The Penguins lost to the Islanders in Game 1 of their playoff series Sunday, and that obviously wasn’t supposed to happen. Pittsburgh was supposed to win this series without breaking a sweat. They were so dominant at PPG Paints Arena that their path to the get out of the East Division was going to be paved in gold as they have home ice advantage for at least the first two rounds.
They also seemed to have momentum and owned the Islanders during the regular season, so this was supposed to be the start of another Stanley Cup run. Instead, it has been a day of trying to digest what Game 1 meant and asking some tough questions about whether they can pull it together in time to take care of business here.
I would love to jump on the “It is only one game, there is a long series left to play” bandwagon, and I do still believe the Penguins will beat the Islanders and not need seven games to do it. I think they are better than the Islanders, they matched up well against them in the regular season and they have a lot more scoring depth and star power.
All of those things don’t change just because the Islanders scored an overtime goal to steal game one. The Penguins didn’t play an awful game, and in many ways they actually played a good game. Their goalie, Tristan Jarry, didn’t have his finest hour, but he has been good at bouncing back from bad performances all season. I don’t think there is much reason to be concerned about him.
So again, I feel like the Penguins are still heavy favorites here, and I believe this team has enough pedigree and pride to pull it all together and make another long run in the playoffs...
But.
There is always a “but,” and this “but” is big. Nobody really wants to consider the fact that these aren’t the Penguins of 2016 and 2017. They aren’t even the Penguins of 2018, who got knocked out of the playoffs by an excellent Capitals team that went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Those teams knew how to win in the playoffs. Those teams understood how different and difficult the playoffs are. Those teams had excellent goaltending and a group of stars that were a few years younger. They were built to win in the playoffs, and they knew how to bounce back from playoff losses and grind away in tough series.
And those teams also had Mike Sullivan, the coach and magician, the man who had all the answers and an adjustment to every other coach’s adjustment. He was brilliant in all of those series and one of the biggest reasons the Penguins were able to navigate through the choppy waters of the playoffs in order to win championships.
This team, though, seems to have forgotten how to win playoff games, and it is getting to a point where it isn’t a fluke. They have now lost 10 of their last 11 playoff games, and one could make a strong argument that they were superior to the teams (Canadians and now Islanders) who beat them in their last four playoff games. This team also has a goalie in Jarry who has yet to prove he can play at a high level and be the top goaltender in a playoff series.
Sullivan is still firmly in charge, and I still believe he is an excellent coach. If this were just about “one playoff loss” I might be a little more inclined to give the Penguins a complete pass and agree with most people who say, “They will be fine.” But this isn’t about a one-game sample size, a fluke goal in overtime or anything like that — it is an 11-game sample size and that’s not small.
Winning playoff games and playoff series can be a contagious thing, as teams that learn how to do it seem to continue to do it. I would think the opposite is true as well, and teams that forget how to win playoff games or never learn how to win playoff games continue to come up short.
The time is running out on the Penguins and their ability to win another Stanley Cup built around Sidney Crosby and Co. Sullivan has to know that, and he also has to know that regular season success not backed up by postseason success is hollow. I am not saying he is or should be on the hot seat, but he has to feel the pressure starting to mount as the Penguins lost another playoff game they were supposed to win.
Sullivan needs to fix this and get the Penguins back on the winning track because this is not a patient franchise and winning championships is ultimately how he and they will be measured. The more this team loses playoff games, the tougher it will become to win them, and that’s why there is a little more pressure on him and the team today than there was before the game.
