"Yeah, you know what? I think they were faster than we were. That's a fact."
Those were the first dozen words from Paul Maurice's mouth at his postgame presser Friday night at PPG Paints Arena. He's the head coach of the NHL's biggest team but also one that rates right up there in speed, skill, depth, dynamism, the whole deal. And if anyone outside Winnipeg's outermost moose tracks needs proof, it's right there atop the Western Conference standings.
But there was Maurice, long one of the league's most articulate voices, offering that unprovoked assessment of the Penguins on the occasion of their 4-0 whitewash of his Jets, one that extended their season-saving winning streak to eight.
Watch this. All of it:
It's still worth spelling out, so here's the rest: "But then, that's how they've looked recently on their streak. They've looked quick. They've got real good sticks, knocking pucks out of the air ... they blocked an awful lot of shots ... for us, that's a telltale sign, when you get that many shots blocked, up into the 20s, you're wasting an awful lot of offensive opportunities. It never really felt like we had a whole lot going tonight."
He paused a moment.
"They were quick. They were good."
Oh, that. Just all that.
Not even sure why anyone would want this column to continue after an assessment that accurate, but I'll give it a go.
It was only a handful of weeks ago that the Penguins were crumbling before our eyes and, among many worries being expressed by the faithful far and wide, way too many among us were convinced that they were -- with apologies to Warren Sapp's infamous assessment of the Steelers a few years back -- old, slow and done.
In particular, they were slow.
They looked slow.
They felt slow.
And for all we knew, all those legs on all those veterans on the wrong side of 30 truly had lost a sliver of a stride. Especially once Carl Hagelin was shipped off to Los Angeles.
But a funny thing's happened since then:
Sidney Crosby's playing the best two-way hockey of his life. Evgeni Malkin ... eh, he's coming around and, for what it's worth, he was the best player on the rink for either side on this night. Phil Kessel's scoring at the same rate as ever. Jake Guentzel's climbing into a special class. Kris Letang's the best defenseman in the NHL. Brian Dumoulin's stride for stride with him. And now, maybe most welcome, Matt Murray's back to peak playoff form.
The core's the core.
But that's been obvious. What's been less evident is the how, the why. And, as I wrote in the column yesterday, piling up points against ... you know, the leaky Blues, the boring Wild, the early-showering version of Henrik Lundqvist the Penguins invariably see ... with all due respect, that wasn't going to illustrate much about where the collective is headed.
And this game might not, either, in fairness, as the Jets were nowhere near their best.
But damn, it was impressive.
In large part because, yeah, as Maurice put it, the Penguins were fast. Or, as Blake Wheeler, the Jets' captain and one of the NHL's fastest skaters himself, put it, "They were a little step quicker in everything they did."
So, what happened? They suddenly rediscovered speed?
"Ha! No, not at all," Dominik Simon replied to my asking some form of that question. "I think what happened is that we have a system we believe in, we stuck with it, and now we make plays like ... like ..."
I tried to help him. His English is way better than my Czech.
Reflex?
"Yes, reflex. That's it. We don't have to think so much. We just react. We know what we need to do to play the game the right way."
If that sounds like an echo of Mike Sullivan, be certain that's what it is. Because here's how the source himself responded when I asked basically the same question a few minutes later:
Catch that first observation?
"We're supporting the puck better," the man said. "And when we support the puck better, we can change the point of attack. When our puck support is there, we automatically look faster."
Puck support, the mentality of moving in a pack over all 200 feet of the rink, is paramount to the Sullivan philosophy. When it isn't there, as we witnessed over nearly two months, the breakdowns are devastating. But when it is, the Penguins build their own momentum through safe, tight passes in close quadrants that simultaneously create valuable possession time but also ... you know, keep the bad guys from having that same thing.
This was Matt Cullen's goal, the Penguins' second:
Stay patient with the video. I've split it into three stalled segments:
1. Jack Johnson has his back to the inside of the rink at center ice. But he's got two available options presented behind him, and he can peer back over his left shoulder to see Cullen. What theoretically should be a risky pass is nothing of the sort.
2. Cullen's now ready to attack the Winnipeg blue line. His linemates, Riley Sheahan and Zach Aston-Reese, don't fan out. They tighten up. They move in a pack. So even when Cullen's pass is tapped away by the Jets' Patrik Laine, Aston-Reese is right there to swoop behind him and reset for another rush.
3. Aston-Reese ventures into the high slot, which looks like a terrible idea when both Winnipeg defensemen converge. But he, too, gets presented two options by his linemates. That results in ... OK, there's no good reason for the Jets' Dmitry Kulikov to try that ridiculous hip check there, but Aston-Reese dips around him, and his centering feed ricochets off Cullen for a goal.
The speed was in the process.
Tyler Myers, the Jets' 6-8 defenseman, explained this part of the Penguins' game as if he were an expert:
It's like he's a season-ticket holder or something, huh?
Here's another, and this might be more important:
Warning: No one else should ever try that.
In their own end, the Penguins stay five-tight on a clear Winnipeg possession, filling the middle -- which is how a team winds up with the 25 blocked shots Maurice referenced -- but Crosby peels down low after a terrific read, picks off Mark Scheifele's pass, then brazenly breaks out ... right in front of his own net. Bryan Rust gets it, then dishes to Letang just a few feet away.
All this within a couple seconds. And because Letang's got an open, clear view of the rink, that buys time for everyone else to rev up a meaningful breakout.
Look, I don't want to go overboard here and make it sound like the Penguins are out-clevering a lack of speed. They aren't slow. They've never been slow, as I was writing all through the losing. And, as Jim Rutherford would say to me on this after the game, "You never heard from any of us that we were slow." Nope. Not once.
