Penguins Gambles Aren’t Paying Off

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.