Hurricanes Blow Past Penguins, 4-1

As I watched Carolina skate over, around and through our Penguins last night en route to a thoroughly convincing 4-1 victory at PPG Paints Arena, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

After all, the Hurricanes hemorrhaged a passel of quality players over the summer, including ex-Pen Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teräväinen and defensive mainstays Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei, and they haven’t missed a beat.

A testimony to the fine job coach Rod Brind’Amour has done.

Despite the considerable turnover, the ‘Canes still play the same way—fast, aggressive and disciplined. They simply smother you with pressure and don’t give you a chance to breathe.

Such was the case against our Pens last night. Never taking their foot off the gas pedal, they piled up a lopsided 82-51 edge in shot attempts (an obscene 63-28 through two periods), as well as a 39-26 advantage in shots on goal according to Natural Stat Trick.

Total domination.

By contrast, our Pens appeared sloppy, disjointed and slow. If not for the sensational goaltending of rookie Joel Blomqvist, the margin of victory could’ve been worse. Like 10-1 worse.

Our defensemen, in particular, looked like they were swimming out there, with no real sense of where they needed to be or what they needed to do. Just a confused and chaotic jumble. Even Marcus Pettersson, normally steady as she goes, appeared to be lost.

I keep looking for the common denominator. With the notable exception of our core, our personnel has changed. Players come and go. Yet the struggles continue.

The finger points squarely at coach Mike Sullivan. Or perhaps more accurately, his system.

The Hurricanes play the way Sullivan would like to play…and still tries to play. Incessant pressure in all three zones, with the defense activating and even leading the rush. The problem is, Sully doesn’t have the horses to do that.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re no longer a small team. Most of the water bugs have been phased out, replaced by comparative behemoths like Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes, Jesse Puljujärvi and Jack St. Ivany.

We aren’t a fast team, either, and therein lies the rub. Speed is essential to Sullivan’s system.

I’m going to digress for a moment and reach back in time.

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian army was notoriously weak. A German ally stated that it was like trying to fight a war “tethered to a corpse.”

Their commanding general, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, received praise in some circles for his strategies and ambitious battle plans.

“If only he had better material to work with,” lamented a contemporary.

However, von Hötzendorf was sharply criticized by others, who insisted he should’ve scaled back his grandiose plans to better fit the troops he had at his disposal.

I see a lot of von Hötzendorf in Sullivan, and vice versa. I keep hearing and reading about what a great coach we have. Yet the same weaknesses and flaws play out over and over (and over) again with metronomic regularity. In particular, an almost pathologic inability to defend our house and insulate our goalies, who are liable to get shell-shock before all is said and done.

Rather than trying to pound his square peg of a team into the round hole of his attacking scheme, Sully needs to install some sort of defensive structure…pronto.

We still have enough offensive talent to capitalize on our opponent’s mistakes and score on the counter-attack, somewhat like the Islanders did under Barry Trotz, instead of playing firewagon hockey.

Whether Sullivan is constitutionally and/or tactically capable of making such a change remains to be seen.

As for von Hötzendorf? Following a string of catastrophic battlefield failures, he was relieved of his command.

Might the same happen to Sullivan if he’s unable to adjust?