The Penguins won again last year despite the absence of Kris Letang, despite needing three tries and a Game Seven win on the road to put away Washington, despite being territorially dominated for the first four games against Nashville. So the ground is far too frozen in the first week of January for a burial party now.
But if you don’t mind, could you leave the shovels out for them? The Penguins are digging down through mental and physical fatigue, trying to reach a depth that the cap makes unobtainable for dynasties, although you wouldn’t have known it Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Holy Eric Fehr! It was Pittsburgh’s third and fourth lines that essentially provided its second win in five games and only its fourth in 11.
“It’s huge when you get contributions throughout your lineup,… said Coach Mike Sullivan. “Certainly we’re hopeful we’re going to get more moving forward.
“But I thought to a man everybody played hard tonight. We seemed to have a short bench with some of the injuries that we had, but guys stepped up did a terrific job.
“I thought we played the game the right way. We defended hard when it was called upon. We were on the right side of the puck in a lot of situations. Our power play was good again tonight, as it has been all year long.…
It is ranked first in the NHL, how the Penguins still are only a point out of a playoff spot. At even strength, which for all fans and media obsessions with special teams usually is the better predictor of success, Pittsburgh is a hard-to-believe next-to-last.
Thus, there was no predicting Tom Kuhnhackl and Ryan Reaves goals being among the four in 3:51 that pretty much went right through Flyer goalie Brian Elliott in a 5-1 victory. But when Sidney Crosby has scored once in 10 games, Phil Kessel twice in nine, Conor Sheary twice in 12, then thank you very much. An ordinary looking No. 87 had to be especially grateful for a night off from playing Atlas.
A tick-tac-toe off the rush on a power play from Evgeni Malkin to Crosby to Phil Kessel was the only sighting of the big guns all night, hardly the first time their absence has been conspicuous in a season heading into its dog days. A second wind should be along anytime, one would think. But right now the sledding is even tougher than Pittsburgh was on Cliff Stoudt.
“We have played a lot of hockey the last two seasons,… says GM Jim Rutherford, looking a little tired himself, if we must say, from having a phone in his ear, trying to talk up some more magic. In the 2016 Cup run, the Penguins were in a seven gamer and two of six. In 2017 there were two seven gamers and a six. That’s more hills than even there are in the South Hills, leaving summers shorter than even Mitch Lamoureux. And fatigue is not all that is taking a toll.
The salary cap is a grim reaper. Chris Kunitz. whose production had declined but still came up with big plays in the playoffs, no longer works here. Neither does Trevor Daley, a top four-or-five defenseman. Absent is the grind of Nick Bonino and the smarts and leadership of Matt Cullen. (Funny how a team looks more old and tired without a 41-year old). And Marc-Andre Fleury, comfort blanket for Matt Murray, 23-year-old Stanley Cup hero who currently has a .903 save percentage, now plays for the greatest team there ever was–Vegas.
In this era, teams have no choice but to pay their core and fill in the rest as cheaply and effectively as they can. But you don’t win without depth, and to keep it takes almost impossible numbers of good soldiers taking hometown discounts. You might notice that the Kings have made the playoffs once in the three years since their second Cup and that the Blackhawks have become an also-ran.
Déjà vu. The Penguins are almost back to where they were in 2014-15, when a first-round five-game loss to the Rangers confirmed that, behind Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, they were thinner than Gene Ubriaco’s skin.
GM Ray Shero paid with his job and Jim Rutherford fixed that issue in one transformative deal of prospects for Kessel. Then along came an undrafted free agent, Sheary to fill up some nets towards the 2016 Cup and a third-rounder, Jake Guentzel to do the same for the 2017. The Penguins had enough to help Washington crumble again in a Game Seven and barely outlast, in double-overtime, a suspect conference finalist in Ottawa.
Through four games of the final, Nashville held a wide territorial edge until Crosby began to dominate and absence of Ryan Johansen tilted the scales. We weren’t alone in believing the Penguins couldn’t do it without Kris Letang but, enormous credit to them, they did. But frankly, if Letang was going to be the turnover machine he has been so far this season, the Penguins were better off without him, even if he remains one of the best offensive defensemen in the league.
Justin Schultz, just back, is a puck mover that has been missed, but the defense never has driven this bus anyway. So, in addition to the brakes on the back end giving out, and the shocks–or shock troops–being worn down, now the engine is sputtering too. Coming off an 89-point regular season and 27 points in 24 playoff games, it is hard to believe that at age 30, Crosby, currently 30th in the NHL in scoring, has slipped this far this fast. But the reality is that with Carl Hagelin apparently gone into the Federal Witness Protection Program that the Penguins need to rely on Crosby and Malkin an unhealthy amount. There isn’t much margin for all the errors the Penguins are now making with a defense and bottom six forwards no longer as deep.
They have called up Daniel Sprong, a 2015 second-rounder scoring well at Scranton-Wilkes Barre. Can he be this year’s great rejuvenator? Rutherford pulled Sheary and Guentzel from his hat, and being old enough to have worn a stovepipe, maybe the GM had enough room in there for a Sprong, too.
If so–or even if not–it’s still hard to imagine the playoffs without the Penguins. But the surviving proud champions are going to need a sense of belief in themselves deeper than their talent.