Defense: The Penguins’ White Elephant

It’s no secret. The Penguins were one of the absolute worst defensive teams in the NHL this season. Only the lowly, rebuilding Blackhawks and Sharks allowed more than the 287 non-shootout goals (293 total) yielded by the black-and-gold.

It’s no better on an organizational level. Despite the presence of highly touted goalies-of-the-future Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov, the Baby Pens and Nailers are spouting more leaks (and leaking more goals) than a World War I U-boat in the playoffs.

I submit the problem is both mindset and makeup.

To a fault, the Pens pathologically emphasize skating and puck skills when assembling a defensive corps, with qualities such as defensive acumen, toughness and size a distant afterthought if they register on the radar at all.

I get it to an extent. To a large degree, today’s NHL places a premium on speed and puck movement. You need defensemen who can not only move the puck to your forwards at the earliest opportunity, but join and sometimes even lead the attack.

However, that doesn’t preclude the need or ability to play stout defense. Put another way, not everyone needs to be a budding Cale Makar, Adam Fox or Lane Hutson. You need guys like Bruins’ thumper Charlie McAvoy and the ‘Canes’ Jaccob Slavin, labeled “a defensive eraser” by one hockey analyst during the 4 Nations Face-Off.

In short, guys who can defend the house, and do so with vigor when the situation calls for it.

This is where the Pens’ mix fails, miserably so. A quick audit of our defensive corps reveals a terrible imbalance, not to mention shoddy construction. In the puck-mover/defensive liability category we have Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang and Pierre-Olivier Joseph. While marginally better defensively, Matt Grzelcyk and youngster Vladislav Kolyachonok could arguably be lumped into that group as well.

Only deadline acquisition Conor Timmins and journeyman Ryan Shea showed any ability or inclination to play effective defense, and neither is going to be confused with Slavin.

Not to be harsh, but dead weight Ryan Graves doesn’t appear to be good at anything, at least not since arriving in the ‘Burgh.

Two out of eight ain’t gonna cut it, not by a long shot.

Maybe I’m guilty of reading into things. But I can’t help but feel our defense, or what passes for it, is designed this way to support Mike Sullivan’s system, which is based on speed, puck retrieval and an aggressive forecheck. Pinching, puck-moving defensemen appear to be part and parcel to that design.

That’s why I was more than a little surprised when Sully took his defense to task a couple of weeks ago. After all, he would appear to be the one driving the mix, or at very least, the on-ice decision-making.

Switching tracks, a quick audit of recent Cup winners shows how a defense should be constructed. Last seasons’ champs, the Panthers, had two puck-moving all-arounders (Gustav Forsling and Oliver Ekman-Larsson), two physical all-arounders (Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad) and two physical stay-at-homers (Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov).

Literally, a perfect blend of attributes and skills.

The 2023 champion Golden Knights were even more skewed to the defensive side of the coin. They employed a puck-mover (Shea Theodore), a puck-moving all-arounder (Alex Pietrangelo), two stay-at-homers (Alec Martinez and Zach Whitecloud) and two physical, stay-at-homers (Nicolas Hague and Brayden McNabb).

Heck, even our back-to-back Cup winners featured a balanced blend of offense (Letang, Trevor Daley and Justin Schultz), all-arounders (Ben Lovejoy and Ron Hainsey) and defense-first types (Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin and Olli Määttä).

How quickly we seem to forget.

Unfortunately, a glance at the organizational depth chart isn’t especially reassuring. The Baby Pens feature their share of small and/or non-physical puck-movers like Mac Hollowell, Filip Král and Sebastian Aho.

When we do trip over a physical, stay-at-home type such as Jack St. Ivany, they’re often shunted to the shadows or traded (Nikolai Knyzhov). It’s as if the organization literally doesn’t know what to do with them.

While there’s a veil of hope for the future with the likes of Owen Pickering, Harrison Brunicke, Emil Pieniniemi and banger Chase Pietila, it remains to be seen if they’re able to make the jump to the bigs. Or as the old World War I marching song goes, “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”

Last but by no means least, we come to the architect, Kyle Dubas.

Based on recent interviews and statements, it appears our POHO/GM intends to make rebuilding our defensive corps a top priority, as absolutely should be the case.

But hold the phone. During his tenure in Toronto, Dubas struggled to construct an effective defensive corps.

During his two seasons in the ‘Burgh?

You get my drift.

It doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence he’ll get it right.