NEWARK, N.J. -- "I still believe in my team."
That's how Evgeni Malkin ended his answer to my question, even though I'd asked nothing of the kind. Which probably was as telling as it was compelling.
This was the whole exchange, minutes after the Penguins again fell short of the Devils, 4-2, Tuesday night at Prudential Center:
See, a simple question about some forwards pressing too much, and it came back as some overarching statement of faith in the current roster.
And he wasn't done.
"We lost, but we didn't play bad," Malkin continued. "We played hard. For me, this is like, huge. I mean, you see Phil fight?"
Oh, we did. Phil Kessel for-real dropped the gloves in the second period with New Jersey center Brett Seney. OK, so Seney's 5 feet 9, 155 pounds in soaking wet socks. And yeah, the referees curiously assessed Kessel a four-minute minor rather than a fighting major, robbing him of a Gordie Howe hat trick since he'd eventually log the requisite goal and assist.
But still ...
"You never see before, right?"
No, most probably hadn't. The Penguins themselves leaped to their feet on the bench in delight even though the Devils had appeared to have scored a goal at the far end on the same sequence.
And what did Malkin think of the fight?
"It's not fight. They gave him four minutes," Malkin came back to that question, even in this mega-serious mood unable to resist poking Kessel. "But it's huge for us. He wants to win every battle. He scored a goal. He tried to fight, like, he's not scared of anybody. He's a great leader of this group."
Then there was a bit of a pause.
"We understand we're a great team. We need to be shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. We're together. It's a tough time right now. But if we're together, we win."
The Penguins made mistakes. One huge one in particular in basically gift-wrapping a breakaway to Taylor Hall, the NHL's reigning MVP, for the winning goal with 11:53 left in a tie game. A couple others in glaring defensive lapses. A few, too, in bypassing chances to put the puck on net in favor of corner-picking.
But Malkin's broader point stands: They tried. This wasn't quite the complete, consistent effort of the 4-0 shutout of the Coyotes a couple nights earlier that snapped a five-game losing streak. But neither was it Toronto. Nor, for that matter, the previous meeting with New Jersey.
Trying isn't nearly enough, though. This can't be about culling valuable lessons anymore. The Penguins are now 7-6-3 and two points removed from the NHL's Eastern Conference basement. Which, by the way, is occupied by these Devils, who've won only two of their past eight games, both against the same opponent.
That, as Mike Sullivan stressed, needs to change first and foremost.
"It's frustrating because we're trying to find wins right now, and we can't seem to find them with any level of consistency," he said. "I thought we had spurts in the game where we were good. But then, for me, some of the goals that they scored, we didn't force them to work hard enough for them. And that, for me, is discouraging."
He wasn't pleased. Neither was Malkin, incidentally. The latter seldom speaks with the media after losses and, when he does, it's almost always with a purpose. This occasion, as described above, definitely came with a purpose.
The sense I get from all concerned is that there's a very real worry this roster gets ripped up, maybe even soon. That originates, obviously, from Jim Rutherford's jarring criticism a week ago, accompanied by his promises of action if things don't improve "over the next few games."
I wrote this then, and I'll write it again: These guys don't want that. They're more than teammates in many cases. They're friends. In the specific case of Malkin and Kessel, they're very good friends. And even those at lower levels of the depth chart would rather hang around and be part of a potential Stanley Cup contender than wind up who-knows-where.
Probably the sharpest perspective on what had occurred came, unsurprisingly, from Sidney Crosby after yet again being one of his team's top performers with two outstanding assists. He pointed to this game's unusual, dramatic shifts, from the Penguins dominating possession to the Devils deflating them with a single sequence.
"There are always momentum swings," Crosby would say. "It's a matter of managing that. We had chances in the game, we don't put it in, there's not much happening, and then there's a big mistake, it's in our net, and we're back on our heels. It's hard to really gauge these kinds of things when you're losing because everything's magnified. But I think when we're on our toes, there's no doubt we're a better team."
Meaning better than what they've been of late.
Was the captain's last line there similar to Malkin's statement regarding the roster?
Was he pulling for patience from those above?
Maybe. I thought about that as soon as he spoke it. But here's betting the only statements that count in the coming days will be made in the standings.
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