Penguins Locker Room: Hard Lessons & Big Smiles

NASHVILLE, Tenn — The Pittsburgh Penguins are above .500 and are rolling. No, they’re not on a roll in that stop-and-start, sputtering sort of way that we’ve seen over the last few seasons in which it seemed everything was an arduous chore, but in a way that shows a genuine hunger to achieve something, whether it be a victory, or merely obtaining a loose puck.

The Penguins hunkered down and played a tight, disciplined game on Tuesday in a comeback win over the LA Kings. There was no such rigidity to their structure or game Thursday against the Nashville Predators, but they flashed a sturdy backbone by overcoming a pair of deficits, including a 3-1 gap after two periods.

Read More: Penguins Report Card: Resilience & Toughness, Pens Learning How to Win

The inescapable takeaway from the game was not that the Penguins could rally for a win—they’ve done that before—but that they are learning how to play when they clearly don’t have their A game.

For most of this season, when the Penguins didn’t have their best, they were at their worst. That much is changing.

Bryan Rust’s smile when PHN asked if they were finally getting to that place where they could win without their best said more than anything.

“The goal at the beginning of every season is to learn how to win as many games as you can, and we obviously didn’t do that for the first part of the year,” Rust said. “We learned a lot of lessons the hard way, and I think we’re starting to get the hang of it. It’s a sense of belief that’s got into this room … hey, a few more plays, we can get back in it.”

Sidney Crosby

The Penguins’ captain was unstoppable. Crosby was tackled, cross-checked, and roughed up, but that only made him mad, which was a bad thing for Nashville.

With some fire followed by a heated glare toward Nashville’s Michael McCarron, who had moments early delivered a heavy hit, Crosby scored a power play goal that sparked the Penguins. In total, Crosby had four points, including the goal, assisted on the other three regulation tallies, and was a plus-3.

He, too, was proud of how the Penguins won, even if it wasn’t their best.

Mike Sullivan

Remember the cacophony of calls for coach Mike Sullivan’s job? The team has slayed that noise. The coach weathered that storm and his pride in the team was as abundant as it was obvious Thursday night.

“As I said to the players after the game, I love our resilience and our competitive level. You know, I didn’t think we had a great start. Obviously, we gave up the first goal, and we’ve done that a fair amount lately,” Sullivan began. “We go down two goals early in the game, but I love that there’s no panic on the bench, and we dig in, and we just we just keep moving. I know that a month ago, we probably don’t win that game. I just think they’re developing a certain resilience and a certain belief that if we stay with it, we can come back.”

In a moment probably not on TV, you can also see Sullivan having some fun teasing SportsNet Pittsburgh’s Dan Potash.