For Mike Sullivan and the Penguins, necessity is the mother of reinvention

Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan described frustration as a “useless emotion” after his team’s 2-1 loss Saturday night in Winnipeg.

Useless? OK.

Understandable, though? For sure.

Oh, and that’s not just for Sullivan but for any Penguins fan in Western Pennsylvania. After all, with just 33 games left, the Penguins are in 12th place of the Eastern Conference at 53 points, seven back of the Detroit Red Wings for the last wild-card spot.

Not only that, but the Penguins currently sit at 2.90 goals per game, 25th in the National Hockey League heading into Wednesday’s home game against Florida. That’s with a roster that boasts All-Star and Hall of Fame talents such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Erik Karlsson and Jake Guentzel.

Given that list of gifted skaters, with the NHL’s 30th-rated power play at just 13.9%, frustration isn’t just understandable, it’s be required.

“We need more guys to step up. I’m probably stating the obvious when I say that,” Sullivan added on Saturday. “It takes a complete effort. We need everybody to make contributions here throughout our lineup on both sides of the puck.”

I’ll say what Sullivan didn’t. Anyone who isn’t named Crosby or Guentzel needs to start scoring more. At even strength. On the power play. Whenever.

• Malkin has one goal in his last 10 games.

• Karlsson has one goal since Thanksgiving weekend.

• Letang has one goal since Christmas.

• Reilly Smith has one goal in his last 13 games.

• In his last 10 games, Rickard Rakell hasn’t scored and has been pointless in eight of them.

• Drew O’Connor has one goal in his last 12 games.

Is that enough to provide frustration?

Also, following that loss in Winnipeg Saturday night, Sullivan discussed the need for the Penguins to avoid playing “chance-for-chance” hockey with the opposition. For the better part of four decades, the Penguins would be plenty comfortable to live in that world. Now, Sullivan doesn’t want that.

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Not just because that style exposes the Penguins on defense, but, simply put, the once high-flying Penguins can’t keep up.

“I don’t know that that’s a game that’s conducive to winning consistently,” Sullivan said. “You’ll win some, but you’re gonna lose some. And the chance-for-chance game is not a game that we want to play.

“We’ve got to have numbers back. We’ve got to be willing to defend. We’ve got to be committed to play away from the puck. And then when the opportunity presents itself, we’ve got to give our talent an opportunity to do their thing. But I think all the other things have to come first.”

It seems counter to everything we’ve known about Penguins hockey for the last half-century. But the Penguins have to think defense first, and Sullivan knows it.

“Some of the vocabulary that we’ve used is, ‘Rethinking what winning looks like in Pittsburgh,’ when we talk about Pittsburgh Penguins hockey,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “This team is capable of winning. Our star players still have elite play in them. But how we win with this team might be a little bit different than how we have in the past.”

That means not having three lines (or even two lines) of scoring depth. That means not relying on a power play as a bailout. That means not getting much offensive help from the blue line. That means not having late-season juice with call-ups from Wilkes-Barre or the collateral to swing a deadline trade.

That means trying to win with team defense and goaltending that is yielding just 2.63 goals against per game, third best in the Eastern Conference.

That also means zero margin for error, which is something the Penguins have yet to show.

And that’s why they are in the predicament they are in with just two months remaining on the calendar.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer discuss the Penguins, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jaromir Jagr in this week's Gerger Construction hockey podcast.