PITTSBURGH — By now, pretty much everyone knows the story. Mike Johnston’s Pittsburgh Penguins were struggling to stay in the playoff hunt. They weren’t having fun together. They weren’t scoring goals. They weren’t winning. They were underachieving. Maybe more importantly, they had no resolve. They had no belief that they could come back from a deficit to win.
When Mike Johnston was fired and Mike Sullivan took over, the team gradually took on a new identity.
The Penguins started to have some fun again. They led the NHL in goals scored during Mike Sullivan’s tenure. They vaulted themselves into second in the Metropolitan Division and earned the fourth best record in the NHL this season. They looked like a completely different team on the ice, and they looked just as different off of the ice.
Not only were they having fun together and building chemistry, they were also building confidence — in themselves and in Mike Sullivan’s system, and when that happens, resiliency usually follows. So, the Penguins new philosophy started to pay dividends.
They came back to win when being down after two periods. When folks counted them out after falling behind by two goals, they fought back to win — five times. When the team fell behind 3-0 twice in a week’s time to Buffalo and Ottawa at the end of the season, the Penguins rallied to win 5-4 and 5-3, respectively.
Until Sunday night at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, the Penguins were 46-0-0 this season when leading after two periods. They also had not lost back-to-back games since January 15. Now, with the Penguins relinquishing a 2-0 lead and then a 3-2 lead in the final minutes of Sunday’s contest before ultimately falling 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime, folks are counting the Penguins out again as they trail the Lightning 3-2 in the series.
When facing a loss this season, the team generally remains fairly upbeat and talks about correcting some of their problems for the next game. The mood was very different on Sunday night than in other losses throughout the regular season or playoffs. The team was visibly shaken up after the loss.
How could they not? They received an emotional lift by getting one of their core pieces back into the lineup for the first time in nearly two months in Marc-Andre Fleury. They held two leads with one going late into the third period. As I mentioned, it was the first time they lost two back-to-back games in over four months, and they are not used to blowing leads. For those reasons, I don’t put much stock into the locker room feel after the game. For me, it was to be expected.
I do put stock into this team’s resume under Mike Sullivan of bouncing back and never being counted out of a game, and now out of series. When asked about his team’s resiliency, Sullivan echoed those sentiments. “I know our guys will respond the right way. They have for four or five months now,” Sullivan said. “Anytime your backs are against the wall, you have to heighten the urgency that much more.”
He went on to say, “It’s disappointing. We’re all disappointed we didn’t get the result tonight, but we can’t change it. This group has done a terrific job all year of just staying in the moment and not dwelling on the past.”
The Penguins have outplayed Tampa Bay for much of the series, but they don’t have the series lead to show for it. Much of that speaks to the play from the Lightning’s rookie goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, who had to assume the starting role when Ben Bishop was injured in game 1. Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist talked about Vasilevskiy postgame. “He’s a good goaltender. “ Hornqvist said. “He’s been going good all series.”
That said, the Penguins know what they need to do to win this series. “It’s one game at a time. It’s not first to three, it’s first to four, “ Hornqvist said. “It’s no doubt in my mind we got to come back here for a game 7.”
The team has believed in themselves and in each other under Mike Sullivan. They have also believed in the system and getting positive results when they play their system effectively. Even down 4-0 in the third period of game four, the team never stopped fighting or pressing. They ended up losing 4-3, but they were inches away from tying the game and taking a 3-1 series lead.
Count me in to the small group that gives this team a fighting chance. Until the Penguins give a reason to think otherwise, they have continually answered the bell with their backs against the wall this season. They will provide their best effort in Tampa Bay for game 6 on Tuesday, and I fully expect a game 7 in Pittsburgh on Thursday night. At that point, anything can happen.
