of goals on odd-man breaks (nice to have them go our way for a change) and did an effective job of shielding DeSmith, before being drawn into a run-and-gun affair in the third period.
Embracing a tighter, more structured style would, at least in theory, allow us to do a better job of protecting our own net. It would also put us in a better position to force turnovers and capitalize. We certainly have the talent to do so.
Working smarter and not harder would also save on those aging legs.
Is it too late to turn our season around? No. But with a murderous stretch of seven road contests in nine games looming just over the horizon?
I confess, I’m not feeling too good about our chances.
Hey Rick!
Long time no see as they say!
I totally agree with your assessment of the current situation. I have been a Pens fan for so long. It hurts to see this team in constant decline. As you so well pointed out in your article, the Pens were already showing some signs of slowing down last year. HCMS always emphasizes on ” playing the right way”. But many NHL teams are now playing Mike’s preferred style. The inability of HCMS to ajust to other teams’ style of play is more than obvious. As you said, there are many factors that explain why the Pens struggle so much.
I’m curious to know if the new owners will lose their patience and do some sort of a “house cleaning”.
Hope that the Pens will get back to winning some games soon (although I remain cautiously confident).
Hello Jorenz,
How good to hear from you! Funny, I was thinking about you not too long ago and hoping we hadn’t scared you off… 🙂
Yeah, it’s hard to watch but we are who we are…an aging team in decline. There were signs pointing to this last season, but I was hoping we’d pull it together for one last run at the Cup…or at the very least the second-round of the playoffs. I confess I didn’t see this coming.
As much as I’m hoping we’ll pull out of this I don’t thing we’re going to. The structural weaknesses in the way we play remain unchecked…and are likely to as long as Mike Sullivan’s our coach. I don’t know if it’s in his DNA to switch to a more buttoned-down style, and I think that’s what it’s going to take to right this ship. Then again, we may not have the personnel to play that way.
Having signed Sully to a four-extension, it’s real hard to see Fenway Sports Group cutting ties. It’s also hard to imagine anyone else doing better…
…although, the Phillies fired Joe Girardi and completely turned their season around. And the same thing happened when Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston back in 2015. So you never know.
Again, great to hear from you … 🙂 Hope you and your loved ones are well.
Rick
PS–Still enjoying your Canadian Finest maple syrup…lol?
Hi Rick,
Thank you for the kind words!
Yes, I’m still enjoying my maple syrup! 😀 This year’s syrup is sinfully good!!
I still don’t understand why Sully got this 3-year contract extension. The Pens haven’t passed the first round of playoffs for the last four seasons (they lost in the qualifying round vs the Habs in 2019-20). He was really quick to criticize his players but not very willing to look himself in the mirror.
Barry Trotz is the type of coach who can right a ship. Don’t know if he would be interested to take over an aging team. As a coach or GM, who knows?
Take care Rick!
Here we go again Rick. !!!
It is not that we are playing poorly rather the competition is getting better.
Cheers Jim
Hey all. A brief add-on to my article.
One of the other sites cited (?) our inability to get the puck out of our zone as a major issue. I wholehearted agree. Going back to last season’s playoff series against New York, I can think of at least three instances…all of them late in the series…where the Rangers trapped us in our own end for an eternity before scoring.
It seems we’re constantly trying to tip or chip or poke the puck to a teammate, instead of making the hard play and just banging the puck out and living to fight another day. I notice the same issue with our PK this year. McGinn cleared the puck a couple of times last game and it was like a revelation.
Rick