Win Saturday night in Nashville, and the Penguins can push the Predators to the brink of elimination and bring, their second consecutive Stanley Cup within sight.
The weird part?
“I don’t think we’ve played our best,” coach Mike Sullivan said after practice Friday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
“We have another level,” added Bryan Rust. “We’ve shown some glimpses of it.”
“We haven’t been bad, but I don’t think we’ve been at our best,” Matt Murray concurred. “I think any guy in this room would say that.”
Yes, believe it or not, despite a 2-0 lead, there are plenty of areas for the Penguins to improve as the series shifts to Bridgestone Arena Saturday night for Game 3.
You could start with shot-based metrics. Nashville holds the edge in shot attempts (117-69) and shots on goal (64-39).
The Penguins have also yet to win the special-teams battle. Nashville scored two power-play goals to one for the Penguins in Game 1, and you could argue that an 0-for-7, two-shot performance for the Penguins power play in Game 2 pretty much felt like a loss.
Then there was Olli Maatta, who struggled to defend Pontus Aberg on an individual rush in Game 2. Or the Penguins defensemen who couldn’t push a single shot through in Game 1, all five getting blocked.
And there was going without a shot on goal for 37 minutes. Maatta and Trevor Daley losing a two-on-one puck battle to Austin Watson in Game 1, which led to an easy goal for Frederick Gaudreau.
Breaking out of their own zone was better from Game 1 to 2 but still not exactly perfect.
“There’s lots of room to improve,” Murray said. “We’re looking to learn from the past couple of games and try to get better going forward.”
One area the Penguins are citing as a template was the third period of Game 2. Jake Guentzel scored 10 seconds in, and Evgeni Malkin and Scott Wilson followed with goals 15 seconds part, all within the first 3:28 of the third.
“The third period of Game 2 was our best period of the series,” Sullivan said.
To be fair, Sullivan didn’t have to sift through much; the Penguins have scored six of their nine goals in 3:18 and 4:11 stretches.
Captain Sidney Crosby said the third period of Game 2 represented how the Penguins want to play: establish a forecheck, limit defensive-zone time, play on their toes and quickly flip defense into offense.
The problem, of course, will be sustaining that sort of pressure or good play.
“It’s not easy,” Crosby said. “But we have to do that a little more.”
The good news is that most of the mistakes being cited are correctable, especially as solid as this group has been putting things into practice.
And as recently as last series, in the Eastern Conference final against Ottawa, the Penguins got better as the series progressed.
They’re hoping for the same thing against Nashville.
“It’s about playing to our identity,” Sullivan said. “It’s about wining puck battles. It’s about using our quickness and speed. It’s about a counter-attack mentality. I think that’s when our team’s at its very best.
“Certainly in that third period I thought we won our fair share of puck battles. I thought we were quick to pucks. As a result, we ended up with some odd-man rushes, and our counter-attack can be very dangerous. That’s when our team is at its best. I believe our best games are in front of us.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: June 2, 2017, 8:30 p.m.
