The Penguins can start with using more of what works, less of what doesn’t

The Penguins dropped another stunner at this point when Utah completed a three-goal comeback on them just one day after San Jose managed to comeback from four goals down. It can’t be all that surprising considering that blowing seemingly insurmountable leads is what they regularly do these days.

It is the little things, but the team needs more surgery than that talking about what they need to do at this point, given the repeated nature of losing games that ought to be wins situationally. Their collective puckering when adversity pops up has to be addressed, or nothing is going to change with the fragility being shown. That much is becoming crystal clear.

For all the claims, right or wrong, true or false about Kyle Dubas, he’s a manager that will tinker at the edges of his roster and has been unafraid to make some tough decisions. Tristan Jarry and Ryan Graves have been waived and assigned to the AHL despite having multiple big money years on their respective contracts. Revered veterans in Danton Heinen and Matt Dumba too, and to a lesser extent Phil Tomasino applies as players who probably didn’t expect to be seeing the AHL but have been sent there. Dubas hasn’t been afraid or shy about dropping under-performing veterans simply due to their NHL-worthy contracts and paychecks, it’s time to test that again.

Kevin Hayes is a universally loved figure, he’s also old and slow and doesn’t need to play any more NHL games at this point. Likewise, the addition of Brett Kulak as a competent NHL left shot defender via trade means Graves’ shaky services are once again no longer absolutely required. I’m not quite there yet on jettisoning 24-year old Arturs Silovs given the premium to which NHL teams place on goaltending, but that day might not be far off at this rate either.

It’s not just the old players who need to be placed under the microscope. The Pens need more of what works, less of what doesn’t. Ville Koivunen has scored but one 5v5 point in 21 games, coming as a secondary assist at that. Koivunen can’t hide behind the shield of being young and figuring out how to play at the NHL level forever, especially now that he’s played a quarter of a full season (21 games) this year and has managed three total points and a miniscule 0.25 5v5 points/60 stemming from that lone secondary assist.

Dubas needs to perform that surgery to cut out under-performers in hopes of introducing enough new personalities to the mix, and maybe some players that can not crumble in the face of victory. Kulak will be around, Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz continue to do good things but toil in the AHL. Jack St. Ivany is healthy. More of these guys, less of Graves, Koivunen, K. Hayes and Connor Clifton.

The way to further that initiative, as we have been seeing, is emphasizing the individuals that can be part of the success story. This is more about coaching and has been churning through as well. Ben Kindel is the poster boy as he continues to develop in real time into a legit great NHL player. Rutger McGroarty is adding some of that too in his own way. Rickard Rakell coming back from injury will help once he gets up to speed, just as Justin Brazeau has improved once he got back into the flow. The bad news about the late-game collapses is understandably taking attention away from the areas that are going right at the beginning of games. In some ways the truly maddening part is that the Penguins do the difficult thing (take commanding leads and set themselves up for what should be comfortable victories), they just find themselves in an unfathomable loop of not being able to finish out what they’ve started and then fall like a house of cards.

A few transactions alone aren’t guaranteed to turn around the whole team’s fortunes, but it can’t hurt. It also remains true that beyond tinkering at the edges that the Pens need veterans like Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby to show more in the defensive zone. Letang’s struggles in particular have been a major issue. They need Bryan Rust to hit an empty net when it’s right in front of him. They need Rust and Erik Karlsson to not take avoidable third period penalties like has happened in the last two games. The list of improvements is a mile long and could touch on literally everyone who has played, but it can easily start with the need to optimize taking the biggest culprits and low-upside players that are not helping (or actively hurting) out to give the rest a jolt.

Dubas has been willing to do step in and change things up. After an unprecedented weekend of blowing leads it’s clearly time for more managerial intervention sooner than later. A GM can’t change a team’s DNA in a few transactions but focusing on bringing in players with a little more zip (A. Hayes being a perfect example), defensive aptitude (Kulak) and continuing to of move away from those who aren’t cutting it has become an obvious area of need to help get over that hump that Crosby references.