MONTREAL -- It would have been so easy to let it slide. The Penguins had done so much winning over the past 2 1/2 months, and they'd built up a fine 4-1 run before that debacle in New York. It was an aberration. A hiccup.
So when I asked Mike Sullivan, a couple hours before faceoff Thursday night at the Bell Centre if he'd felt the need to address the matter anew with the rank and file upon arrival here, I'd been certain the answer would be no. I even phrased the question that way.
Not even close, as you'll hear:
As it turned out, the overnight charter flight north was followed by a wakeup, both figurative and literal, Thursday morning with a meeting at the team hotel in which Sullivan, by all accounts, challenged his players to not allow another such lapse at any stage of the remainder of the regular season, and he went so far as to challenge -- and that's the right term because it wasn't criticism -- the group's leadership to ensure that.
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