Put a Fork in ‘em, Penguins Fall to Jets

“Them guys is done like dinner.”

The immortal Dave “Tiger” Williams offered that blunt and colorful assessment of an earlier black-and-gold (then blue-and-white) squad during the 1977 playoffs.

A wholly apt description of our present bunch as well.

In the wake of the Penguins’ disheartening 2-1 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg last night, I’m going to dispense with a traditional game summary and offer a few thoughts and observations.

IMHO, the Pens lost more than a hockey game last night. Our playoff hopes bit the dust as well. We trail the stubborn Flyers by a whopping nine points in the race for third place in the Metro. Yes, we have four games in hand on Philly. However, even if we win ‘em all (which would require a miracle at this stage) we still wouldn’t catch our in-state rivals.

The wild-card situation is just as bleak. We’re seven points behind Detroit with two games in hand. The process folks will tell you the Red Wings are outperforming their metrics and are due for a fall. They said the same thing about the Canucks earlier this season, who happen to be the best team in the league with 74 points. All the while the Pens are one of the top process teams in the league.

Yet those clubs do something we don’t on a consistent basis.

Win.

Last night’s loss was a microcosm of the team we’ve become and our season as a whole. We fell behind early due to a sloppy and sluggish start, which doomed us to chasing the game. Then we battled hard and made a game of it. And we fell short due to an abject lack of finishing and miserable execution on the power play.

The fact that the latter issue has gone unchecked and uncorrected all season long? The price we pay for having Mike Sullivan as coach. He’s loathe to make hard choices, especially when it comes to his stars.

Not so with kids and support players. The power play sprang to life with Valtteri Puustinen on it. He helped with everything…energy, puck retrieval and playmaking, not to mention a willingness to shoot the biscuit.

Puusti’s back in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

As incredible as it seems given our high-scoring reputation, the Pens are having grave difficulty putting pucks in the net. We haven’t scored as many as four goals in a game since January 8. During the past 10 games we’ve managed only 23 goals. Small wonder we’re 3-4-3 during that span and 2-4-1 in our last seven.

It seems nobody who isn’t playing on Sidney Crosby’s line can score. Rickard Rakell’s a prime example. The slump-ridden winger sprang to life when placed on Sid’s line after coming off IR, notching five goals and 10 points in a dozen games. Then Sully pulled him off the top line in favor of Bryan Rust (who scored our lone goal last night) and RikRak immediately went into the tank. He hasn’t scored in the last 10 games.

Meanwhile, the one player in the organization who might help, Sam Poulin, remains locked in place at Wilkes-Barre. Sam’s got 11 goals in 26 games with the Baby Pens, yet we seem loathe to promote the former first-round pick.

It truly makes no sense. I mean, what do have we got to lose?

Nor can it be doing Sam’s confidence any favors to be overlooked by the big club when we’re so obviously in need of help. What kind of message does that send?

I’ll harbor a guess and say the reason he hasn’t been promoted is skating. Sam’s not the fastest guy on the planet. And we all know how much our coach covets speed…

…I’ll leave you to fill in the blanks.

Where Do We Go From Here?

If the door has, indeed, closed on our playoff chances, what should we do? Distasteful though it may be, unless we can wrap up Jake Guentzel on a team-friendly deal and soon, we simply must trade him. Kyle Dubas can’t let Jake walk this summer and get nothing in return.

Perhaps you think about trading Tristan Jarry, who was both spectacular and valiant during last night’s loss. Goaltending is at a premium and Jarry’s value may never be higher. It’s also the one position where the Pens are fairly well stocked.

If making such deals means throwing in the towel on this season, so be it. This team as constructed isn’t going anywhere. It simply can’t produce the type of consistent winning hockey required to make the playoffs, let alone make any noise should it get there.

I’ll close by reciting a line from one of my favorite movies, The Cinderella Man. In detailing the fall of boxer James J. Braddock, writer Sporty Lewis described the former contender’s lopsided loss in a title fight as, “A sad and somber funeral with the body still breathing.”

Reminds me of our Pens.

Braddock would eventually recover and become heavyweight champion.

Sadly, I envision no such turnaround for us.