But because they were so badly out of position so often, their speed was wasted on chasing opponents and, hence, chasing games.
The only difference now is that they're putting their speed to the smartest use.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Play-by-play
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
• NHL standings
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Evgeni Malkin
Penguins center
Just an assist officially, but so much more. See Taylor Haase's Drive to the Net for definitive detail. He's well on his way back.
2. Matt Murray
Penguins goaltender
Wasn't exactly overworked, but a 33-save shutout is still a 33-save shutout. That opponent's capable of changing a game's course in a single shift, and that appeared it might happen early in the second period when the NHL's No. 3 power play went to work amid a general flurry of activity. As Murray saw it, "When you're facing a power play that's near 30 percent, that can be a big momentum swing. It was big that we got through that."
3. Connor Hellebuyck
Jets goaltender
Given the caliber of the Penguins' chances -- and many of his 29 saves, particularly the 14 in the second period -- the score could have been that much more lopsided. He didn't seem to mind having the first goal tipped by a teammate, or the second carom off Matt Cullen's ear, saying, "I'm happy to get the bad luck now so that, when the playoffs come around, we get the good luck."
THE INJURIES
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, is out until February with a fractured leg. Sullivan said Friday that Schultz could be back on the ice before long. "We do anticipate it happening soon," Sullivan said. "And that would be a real boost for both him and us. We've got him sitting in on all our meetings, trying to keep him in the loop. We're all anxious to get him back. We all know we're a better hockey team when he's in our lineup."
THE GOOD
Hey, everyone, Olli Maatta scored!
"Been a while, huh?" as he'd say to me afterward.
Yep. Fifty-seven games, but who's counting?
Also, who cares that it changed trajectory off Myers' stick to trick Hellebuyck?
What matters most to Maatta, as ever, is that he's been a sound -- if silent -- part of this newfound defensive stoutness. For example, it probably hasn't been mentioned anywhere beyond the Maatta household that he's currently leading the Penguins' defensemen with 80 blocked shots, tied for 15th at his position in the NHL.
That's the kind of thing that brings out the little-boy smile:
THE BAD
Team-on-team historical data can be a real eye-roller when it comes to predicting future outcomes, but not when it comes to the Jets in Pittsburgh.
The Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise has now lost 18 in a row here, going all the way back to the Thrashers' last win at Mellon Arena, 4-2, on Dec. 27, 2006. Overall, the Penguins are 27-3-1 against the Winnipeg/Atlanta franchise, including 10-0 since the relocation to Manitoba in 2011. And in those 10 wins, the Penguins have outscored the Jets, 45-22.
That's plain nuts.
"They have a good team, and they play well at home," Wheeler, one of the few constants in all 10 meetings here, observed on that subject afterward. It's similar to what we do at home. It's not real fun to come to our building and play us, either. These guys have been really good for a really long time."
Bell MTS Place is tough, for sure. The Jets are 13-6-2 there ... but 0-1 against the Penguins.
THE PLAY
Anyone scoring a goal with his ear has earned this designation, right?
"I've never scored one off the ear," Cullen was speaking through a sheepish grin. "Like, ever."
And by ever, he means, of course, NHL history since he's been around for most of it.
But no, really, the goal I laid out above with all the arrows, that pass from Aston-Reese popped up into the air and caromed off Cullen's left ear.
"It's something we've been working on," he quipped before bursting into laughter. "But you know what? I'll take it."
THE CALL
Not even Simon thought he scored the Penguins' third goal ...
... but both referees, Brian Pochmara and Francis Charron, skated straight to the scorer's table and contacted Toronto for help. The first couple replays, including one from directly overhead, didn't show the puck clearly over because it was inside Hellebuyck's glove. But the one above eventually arrived, and so did Pochmara igniting the crowd by announcing "Good goal!" and it was 3-0.
Amusingly, when that replay initially was shown on the big board, fans stood and chanted 'Goal! Goal! Goal!' in a scene I'm sure I'd never seen here.
Not that any of this amused Hellebuyck. He slammed his stick over the crossbar right after the call, then kept right on in the locker room.
"What third goal?" he whipped back when asked about the third goal. "It wasn't in. There's no way. I need to see the camera angle. I know they wouldn't call it a goal if it wasn't one, but one angle shows it in and one doesn't. From the overhead, my glove didn't fully cross the line. Then there's one from the crossbar that's kind of angled. That kind of shows the puck going in, but that's the wrong angle. That angle's going to make something on the line look like it's in. ... I don't see how it was a goal. I really don't."
Maurice didn't dispute it, saying, "I thought it might have been in from the one angle. I don't know."
Simon wasn't aware of anything right away, since he spun off to the right after backhanding Malkin's pass.
"I was thinking it's in, but I knew it was close," Simon said. "But then, when I saw it on video, I thought it was in. I was glad."
Doesn't matter. The final was 4-0.
THE OTHER SIDE
It didn't help Winnipeg's cause, obviously, not having big Dustin Byfuglien, out until after the All-Star break with an ankle injury, or losing first-line left winger Nikolaj Ehlers in the first period of this game to a lower-body injury after colliding with Crosby, but the excuses and explanations surely expired ... what, a decade ago?
The Jets were scheduled to take off from Pittsburgh shortly after this game, bound for Manitoba, where they can go right back to beating pretty much everyone else in the league.
"We'll be fine," Hellebuyck said. "Wasn't our night."
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice Saturday at noon in Cranberry before coming right back here Sunday night to play the Blackhawks. That one will be an 8:10 p.m. faceoff for NBC Sports.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
[caption id="attachment_755813" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
Penguins vs. Jets, PPG Paints Arena, Jan. 4, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
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