How to fix the Penguins? A closed-door team meeting hopes to figure out

It happens to each team every season.

Frustration builds. Struggles mount. Mistakes continue. Losing begins. Then one day all the problems that had emerged at various points seem to coalesce during a single game, usually at home, and a lopsided loss leads to a team meeting.

For the Penguins, that meeting occurred sometime between 4:09 p.m. and 4:18 p.m. Sunday. The messages delivered mostly will remain between players, coaches and the rounded walls inside the home dressing room at PPG Paints Arena.

Know this much: That meeting wasn’t about the Penguins’ home losses on consecutive days to the Carolina Hurricanes (6-2 on Sunday) and Washington Capitals (5-2 on Saturday). Those defeats, though disappointing, could easily be dismissed as a lost weekend by a confident, poised Stanley Cup contender.

And, well, these Penguins are not confident or poised, and probably shouldn’t be considered a Cup contender, either.

Not as of Sunday night.

Not as of the final full month of the regular season.

Not with only four weeks until the playoffs that are hardly guaranteed.

Think about that last point. Take a beat, then a deep breath and allow the premise to permeate for a few seconds, a few minutes even.

Finished?

Now, imagine what it must have been like to be inside the room after the Penguins’ loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday. Consider how the most unfathomable of possibilities — that the Penguins, who had collected 70 percent of points available to them from November through January, might have their NHL-best postseason streak be in jeopardy as of the second week in March.

No wonder one player with knowledge of the meeting Sunday afternoon described it as “serious” and “not something you want to do again.”

It’s with all of that as the backdrop — not to mention a 2-8-0 run of futility that has included six losses to opponents below them in the overall standings — to consider this exchange between winger Patric Hornqvist, the conscience of these Penguins, and The Athletic.

What’s wrong with this team right now?

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Why are the results the way they’ve been the last few weeks?

“The results (are) the way it is because we don’t pay attention to the details and when we get down in a game it seems like we lose our confidence, and then we start doing even more of those things, the not paying attention — and then the puck’s ending up in the back of our net. We have to fix it here really quick.”

How do you do that?

“We’ll see in New Jersey.”

But …

“I’m sorry. Thank you.”

Near the end of that interview, after he said “we’ll see in New Jersey,” Hornqvist closed his eyes, pursed his lips and slightly tilted his head to the left. That is when he apologized. He then opened his eyes and nodded before saying “thank you” to signal he had said all he would.

Or was it that Hornqvist had said all he could? Might it have been that a veteran with at least a couple of championship rings was at as much a loss as everybody else as to how the Penguins appear to be letting another chance at the Cup slip away?

If so, “we’ll see in New Jersey” was as much a call to action as any offered by a Penguins player this season, last season or in any season since coach Mike Sullivan arrived in December 2015. In that case, a lot more than a couple of points would be on the line against the Devils at Prudential Center on Tuesday night.

The Penguins, conceivably, could be playing for their future.

Not in an ownership-will-blow-it-up-this-summer way. Not in a lose-and-the-season-is-over way.

But perhaps, if not probably, in a put-up-or-shut-up way. Or, at least, a will-the-real-Penguins-show-up way.

A candid, insightful Sullivan strummed all the right chords after the loss to the Hurricanes. Other coaches, having witnessed another opponent dominate during the second period and another collection of wasted power plays and another showing that featured questionable decisions and a lack of attention to details, might have opted to publicly tear into his players.

Sullivan barely raised his voice while answering questions for more than eight minutes. During that time, he repeatedly said the Penguins have become “disconnected” — defining such as “cooperative play.”

The latter is a phrase he used often during the glory days of a couple of months ago, especially during the Penguins’ mesmerizing march without captain Sidney Crosby that was equally surprising and encouraging. A comparison of some tangible metrics from those 28 games and the past 10 (as measured by the Natural Stat Trick website):

PDO is akin to luck. The Penguins’ low rating of late should signal a turnaround is approaching. Or, their high rating without Crosby might indicate their fortunes were favorable earlier this season.

They aren’t as bad as they’ve been. Are they as good as they were? That’s unknowable, especially because their components are different.

The Penguins are actually better in terms of scoring chances for per 60 minutes and expected goals for over the past 10 games than they were without Crosby. No surprise there, given Crosby is one of hockey’s all-time drivers of offense.

He is also the Penguins’ best defensive forward, among the best two-way centers of his generation. So, the Penguins’ overall defensive regression in 23 games since their captain’s return to the lineup is alarming. (Again, the stats charted were measured by Natural Stat Trick:)

Certainly, the Penguins’ shoddier defensive performance is no fault of Crosby. For all but the past four games they were without Brian Dumoulin, their stabilizing presence on the back end. Rookie John Marino, who had elevated the defense corps before his facial injury, also missed 11 of those games.

Sullivan’s task over the past month has been to not only weave Dumoulin and Marino back in but do it while figuring out roles for four forwards acquired before the trade deadline. One of those forwards, Patrick Marleau, scored his first goal with the Penguins on Sunday.

Marleau on his first goal as a member of the Penguins: “Shears made a great play to me. I found some open ice, and it was nice to get that first one.” pic.twitter.com/swXRLUBQe0

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 8, 2020

Another of those forwards, Jason Zucker, nearly scored, too. Even Evan Rodrigues, a healthy scratch in the previous game, just missed on a shorthanded chance.

Rodrigues also took a costly penalty late in the second period. The Hurricanes scored on their ensuing power play to take a lead they would run up (without really being pressed by the Penguins) over the final 20 minutes.

It's been going that sort of way for a while now in Pittsburgh.

Sullivan has also been juggling goaltenders who, until the past two games, probably prevented the Penguins from falling into wild-card contention as opposed to having what now looks like only an outside shot at winning the Metropolitan Division. Tristan Jarry, an All-Star only a couple of months ago, surrendered six goals on 36 shots by the Hurricanes on Sunday. He allowed four of 13 high- or medium-danger shots to elude him in his longest time between starts since late November (excluding the All-Star break).

No goalie is perfect. Jarry and Matt Murray were far from that standard the past two games.

Still, goaltending is the least of the Penguins’ concerns. There is no doubt, it would pale in comparison to a power play that has produced a goal in five of six games but also clicked at only 17.2 percent over that span.

Evgeni Malkin’s goal just before the expiration of a two-man advantage staked the Penguins a 2-1 lead against the Hurricanes going into the first intermission. The Penguins’ power play also failed to build on that edge before Carolina scored twice after the midpoint of the second period.

Sullivan astutely described the power play’s inopportuneness as a microcosm of the past 10 games. Added Crosby: “Obviously, if we get more on our power play we give ourselves more of a cushion.”

“It’s a game of mistakes,” Crosby said. “It’s always like that. This time of the year, they’re magnified even more.”

That’s true of everything. From missed opportunities to lost weekends to team meetings.

(Photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)