On-Again, Off-Again Penguins Trampled by Red Wings, 6-3

A while back I promised myself I was going to go easy on Mike Sullivan. After all, I’ve been fairly critical of the Penguins’ head coach over the years.

Then our favorite hockey team comes out and basically flatlines for half a game last night en route to a well-deserved 6-3 drubbing at the hands of the Red Wings in the Motor City. Never mind the fact that we finally awoke from our slumber to stage a scorching third-period rally.

It’s like cramming for an exam. Twenty minutes of fury doesn’t make up for 40 minutes of nothing.

I blame this loss squarely on Sullivan.

No, not for his tactics or system, although they certainly can be questioned. Rather, his debilitating influence on roster construction.

I’ve never seen a team consistently display less oomph and fighting spirit than our Pens. For a good portion of the second period we barely displayed a pulse. At one point exasperated radio color man Phil Bourque sputtered, “We need someone with some fire.”

Sidney Crosby noticed, too. After watching Detroit pound four-straight goals past Tristan Jarry with barely a whimper of resistance, our captain initiated a scrum with Jake Walman in the closing minutes of a disastrous second period, leading to a fight (or what passes for one these days) between Marcus Pettersson and Red Wings star Dylan Larkin. Moments later Evgeni Malkin engaged Ben Chiarot.

It took our venerable superstars to ignite the spark, but finally…FINALLY…the team displayed a pulse.

While noting the sudden shift in temperament, play-by-play announcer Steve Mears appropriately lamented, “Why Sid? Anyone else…hello?”

Again, I point the finger squarely at Sullivan. Mark Friedman is just the latest example of a player who provided an edge, only to be spurned if not downright rejected by the black-and-gold coach. Instead, we got a snootful of aging Chad Ruhwedel getting exploited last night, but that’s okay. At least he didn’t take a penalty (heaven forbid).

Waiting in the wings if Chad continues to falter? Milquetoastish Ryan Shea, another Sully favorite. He’s about as abrasive as a bar of Ivory Soap.

Kyle Dubas doesn’t get away scot free. He’s allowed Sullivan to dictate roster construction while quaffing our coach’s Kool-Aid, to the team’s considerable detriment.

No kids to provide an underpinning of youthful enthusiasm. And heaven forbid, no real toughness. That would be a travesty.

This can’t continue. Not if we have any real designs on making the playoffs, letting alone accomplishing anything once we get there.

This team totally lacks heart and bite. Heck, insert rugged newcomer John Ludvig in place of Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who was on the ice for three 5v5 goals against and is positively awful in his own zone. Let the kid rattle a few guys. Call up Jagger Joshua. JJ may not score (nobody else in the bottom-six does, either) but he’ll hit anything that moves and annoy the life out of opponents.

If Jansen Harkins, who’s been an absolute zero, can’t be bothered to get his fingernails dirty, cut him and bring in someone who will. Sign Austin Wagner, who mysteriously floated into the ozone after providing some juice during the preseason. Vinnie Hinostroza will skate and hustle and at least give you your money’s worth. Or better yet, bring up Sam Poulin, who has no problem banging around in traffic while providing a muscular presence.

Do something. Anything to change this tepid mix.

But, no, that won’t happen. Dubas will continue to cotton to his coach. And we’ll continue to produce half-baked efforts like we did last night, along with half-baked results.

Somewhere, Ron Hextall must be smiling.

The Goals

Malkin opened the scoring 53 seconds into the game courtesy of a pretty backhand feed from Reilly Smith. Then the Red Wings reeled off four-straight goals by Alex DeBrincat, Ben Chiarot, Andrew Copp and ex-Pen David Perron to snatch a 4-1 lead after two periods.

Erik Karlsson, one of a handful of Pens to play an inspired game, scored his first goal of the season at 3:37 of the third period. Ten minutes later Bryan Rust tipped home a Karlsson shot from center point to close the gap to 4-3.

The Pens buzzed like Mike Lange’s bees around a hive in an effort to score the equalizer. But with Jarry pulled for an extra attacked a Karlsson pass eluded Geno at the point and Copp scored into an empty net at 18:28. DeBrincat tacked on a second empty-netter 21 seconds later.

By the Numbers

Going strictly by the numbers, the Pens dominated. We piled up a massive edge in shot attempts (71-47), shots on goal (33-29), scoring chances (38-23), and high-danger chances (14-11), mostly due to our incendiary third period.

With a Corsi of 82.14 and an expected goals for percentage (xGF%) of 89.24, Sid’s line was on fire. All other units had a sub-50 xGF%. The third line perked up after Sullivan demoted the aforementioned Harkins in favor of Matt Nieto.

Karlsson was superb. He notched a goal and two assists while posting some dazzling fancy stats (72 Corsi, 71.12 xGF%).

On the flip side, Jarry yielded four goals on 27 shots for an .852 save percentage.

No need to mention how awful our third d-pairing was. Ditto our bottom six, pointless again.

Not that I’m lamenting the trade. But Jeff Petry had two assists against his ex-mates.

On Deck

The Pens travel to St. Louis for a matchup with the Blues on Saturday night.