Kingerski: Penguins’ Constant Self-Destruction Demands Changes

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The fizz in the drink created no bubbles for the Pittsburgh Penguins Friday in Minnesota. They stumbled and slumbered through a tediously melodramatic 40 minutes before finally playing with a modicum of energy in a 3-2 loss. They followed their Eeyore-like performance by trying to prove they could outscore the Winnipeg Jets.

The firewagon had bad directions. Mistakes and a bevy of scoring chances swallowed by Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck led to a 2-1 loss.

Two days before, the Penguins controlled their destiny.

Two days later, two losses bred internal disgust and the team no longer controls its fate, even with a quad of games in hand on the third-place Philadelphia Flyers.

It’s time for Penguins trades, shakeups involving players, assistant coaches, something, anything (though I remain opposed to removing coach Mike Sullivan).

They trail the Flyers by nine points with four games in hand. Even if they win all of them, they will be short. They trail the Red Wings by seven points with only two games in hand.

That’s what happens when you cannot bring your best with any regularity.

The words and sentiments that appeared between the lines of Sullivan’s postgame presser would not be fit for a family publication. At the risk of misreading the vibe emanating from the coach, there would have been a healthy amount of condemnation followed by changes with malice.

It felt like Sullivan was fed up with a team that hadn’t been able to get its act together for any length of time. Players are fed up with their situation and results.

Fans are fed up with everything. The situation is crying out for change.

I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part. — Animal House.

In years past, we’d all wake up to the news that the GM had worked the phones all night, and Penguins trades followed. Some worked, some did not, but languishing teams would not stand. A little chaos was injected.

But that was the swashbuckling Jim Rutherford, who sometimes traded players like baseball cards at the lunch table. And not all of those moves worked out. See also: Tanner Pearson for Carl Hagelin.

Former Penguins GM Craig Patrick was the same way: nice until it was time not to be nice.

However, the vibe was that on Saturday that Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas must do something. There must be a sacrificial lamb or three.

Or kiss the season goodbye.

Enough of the treading water, trending sideways, one step forward, one step back. They will continue to say the right things. They will continue to try.

But as a group, they don’t have it.

This team has proven it has talent, and it has many pieces necessary to do some winning. It has also proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it has internal flaws and lacks anything resembling consistent desire.

Dubas has less than one month until the March 8 NHL trade deadline. He’s got perhaps the prized asset with pending free agent Jake Guentzel, who could fetch at least the first-round pick the Penguins sacrificed in the Erik Karlsson deal, and a solid prospect.

But the deal makes sense only if the Penguins are not going to compete in the playoffs AND do not believe they can re-sign him.

There are moments and feelings you cannot get from TV. The emotions in the room and in the hallway with Sullivan last night were palpable. You could feel the intense anger from several, even as they stopped short of expressing fire and brimstone or pointing fingers. Saturday, there was no consolation from the scoring chances. There was no pride in largely outplaying the Jets for 40 minutes.

There was nothing positive. The depth and tone of Lars Eller’s voice, when he disagreed there were good things in the loss, were deep. The loathing in Sullivan’s voice, when he figuratively unfurled a scroll of failures from the preceding 60 minutes was dripping in stern frustration even as he disabused that word.

Sullivan could have borrowed a rant from former Penguins coach Michel Therrien and begun his remarks with, “They say they care…”

Last season, we watched former Penguins GM Ron Hextall sit idly by while Rome burned, finally jumping forward with players ill-suited to Sullivan’s philosophy and available roles.

You can point fingers. That’s what X is for. Dubas’s biggest acquisitions haven’t exactly panned out yet. Erik Karlsson, Reilly Smith, and Ryan Graves remain in various states of struggle.

The Penguins are getting a Hart Trophy-level season from Sidney Crosby, and the core three with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang doesn’t have more than a couple of chances left. Yet here they are. They are in the playoff race but no longer in control and provably incapable of consistency, if not their highest levels of play.

If Dubas waits much longer to make some real changes, there will be nothing to save. The desolation of a rebuild will be all that awaits.

It’s now or never.