Johnston confident he has ‘core pieces’
Penguins coach Mike Johnston insisted Sunday that his club has the right core of players to become Stanley Cup contenders next season and recover from its quickest playoff exit in nearly a decade.
Johnston spoke in the locker room at Consol Energy Center before the players parted ways for the summer.
“The right pieces were there,” Johnston said. “There are areas for improvement, for sure. Do we have the core pieces? From the goaltending to the defense to the forwards, we have the core pieces.”
Johnston indicated he will spend a month analyzing the season before putting a plan together on how to improve as a team and coaching staff. He’ll then assess the roster with management for areas they can “tweak.”
Johnston said the club was “rolling on all cylinders” until the Christmas break — scoring, playing strong on special teams and making it a priority to reduce the goals-against in the second half.
Johnston said the turning point was March 14 when the Penguins were three points out of first place and lost Sidney Crosby before the Boston game, then Evgeni Malkin. Patric Hornqvist was next, followed by Christian Ehrhoff then Norris Trophy candidate Kris Letang.
“We were really picking it up as a team. We were healthy, feeling good as a group, probably playing our best hockey,” Johnston said before reeling off the string of injuries. “I was looking at first place. We were three points away on March 14. ...
“I didn’t like the finish to our season. In the end, probably when I look back, we needed three more wins, four more wins. I don’t care who we had in the lineup, what our injury situation was. We should’ve been able to scratch and claw for three more wins. ... I’m not a big excuse guy. I still think there was an opportunity there to get a higher position.”
He said he wanted to get the team’s goals-against in order, but it coincided with a dropoff in goal production and power-play production.
“I wanted to make sure we’re a comfortable team in those 1-0, 2-1 games. I didn’t think we were early in the season,” said Johnston. “I didn’t think we were playing the style I thought would translate in playoff hockey.”
Johnston said despite speculation that his job might be in jeopardy, he never concerned himself with it. CEO/team president David Morehouse told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Saturday that Johnston and general manager Jim Rutherford will return.
“It really doesn’t enter your mind. You are so focused on getting your next win,” said Johnston.
On the move
The upcoming World Championships will include Crosby, who said he will play for Team Canada, and possibly several other Penguins.
“I’m going to play. It’s been a while since I played in that, so I’m excited,” said Crosby.
Hornqvist said he was awaiting word from Sweden and would like to play: “Yeah, I would like to go, so we’ll see if there’s any room and what they’re going to do.”
Ian Cole said he had not yet heard from USA Hockey. Malkin said he was not yet sure if he would play for Russia.
“They call me. I can’t say right now if [I’ll] go or not because I have not talked to [coaches and training staff],” said Malkin. “I like playing for the national team.”
Marc-Andre Fleury and David Perron said as of Sunday they had not received invitations from Canada.
On the mend
The season ended prematurely for Pascal Dupuis (blood clot) and Letang (concussion), but both said Sunday they have set their sights on playing again in 2015-16.
“I’m better. As always, have to go through a protocol,” Letang said. “Oh yeah, right from training camp. I’m on my way to coming back. Just going through protocol and will be back on the ice.”
Dupuis, who is still on blood thinners, said he skated for 12 of the past 14 days and in the back of his mind had designs on a return for the Stanley Cup finals if the Penguins got there.
He wants to play, but will listen to doctors: “If you ask me, I thought I was going to play this year. …It’s not up to me right now,” he said. “”I’ve got more tests to be done and hopefully the results will come back positive.”
Pouliot update
Defenseman Derrick Pouliot would have been cleared to play Game 6 Sunday night.
He was a consideration for Game 5, said Johnston, who instead opted to stick with Taylor Chorney and Brian Dumoulin because they were working well together.
“Probably could have pushed him to play in that last game,” said Johnston. “I really felt both those guys had played well. To push Pouliot in at that time after the injury and the situation of those two guys, I thought, probably wasn’t worth it.”
Chorney, Dumoulin, Pouliot and Scott Wilson were formally re-assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Sunday to join the team for the AHL playoffs.
Johnston said he expects Pouliot would be cleared and will play.