It's time to get worried.
No, really, the Penguins have now played one game since once again elegantly raising a Stanley Cup banner to the PPG Paints Arena rafters, a 5-4 overtime loss to the Blues, and I genuinely think it could be constructive to worry about all that went wrong.
If only to illustrate, in the end, how little cause there is for worry.
How about we first worry about Matt Murray?
Ha!
It's safe to assume this will actually occur, in spite of Murray being ... you know, everything that Murray has been to this stage of his already spectacular NHL career at age 23. But then, that's how it goes for a goaltender. He's the easiest target, especially for the newest hockey fans. Because, hey, he's supposed to stop the puck, and he didn't stop the puck.
Well, he didn't stop five of the 34 pucks off St. Louis sticks and, most unfortunately, he didn't stop this one from Alex Pietrangelo 1:15 into overtime:
That's too bad. But it's all the worse that Justin Schultz backed off a rushing defenseman and allowed him to execute a toe-drag without any attempt to go stick-on-puck -- seriously, watch Schultz's stick up there -- and screened Murray and did a weird hop/skip to the right, almost as if to clear a lane for Pietrangelo to shoot.
Watch Murray's mask. He never sees the puck until it's too late.
This is so very much on Schultz. He usually handles himself better in one-on-ones. He'll do better on the next.
Sure, the five goals are on Murray because that's what the record shows. As Mike Sullivan pointed out afterward, "I'm sure if you ask Matt, he'd like to have a couple of those back." And in asking Murray exactly that, of course, he'll confirm, "At the end of the day, I think I could have made another save or two."
Good for him. He's a bigger man than to ask if anyone might have noticed that the Blues' first goal caromed in off a skate, the next was on a blazing point-blank wrister on the power play, the next was on a Pietrangelo chance in which he was allowed to pretty much moonwalk between the circles, and the last one of regulation came on a sizzling passing sequence in which Paul Stastny strolled right down Fifth Avenue with all evening to pick his preferred corner:
Still want to evaluate goaltending?
Not me. I'm moving on. Because it takes no more than a glance at what's above to see that the Penguins were exactly what Sullivan would describe afterward: "They scored most of their goals on rushes, but we had people back. We just didn't execute or pick up a man."
Or show the slightest inclination toward being aggressive. The above two goals painfully demonstrate that, but get a load of Pietrangelo's earlier goal:
This one's the moonwalker, of course. But once you get done rightly admiring his skating and the finish, watch the Penguins' four skaters in the frame. They're facing three Blues, and all three Blues are bleeping wide open. Not one is covered, and I can't count Vladimir Sobotka after his drop pass, because he's smartly running interference on Brian Dumoulin to ensure an extra second or two for Pietrangelo to go all 'Billie Jean' on the process.
That's not just unacceptable. It's unfathomable.
But that, again, is why it's not cause for concern. Because it's unfathomable to believe a scene so silly could become a pattern. Everyone victimized on this rush, except for newcomer Greg McKegg, is wearing a really large ring. Everyone will do better next time.
And speaking of McKegg and worries, who's losing sleep over the still-missing third-line center?
That's the king of the summer worries, right?
Maybe not so much anymore. This guy was maybe the Penguins' most dynamic forward on the night, just as he'd been maybe their most dynamic forward all through training camp and the preseason. He skated, created and, for his headline act, placed the late game-tying goal on a platter for Conor Sheary:
That's a big-league pass, my friends.
McKegg might not be the answer, but he also isn't the question for now. The staff loves him. His teammates love him. And the dude's shown nothing since his arrival other than quality hockey, never mind being 25 years old and already with his fifth NHL organization.
"He played a really strong game," Sullivan offered for maybe the umpteenth time in the past month. "He can skate, he's got some offensive instincts, and he's got a pretty solid two-way game. We were really pleased with how he played tonight."
What else can we worry about?
Oh, I know: My own chief worry, the penalty-killing.
It wasn't perfect, given that the Blues went 1 for 4, with the goal on a weird sequence in which both teams flooded the left side of the rink and the puck popped out to the one St. Louis sweater standing on the right. But what felt most encouraging from this perspective was the Penguins' general ability to utilize their wheels to play keepaway, such as this gem in the second period that's worth a full video roll:
Just to remind, the Penguins are short-handed up there.
They won't have the experience of last year on the PK but, as I've mentioned a couple times in recent coverage, they can substitute savvy for speed, not only with keepaway but also with quicker pursuit on 50/50 pucks.
I asked Sullivan about this afterward, and he came back with a clinic that's not to be missed:
That is not to be lightly dismissed. Trust me, these guys have fretted over the PK, too. They're going to be bona fide delighted at what they saw in this game.
Still worried?
Hm. Well, I suppose I could cite the late two-goal comeback, the surprise point it salvaged, or Kris Letang logging a game-high 26:05 in his first game since, oh, the 21st of February, and reminding all of us of his one-of-a-kind possession value.
Or Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust going all CCCP on the Blues with this Soviet-era puck support before Olli Maatta's goal:
Or Crosby eschewing the easy pass to the open point in favor of somehow finding Schultz out at center point:
Or this mindblowing pass from the captain back to Letang that ... well, as a great man in this place likes to say, you had to be here to believe it:
You go right ahead and worry, all the way through faceoff Thursday night in Chicago.
Me, I'm going to watch that pass another trillion times.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
[caption id="attachment_446458" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
Penguins vs Blues, PPG Paints Arena, Oct. 4, 2017 — MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
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