Penguins Unacceptable, Something Remains Horribly Wrong

Six goals in 18 minutes. The Pittsburgh Penguins were fresh from a resurgent win over a good team and arch-rival, the Washington Capitals on Friday. It took about 10 minutes to figuratively wad up those good feelings and dropkick them into the Allegheny River on Monday.

The Penguins were embarrassed and humiliated and were quickly skated out of their own building Monday in a 7-1 loss to the Dallas Stars.

Analysis? Sure. They stunk. They were unmotivated, lifeless, and failed to muster any sort of engagement at any point in the 60-minute proceedings. Rookie goalie Joel Blomqvist deflated the crew with a pair of softies in the first seven minutes, but 2-0 is hardly an insurmountable lead–just ask the Penguins, who have tossed away four of those this season, too.

That was no excuse.

“Especially this week on that trip, I thought we did a lot of good things. I don’t think this game was a sign of how we’ve played lately. So it’s frustrating,” a dejected and sullen Sidney Crosby said. “Obviously, when you look at the losses, not where we want to be, but I think leading up to this, we were doing a lot of good things.”

They were, just as they have for spurts over the last couple of seasons, but then they crash back in spectacular fashion. Monday’s loss was no different.

Rather than fight back, the Penguins hid under the covers. It was their worst loss since last December when the Toronto Maple Leafs embarrassed them 7-0 in front of a national TV audience. Oddly, in that game, the Penguins had a healthy number of scoring chances and opportunities, especially in the first period. Our review of that game and the team to that point was scathing, but new faces have not affected change.

We wrote this back then: Penguins Grades: Internal Frustration, Something is Deeply Wrong

There was no such effort on Monday. The Penguins started flat, stayed flat, and ended as a pancake beneath the Dallas steamroller. No heart.

Last December, we wrote that something horribly wrong with the Penguins team was obvious then, just as it’s obvious now. The fundamental and core problem with the Penguins continues to be larger than a few defensive mistakes or a weak spot in the lineup. The undeniable issue that looms above the Penguins like a dust cloud around Pigpen is the lack of motivation.

Where the fault lies is up to general manager Kyle Dubas, who is paid handsomely to make such decisions and ascertain such information. The addition of Erik Karlsson in August 2023 remains the last significant Penguins addition. Otherwise, players such as Matt Grzelcyk, Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass, and Anthony Beauvillier cannot be classified as difference makers, and the group has done little to add buoyancy to the Penguins’ sinking ship.

It’s still barely afloat, and some nights it goes underwater.

“I’m not going to sit here and say I’m frustrated because I’m not. I’m determined to move this team forward and get us going in the right direction. More consistency,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I know we’re a better hockey team than what we just displayed out there today. And I know we have a group of guys that care. None of us feel good about this. I think that the most important thing is that we’re trying to get better every day. We’re trying to understand what winning needs to look like with the team we have right now.”

Many point their fingers at Sullivan as the culprit for the lack of motivation. Brooming the coach in bad times is a time-honored hockey tradition, which is why most coaches last only three years. There’s little question that most coaches in Sullivan’s position would have received that uncomfortable call from the GM by now. Yet there’s also little question that no coach could change the trajectory of this team.

It’s headed downward until they figure out the lack of motivation.

Does the advanced age of the primary half-dozen players lessen the desire of the team as a whole?

Does the absolute lack of secondary scoring and declining fortunes grate on the top players?

Or because the team is undermanned, does it simply take too much effort to be good on a consistent basis, and the flashes of success are merely the result of all-time great players occasionally being able to lift a subpar group but asking that every game is a task too great?

We lean towards the latter. We like many of the Penguins players, but they’re asking Drew O’Connor to be a top-line winger, Grzelcyk to be a top-pairing defenseman, and Erik Karlsson to do all of the good things without bringing an equal number of bad.  And where has Kris Letang gone?

The team is also asking its oldest players to be their best players every night and to provide emotional engagement. That’s all a bad recipe. Sometimes, it’s going to click, like it did in Washington, but more often—as evidenced by the epic beatdowns delivered by teams good and bad over the past two seasons—it is a catastrophic failure.

There are plenty of dollar-store solutions, but those usually involve a thorough house cleaning. However, stop right there. For a myriad of reasons, financial and contractual, that’s just not happening. But fundamental changes are badly needed.

After all, after yet another 60-minute game for which they failed to show up, just like last December, there remains something horribly wrong.