The last time the Penguins lost seven in a row Zigmund Palffy was on the team, until he wasn’t. The team was so bad he retired halfway through the season. It was Sidney Crosby’s rookie year and Evgeni Malkin’s spy novel escape from Russia hadn’t transpired, yet. This Penguins team is nowhere near as bad as the 2005-06 team. They are however digging themselves quite a hole and might not make the playoffs like the John LeClair version of the Penguins.
I thought the Penguins actually played well enough to win. I would even say it would have been the more deserving result. They out-attempted Seattle 64-39 at 5v5 and had an xGF% of 60.44. You can’t say they didn’t show up or were going through the motions. As we know that isn’t how things work. They did lose and things are getting dicey.
It was Brandon Tanev who crushed Pittsburgh hopes with his bar down goal late in the third period. It really highlights the fact you can’t rely on Brock McGinn to do anything like that for the team. It’s a wasted 2.75M. Make no mistake, shedding Tanev’s 3.5M contract was the right thing to do. Spending his savings on a slightly cheaper way worse version of a 4th liner is the issue. Tanev’s cap hit should have been reinvested into depth scoring. It was wasted and the results are speaking for themselves right now.
I think the most important person who needs to step up and make something happen is the head coach. Mike Sullivan is deserving of a lot of the praise he receives. He also gets let off the hook quite a bit for his inability to construct lines to perk up depth scoring or his lack of ability/creativity to make in-game adjustments to generate goals when needed. These have been long-standing complaints I’ve had. His most damning mistake lately is his Dan Bylsma-esque loyalty to players who are playing like absolute garbage. Bench Brian Dumoulin! Do it already! It is flat out embarrassing that an NHL coach can’t put two and two together and do what is right for the team. This isn’t a recent development. He was washed last year. He has shown no signs of life this year and yet there he is during a seven-game losing streak game after game lining up on the top pairing. Letang has his own issues to work out at the moment. He shouldn’t have to babysit a below replacement level player on top of it.
For those thinking maybe the Penguins need a different voice? Well, that isn’t going to happen. Mike Sullivan signed a three-year extension... which doesn’t kick in until the 2024-25 season. He’s here to stay. It is a microcosm of the entire situation. There aren’t many exit ramps. This is the team they have. The mid-tier contracts stink and aren’t appealing to other teams. What assets can they even move to make the situation better? It is why it was so important to make good decisions in the summer, outside of signing the top-level players. Ron Hextall didn’t, and this is the team they have. It is now up to Mike Sullivan to make it work. Ron Hextall buried this roster into a corner with pathetic choices in filling out the team’s depth just a horrendous job.
The team doesn’t play again until Wednesday. They certainly have a lot of time to reflect. The coach definitely has enough time to construct a lineup that doesn’t trot out the same under-performing players in the same exact roles they’ve been in. Can he do the bare minimum?
Thanks for reading!