PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins probably welcome any distraction at this point. So whether it was their annual holiday party later in the day or the preceding practice with Jesse Puljujärvi on a PTO contract, either was likely better than more of the same old.
Nobody is keen to keep harping on the negatives that have emerged since a five-game winning streak a month ago. The Penguins are 3-6-3, scoreless on 35 power plays, and have lost four regular forwards since that run of victories. Also, they began Sunday trailing five clubs with a six-point deficit for the final wild-card postseason slot in the Eastern Conference.
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Instead of boosting their sports-crazed city in a time of need — the NFL’s Steelers have issues of their own, whereas the MLB’s Pirates’ payroll falls below Shohei Ohtani’s average annual value on his new contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers — the Penguins haven’t earned a regulation win in December.
Even for one of the NHL’s legendary captains, Sidney Crosby, the Penguins’ current plight is a challenge to put a positive spin on. He’s trying, though.
“I think you’ve just got to evaluate your game for what it is and be honest about it,” Crosby said on Sunday after a nearly 50-minute practice that closed with more work by the Penguins’ beleaguered top power play.
Crosby feels the Penguins “for the most part have done a lot of good things.”
“Just haven’t been able to get those big plays,” he said.
He’s not wrong. In at least three of their four consecutive losses, the Penguins have either scored first or been tied in the final period. Perhaps not easily, but it’s not inconceivable they could be on a 6-1-0 run since Thanksgiving Eve, which would have them second in the Metropolitan Division.
Let that sink in.
As bad as it looks currently for the Penguins, who are pacing below a point per game, there is also an argument — and it might be the one Crosby and coach Mike Sullivan are making behind closed doors — that this team is a few favorable breaks from having everybody on high alert for the right reasons.
Instead, a six-game stretch heading into the NHL’s Christmas break might be make-or-break time.
Or perhaps taking a flyer on Puljujärvi, who was free for any club to sign and is coming off hip surgery, is a testament to what general manager Kyle Dubas said on SportsNet Pittsburgh broadcaster Josh Getzoff’s weekly radio show this past Wednesday?
Dubas referred to a game against the Lightning in Tampa as “massive,” indicative of “where we are as a team” and instructive as to “how we dictate the course of where we go in the second half of the year.” The Penguins lost and didn’t look great doing so to the Lightning 3-1. They followed that loss with one by the same score, although they looked better, against the Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., on Friday night.
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Tough to imagine Dubas was hoping for consecutive two-goal losses as a response to his words. But when Sunday arrived with no significant moves, other than agreeing to cover costs for Puljujärvi over the next 10 days, there were only a few logical deductions to make:
1. An in-season coaching change, even to Sullivan’s staff, isn’t a road down which Dubas intends to travel.
2. A shakeup trade hasn’t materialized, or can’t until Dubas knows clearly when/if Bryan Rust will return this season.
3. There is no quick fix for what ails these Penguins.
Any one of those assessments, if not all, could be accurate. Whatever the case, it’s going to require something from within the current group to turn things around beginning Tuesday night with a home game against the Arizona Coyotes.
And, yes, a power-play goal would be a step in the right direction.
“Our power play has struggled, but we’ve been in every game,” Crosby said Sunday. “It’s not like we’re going out there, not showing up and teams are rolling over us. There’s a lot of games, where you look at them, we’re close — a crossbar or a power-play goal from being on the right side of things.
“I think just seeing it for what it is, but also understanding that we have to put some wins together here and get some points.”
It’s neither fair nor accurate to describe Crosby as an overly optimistic person. He isn’t trying to sell the public on an ugly painting, so much as he is staying true to himself since he assumed the role of captain before this third NHL season. He believes that through consistent, concentrated work on flaws a club can find better form because he embodies that approach. It’s carried him from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, to the doorstep of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and he has amassed NHL silverware, Olympic gold and many millions of dollars while following his work-on-it instincts.
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Crosby conceded on Sunday that the Penguins won’t change everything “in one game.” He also stressed the need for “focus and poise” during an extended period of regular-season pain that had been, at least until this calendar year, rare for the Penguins since a Stanley Cup run in 2016.
Some encouraging news is emerging on the injuries front for these Penguins. Defensemen P-O Joseph and Chad Ruhwedel, the season-opening third pairing, practiced Sunday. Forwards Rickard Rakell and Noel Acciari skated before practice, and Matt Nieto had an off-ice rehab session.
Regarding Rust, who did not practice: Sullivan said the Penguins hope to know more about his latest injury “over the next couple of days.”
As for the struggling power play, Crosby took a gallows humor approach when discussing it. Hey, when your club is within three games of matching the defunct Cleveland Barons for the NHL’s post-expansion low-water mark of 16 consecutive games without a power-play goal, laughing in the face of ghosts might be the only emotionally healthy response.
“We’ll take it any way we can get it at this point,” Crosby said, his voice perking up when a reporter suggested if any score by the power play would feel akin to having a piano removed from participants’ backs.
“Real ugly. The uglier the better, maybe. Let’s just get one in, and hopefully we can start to get more confidence.
“We’ve got a good couple days of practice here, too. I think you can build some of that confidence (in) practice. Sometimes you get one, two power plays in a game, so there’s a lot riding on them.
“We can get a lot of looks here in practice and hopefully build some momentum.”
Any momentum — from any unit, any player, anything — would for the Penguins be the equivalent of waking up Christmas morning to find a new SUV in the driveway, like what happens in so many of those automobile television advertisements this time of year.
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Those ads are like a holiday dream.
The Penguins are living out a nightmare before Christmas.
(Photo of Sidney Crosby talking to defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Erik Karlsson: Sam Navarro / USA Today)
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