Penguins Room: A Detached Finality; Malkin Admiration & Laughs on Ovechkin

CHICAGO — It’s over.

For the third consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Penguins will not be included in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After losing 3-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center, the Penguins cannot catch the Montreal Canadiens for a wild card berth. They will end their season on April 17 against the Washington Capitals (and maybe Alex Ovechkin, if he plays).

Lord Stanley’s dance will go on without them, and the fact wasn’t lost on goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, even as coach Mike Sullivan dodged questions about the end and whiffed on a softball question to shine an optimistic light on the future, instead chiding this reporter and citing such talk as media creation.

Well, it’s not a figment or conjure of talking heads. Rookies Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen have rejuvenated a sad team that was embarrassed in multiple games before the recalls and was playing out the string. The “kids” are giving fans some hope that a rebuild or retool—the difference might be more semantics—won’t be as painful as feared, and there are good players on the way.

The team has certainly made some marketing waves with the rookies, too.

The rookies’ play is good news. Koivunen earned a power-play assist with a sharp pass, but the Penguins team was hapless and largely lifeless in the loss, a day after taking the game away from the Dallas Stars in a 5-3 win.

A day later, the Penguins were no match for the next-to-last team in the NHL.

Forever honest, Nedeljkovic conceded the team just didn’t have enough energy and offered some insights that amounted to an emotional letdown and a long day stuck in the hotel.

“It’s a tough situation. It’s a long flight from Dallas to here on a back-to-back, and it was an emotional game yesterday- obviously playing a really good team. We dominated the game pretty much start to finish (Saturday),” Nedeljkovic said. “It was a really good win for us. And then, I think the long travel afterward and kind of being at the hotel all day just kind of dragged on a little bit. And I think we kind of saw that in the first period.”

Nedeljkovic was also unflinchingly honest about missing the playoffs, too.

“We knew it was going to take a lot of things to go right. We’re just trying to focus on ourselves, and ultimately, if we didn’t win, we knew that (we couldn’t make the playoffs),” said Nedeljkovic. “You know, (if we didn’t win), there really wasn’t a shot.”

Mike Sullivan

The Penguins’ coach generally takes losses hard.

After admitting the team isn’t where it wants to be, and everyone knows it, he missed a golden opportunity to comment in a positive light on what’s next for his team. Certainly, there isn’t much for anyone outside the locker room to care about in the next five games. All records have been set, and losses cannot harm them; they can only help the long-term outlook by improving the draft position.

“I don’t really have (a reaction to being eliminated) at all. Obviously, we’re not where we want to be, and we all understand that,” said Sullivan. “We know where we’re at, we know where we’re going to go, and we’ve got to keep working towards that. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Yet, Sullivan said he considers talk of the next phase and the potential of the rookies’ positivity to be a healing salve to the bitter disappointment to be media talk. Nay, the Penguins are focused on winning each game.

“No. You know, that’s for you guys. You know, you guys love to talk about that stuff. We’re trying to win the game in front of us,” Sullivan said. “We’re trying to get better every day. I don’t even think about that stuff. There are two good young players that we’re excited about, about where they are right now and potentially where they can go moving forward.”

The coach further bristled as he walked away.

It was a missed opportunity to spread a little optimism on a dark day.

Evgeni Malkin

The locker room emotion was detached, much as the team’s play on the ice. We spent a few minutes talking with Evgeni Malkin about his Russian compatriot, Ovechkin.

Sunday afternoon, Malkin’s friend of more than 20 years, national teammate, and draft mate Alex Ovechkin set the NHL’s all-time goals record when he scored No. 895, surpassing Wayne Gretzky.

The NHL certainly made quite the show of the record chase and stopped the game on Sunday to commemorate the moment.

Malkin heaped admiration and a little chirp upon his friend who was drafted No. 1, while he was No. 2 way back in 2004. In fact, Malkin posted a photo of them on draft day to his Instagram account this week.

Malkin also marveled at Ovechkin’s training habits. Or lack thereof. File this under only a friend can say that:

“On this day, probably he can’t believe it. I can’t believe he broke the record. But he never stops,” Malkin said. “I mean, he loves hockey so much. This guy is not a typical player. Like, he doesn’t work out like every day. You know, he doesn’t eat healthy and all that, but he just loves hockey. We see what’s going on now, like every year … People thought (he might break the record) maybe next year, you know? But in like (61) games, he scored 42 goals already. You know, it’s like huge.”