Penguins Blog: Transparency & Trades, What Big Weekend Could Mean

The Pittsburgh Penguins stunk on Friday and were great on Saturday.

And therein lies a description of the last two-plus seasons in a simple, easy-to-assemble box. The Penguins have risen to several occasions when their livelihood is most questioned and faltered in some of the biggest opportunities.

If the Penguins had beaten the obviously wounded and hobbled New York Rangers Friday at Madison Square Garden, which they were in a position to do in the third period, they would be in a playoff spot today.

Go ahead, take a minute to ruminate on that ridiculous sentence. However, to steal a phrase from a Pittsburgh legend, it’s true. It’s damn true.

“Our intentions have to be different. We have to have a willingness to play the game the right way,” coach Mike Sullivan said Friday night after the 4-2 loss to New York. “We were on the wrong side of the puck all night long.”

Despite a warp-speed nosedive for the first two months of the season, the Penguins are still very much in the middle of the Eastern Conference after winning five of their last six games. Their 5-2 win over Toronto looks more lopsided than it was–it was probably the most entertaining and well-played game of the Penguins’ season. Two empty-netters made a 3-2 nailbiter into a laugher in the final minute.

The chest-pumping win seemed to have a real effect on the Penguins locker room, too. There wasn’t a celebration or relief. There was a certain hunger or sharp-edged eagerness following the game.

3 Thoughts

1. Matt Grzelcyk, Ryan Graves

If we had to bet money, there would be heavy odds that Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas will not be adding reinforcements to the roster. He should. They need it. He probably won’t unless it’s another acceptance of a salary dump, such as the trades that brought Kevin Hayes and Cody Glass.

This writer was harsh, though not incorrect, on Saturday, stating that the Penguins’ defensemen have submarined the season to this point. An average-performing blue line would dramatically reshape the team’s fortunes, but collectively, the group has been a letdown. There’s no way around that.

The Penguins goalies have below-average statistics yet have played remarkably well, especially over the last few weeks.

Coach Mike Sullivan tried a new pairing Saturday which worked. He moved Matt Grzelcyk to the right side of the third pairing and reinserted Ryan Graves into the lineup. Sullivan gambled that two struggling defensemen would take the opportunity afforded by sheltered third-pair minutes, as well as Graves’s reinsertion into the lineup, to deliver their best.

They did. Despite playing on his off-hand, Grzelcyk was solid. So, too, was Graves.

The Penguins do not have other options. Grzelcyk and Graves need to be above board. It’s unfair, but so is life. If the team can get competence from the third pairing, it would go a long … long way toward being a competitive team.

2. The Locker Room

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that sort of mood in the Penguins’ room. They were happy that they won, but there wasn’t a person I spoke to who didn’t have a little chip on their shoulder. It was a happy anger? An encouraged intensity?

The Penguins finally played to their strengths in a big game against a good opponent who was playing well. Toronto didn’t have any excuses, nor would the Penguins. It was a battle of two teams playing well who gave it extra effort. And the Penguins won.

The chippiness and a few referee calls (and noncalls) angered a few, too. Just between you and me, there were some players who felt the score played a role in the calls and didn’t like some of the stuff not called. That went for both teams, but the win added a little satisfaction, too.

New coach Craig Berube has Toronto playing some playoff-style hockey, and the Penguins came through with flying colors. I don’t think this was a blip on the radar, but a sign of what is possible with the Penguins team. They do need some help and a stabilizing presence on the blue line, but the team has potential.

It’s a puncher’s chance. I think that is a reasonable hope for Penguins fans–to see the team win a playoff round–and a reasonable goal for the team, too.

3. Lurking Dubas, Penguins Trades

The winning puts Dubas in a tough spot. As we did a couple of weeks ago, we’ll repeat the call for Dubas to be transparent about what’s going to happen in certain scenarios.

If the Penguins are in a playoff spot, will Dubas sell for future assets? In keeping with the organization’s edict that “squeaking into the playoffs” holds no value for them, selling would be appropriate and expected. But what if the Penguins are not just squeaking in but showing genuine fight and competitiveness?

We’ve spent a lot of time detailing the Penguins’ future, including what I see as a few-year gap between when the future assets could be ready and when the current assets will be gone. Perhaps the compromise solution will be that trading away players, potentially including defenseman Marcus Pettersson, will include more NHL talent instead of draft picks.

Many years ago, a colleague who trained me in construction sales (hey, radio guys gotta eat) liked to use the analogy of delivering bad news, “Most people are OK if you politely tell them you have to kick them in the shins, but they’ll get mad if you punch them in the face instead.”

You don’t need to admit it, but I can tell. Like the locker room that still believes, more and more of you are starting to hope for good things from this team. Dubas might be wise to inform Penguins fans if he’s going to kick them in the shins; otherwise, it might feel like a hard right hand to the face.