Penguins Fight Back; ‘We Learned a Lot About Ourselves’

CRANBERRY — The vultures circled the Pittsburgh Penguins for weeks.

The end-of-the-era headlines appeared across the hockey world. One-way plane tickets were on standby. Even coach Mike Sullivan seemed at a loss to answer for the dark morass that engulfed the team as they reached maximum velocity on their freefall to the bottom of the Metro Division, and even his job security seemed tenuous.

Then, at their lowest point, they got a couple of days of practice.

And then, a win. And two wins. Then three. The streak did not reach five as the Penguins turned in a dreadful performance against the New York Rangers Friday in a 4-2 loss at Madison Square Garden. It was indeed not a well-played or hard-fought loss, but instead one of their worst.

Read More: Penguins Report Card: Sullivan, Letang Rip Team for Awful Performance

As it turned out, this time, the horror served as fuel for their best game of the season–Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“For some time, we played some really good hockey,” Marcus Pettersson said. “And when you get a game like the New York game that you’re not happy with–we felt like we kind of let one get away as we were in that game–so (the Toronto win) was the response that we wanted to have.

“I think there is a good vibe and a hungry vibe (in the locker room).”

At the risk of getting too far ahead in a book that will have more surprise losses than a George R. Martin novel, the team has indeed learned from their weak-willed losses when bad goals buckled them, missed chances soured them, and back luck ended their interest.

A 7-11-4 record spot for itself. Eight squandered multi-goal leads (now nine) spoke loudly, and numerous mid-game white flag surrenders screamed a need for changes. Local and national media speculated, opined, and advocated for a change behind the Penguins bench. Others called for sweeping changes (*Ahem).

“You learn a lot about yourself when you go through tough times and to see things go the right way again–I think we found out a lot about our team,” Pettersson said.

With a little tinkering and a fortuitous break in the otherwise breakneck schedule that allowed the team to breathe and the coaches to reset, winning began to happen.

It hasn’t been smooth. The team punted a three-goal lead against the San Jose Sharks and nearly coughed up one against the Vancouver Canucks.

Now, the team has learned to fight back. Or, more specifically, how to fight back.

“I just admire their resilience. I think that’s such an important part of a team’s ability to have success. If you get overwhelmed by circumstance, it can be hard to recover from,” said Sullivan. “And I think this is a pretty accomplished group with a lot of players in the room–they’ve been there … And so I just give them a lot of credit for ignoring the noise and not getting overwhelmed by the circumstance and just coming to work every day trying to dig our way out of it. That’s the only solution.”

The Penguins are far from out of the woods or on their way to establishing themselves as contenders. Since they were several points out of the playoff seeds on Thanksgiving, they essentially have a 25% chance to reach the postseason. Make no mistake, that might not be the goal of general manager Kyle Dubas, but it is undoubtedly the team’s goal.

Tristan Jarry has won four straight starts after an early-season meltdown. Ryan Graves and Matt Grzelcyk played one of their better games as Penguins on Saturday. And bottom-six center Blake Lizotte is filling the net like the second coming of Mario Lemieux (Not really, but he has four goals in his last six games).

“We’ve been having success. Whenever you have traction, it’s a lot more positive,” said Letang with a shrug. “A lot of guys have a better feeling about themselves.”

The Penguins are still in the bottom third of the Eastern Conference, but learning a lot about themselves has produced five wins in six games and more than a few players who are a little stronger for the process.

The specter of destruction has dissipated, and for the moment, the team is wondering what is possible and believing they can reach their potential … whatever that may be.

The hotter the fire, the tougher the steel?