Relentless Penguins come after opponents
They are difficult to play against
Compliments to the Penguins for their renewed dedication to defense and discipline this season. It has been a remarkable transformation, and I’m not kidding about the compliments.
This team is drawing praise from the highest places. It’s not cliched, either.
It’s eye-opening.
Two weeks ago, Florida Panthers coach Joel Quenneville — owner of more Stanley Cup championships than any active coach — called the Penguins “the hardest-working team in the league.”
“They’re relentless in all areas of the game,” Quenneville said. “They have a lot of puck support. They have speed through the middle of the ice. They move in all the right areas. They have great sticks. They have good habits. They work well together. They all play the same way.”
On Tuesday night, after the Penguins beat the Minnesota Wild, 7-3, Wild winger Zach Parise marveled at the Penguins’ speed and swarming approach. Their ability to bring it every night, and to play an intensely structured game, must be somewhat of a shock to Western Conference teams, in particular.
The Penguins are an astounding 21-4-2 against the West.
“Their puck support all over the ice was crazy,” Parise said. “It was like they always had three guys on the puck, offensively and defensively. … They come at you 100 miles per hour. That made it really tough.”
All true. And unbelievably impressive. But let’s not forget something else about these Penguins, something in their DNA that still makes them unique.
Even without star winger Jake Guentzel, they are breathtakingly skilled.
That might have been
easy to forget amid the club’s defensive renaissance, but Sidney Crosby’s return game Tuesday provided a stark reminder of the Penguins’ immense artistic flair.
This is more than merely a band of worker bees.
How many players in the world have the kind of savvy and vision Evgeni Malkin displayed in setting up the Bryan Rust goal? We’re talking about a blind, backhanded drop pass to start a play not even folks in the upper part of the arena could have seen developing.
OK, how many players can pass the puck off the back of the net to themselves, lose a checker in the process, perform a pirouette before catching the pass and then deliver a cross-ice feed for an easy goal? Crosby pulled that move Tuesday. It almost seemed normal … for him.
And I’m not sure either of those was the best play of the night. That honor might have belonged to Dominik Simon, John Marino and Jared McCann.
I believe it went like this: Simon makes a perfect breakout pass to McCann, who enters the zone and slips a blind drop pass to Marino, who delivers a sick cross-ice feed to Simon, who whips it back across the crease for a McCann dunk. It looked like the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers.
Did I mention McCann also made a pass from flat on his back, setting up a Crosby goal?
The Penguins have three players in the top 15 in points per game — Malkin (fifth, 1.42), Crosby (15th, 1.17) and Rust (12th, 1.25), who has become an elite offensive player. He is ahead of the likes of Auston Matthews on that points-pergame list. McCann has some eliteness in him, as well, and it could manifest as he gains more time on Crosby’s wing.
Marino has been a revelation on defense. Kris Letang (ninth among defenseman in points per game) shows no sign of decline at age 32. He still makes plays most defensemen can only dream of.
Even the goalie (Tristan Jarry) can deliver a pinpoint pass.
Preventing goals is one thing, and the Penguins desperately needed to improve in that area. But you have to score to win when the games get bigger.
Sooner or later, you will need that wondrous skill, which for the Penguins has been a blessing and a curse over the years. Within the confines of a conscientious system, however, it can only be a positive.
That’s kind of the point: If you take care of the details and stay on the right side of the puck, the skill will eventually show.
It showed Tuesday. And it was frightening.