CRANBERRY, Pa. -- It was nine whole days ago, way out in the Nevada desert, that Mike Sullivan appeared to leave his Penguins with the equivalent of an extended homework assignment.
“We have to find a way to become a team that has a clear identity of what it is and how we’re going to play, and then everybody has to buy into it," he told our Chris Bradford on that Saturday night in Las Vegas. "Everyone, to a man, has to buy into it."
The players, directly or otherwise, learned of that remark. They always do.
But here's what's funny: There really wasn't anywhere to go beyond that. Certainly not in terms of further learning.
"We never have to wonder about what our identity is in here," Matt Cullen would say yesterday after the team's return practice at the Lemieux Sports Complex. "That hasn't changed. That won't change. It's on us to make sure we commit to it, that's all."
That really is all.
Well, that and something else within the identity: These Penguins, and I mean these very 2018-19 Penguins rather than the totality of the Sullivan tenure, need to be physical.
No, not bruising. As Matt Murray artfully worded it Sunday, "We're not the type of team that's going to hit someone into the 10th row."
But they are the type of team that's got to have the puck to win. They're still fast, though not as fast as the 2016 Stanley Cup team that would overwhelm opponents in waves. They're still quick, too, as it relates to play creation and movement. And both those traits held true even during the struggles through the first two months of this season.
What was missing was the physical element required to win the puck in the first place.
This initially rose up in my thinking when the Penguins, no matter how they were performing overall, always seemed to fare well against those teams that tried to hit them, to poke them, to bring out their snarl. In almost each case -- Winnipeg, Boston, Columbus, Calgary, Washington -- that lit their fire a little. In fact, coincidence or not, the Penguins have gone a combined 7-1-1 against those five teams. And that's saying plenty, considering all five of those teams are each currently 10-plus games over .500.
A few weeks back, I canvassed the room in search of a single word to summarize how the team could improve. And it was Dominik Simon, and him alone, who used the word 'physical.'
I reminded him of this Sunday:
"We have to go hard. Just go hard."
The kid gets it.
He lives it, too. No one will confuse his finishing touch with that of Patrik Laine or even Patric Hornqvist, but his advanced metrics powerfully underscore his value to the roster: Through these first 48 games, his 54.98 Corsi For percentage -- representing the rate at which the Penguins generate scoring chances compared to chances allowed while he's on the ice -- is third-best on the team. Only Sidney Crosby's 56.52 and Jake Guentzel's 55.29 are better. And this despite Simon not doing much scoring on his own or staying on some set line that does that. He's bounced all over the place and just keeps doing his thing.
If you're at PPG Paints Arena tonight for the game against the Devils, keep a spare eye on him. Watch what he does. It's not easy to see on TV, but in person, all those little passes, those little movements to get open and, above all, the way he uses that 'surprisingly strong' frame, as Sullivan often calls it, to scratch and claw to win the puck ... all of that adds up.
There's a reason his teammates -- Crosby especially -- raved about him even before he finally buried a couple goals. There's a reason the coaching staff trusts him implicitly in all situations.
It's because this:
That's the 'identity' issue solved. Win the puck. Keep the puck. The rest takes care of itself with this group.
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