Penguins Update: What the Heck Happened?

When it comes to our Penguins, I confess to being a bit of a pie-in-the-sky pollyanna. There’s just something in my nature that likes to be hopeful. Heck, I even have hopes that our woebegone cellar-dwelling Buccos are going to have another window of respectability in the not-too-distant future. How’s that for wearing black-and-gold tinted glasses?

I thought our Pens were making strides and coming together as a team during our 15-3-3 run. They were playing with more structure, eschewing their favored run-and-gun style for a more disciplined approach.

Then…WHAM. Over the past two games, we’ve completely gone off the rails.

What happened?

Injuries for one. No team is immune…especially an older crew like our Pens. After enjoying extreme good health through the early going, the injury bug’s begun to bite. We’ve lost 2/3rds of a scrappy, energetic and reasonably effective fourth line, not to mention two excellent penalty killers. Kris Letang sat out yesterday’s practice, as did Chad Ruhwedel.

The injuries are starting to pile up and it’s testing our organizational depth. Or should I say, organizational mix. When it comes to guys who play with aggression, we’re woefully thin. Thus you have a skill player like Danton Heinen trying to fill a fourth-line energy role. To borrow one of the robot’s favorite sayings from the kitschy 60s Sci-fi show Lost in Space, “Does not compute.”

I maintain things began to go awry when Jeff Petry suffered an injury in the late stages of a 3-1 victory over Buffalo back on December 10. We played a strong game two nights later against Dallas, but have gradually reverted to our old shaky ways since, blowing leads to Carolina and most recently to Detroit during Wednesday night’s fiasco of an overtime loss.

I once likened former Pens defenseman Ian Cole to the apple located in the middle of a supermarket display. Pluck the apple out and the whole stack comes tumbling down.

Well, I think Petry’s that guy on this team…at least on defense. His absence has destabilized our ‘d’ pairings (none of them look good) and exposed some pretty severe weaknesses. Particularly the play of one-time stalwart Brian Dumoulin, who’s struggling in all phases of his game and dragging present partner Jan Rutta down with him.

For more on that, be sure to read Gretz’s excellent article on Pensburgh titled, “Some of the Penguins player use decisions are baffling.” He does a great job of delving into the details.

Too, he goes out on a limb and points a finger squarely at coach Mike Sullivan for some of his choices, both strategic and personnel-wise. A bit of a taboo in the local media (save for my esteemed colleague Other Rick).

Wednesday night was a classic example. Up 4-0 against the speedy Red Wings, Sullivan inexplicably chose to shorten his bench. In the process riveting fresh legs Drew O’Connor and Kasperi Kapanen, who figured in on our first two goals, to the pine while overusing our older players.

It’s pretty much documented if Sully doesn’t like or trust a player (poster child…the aforementioned Cole), it’s almost impossible for them to work their way into his good graces. Especially for the kids. It makes it awfully hard for young players to develop when they’re skating five minutes a night on the fourth line as PenguinPoop reader and commenter Jorenz so aptly noted.

Too, we seem to have strayed from the buttoned-down style that was working for us. On numerous occasions during our hot streak Sullivan and his staff employed a 1-2-2 when had a lead, a tactic that helped cover our defensive blemishes while maximizing our skill and counter strike ability. It didn’t hurt that Tristan Jarry was superhuman between the pipes.

Another one of our north-of-the-border readers and commenters, Pens4ever, hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “It’s an old team, can’t play a speed game all game anymore.” Especially with two of our fastest skaters, Josh Archibald and Ryan Poehling on the shelf.

Not all of this is on Sullivan and his staff. Some of it falls on GM Ron Hextall. It appears he gambled and lost when he signed Jeff Carter to a two-year extension last January, including a no movement clause. Unfortunately, the big guy’s wheels are gone, a predicament that’s served to severely handicap our third line.

The jury’s still out on the Petry-Mike Matheson and Ty Smith-John Marino deals as well. As Other Rick has noted, we strengthened our right side at the expense of the left side. Especially with Dumoulin’s game in the tank.

Bottom line? No team, coach or GM get it right all the time. It’s how we respond to this latest dose of adversity that will determine our future course.

However, we can’t afford to languish too long. Not in the Division of Doom.