Dan Muse, Pittsburgh Penguins
Losing breeds discontent. Worse, the Pittsburgh Penguins roster is stuck in neutral, neither rebuilding nor unearthing gems to be part of the next chapter. The team’s best players were born in the 1980s, years before Nirvana and certainly many years before the Oldies stations began playing Nirvana.
The ideas from those who pay to be at PPG Paints Arena have multiplied, and so, too, have ideas from those who get paid to be there. Coach Dan Muse essentially threw a Hail Mary this week by pairing his two best defensemen, Erik Karlsson and Sam Girard, hoping that having each on the ice at the same time would allow more versatility in breakouts and in the offensive attack.
The pairing didn’t implode this week, though Karlsson had a rough go Thursday in the 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins, but nor did it succeed. Both Karlsson and Girard were diminished rather than greater than the sum of their parts. And the rest of the blue line continued to be strapped in tight on the Penguins’ struggle bus.
And so, there was little to tout and less to take from the Penguins’ fourth straight loss (0-3-1) as they fell seven points out of a Metro Division playoff spot and eight points back of a wild card spot. To act or speak as if the goal is still a playoff spot wouldn’t be whistling past the graveyard; it would be the equivalent of expecting to hit the lottery.
Technically, the Penguins still have a 5% chance (only Chicago, Vancouver and Philadelphia have worse odds), but only a few teams in recent history have reached Lord Stanley’s dance after a 3-6-1 start, and the team has only gotten worse. Only the similarly self-destructing Philadelphia Flyers are keeping the Penguins out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
Two Truths and a Lie
Truth: Coaches indeed hold players accountable.
It’s a common refrain, with a little extra stank in Pittsburgh sports circles, that coaches need to hold players accountable, and by that many of the local supporters mean public undressings like Michel Therrien delivered in January of 2006 when he torched his defense as the worst in the league and called the team “soff.” Or former Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon, who had a few emotional releases that were the equivalent of flipping tables, and even walked off with first base one night.
While such outbursts connect with fan frustration, they do little for the team. Sometimes, those table-flip moments cause players to withdraw, sometimes the players get embarrassed and resentful, and other times, the players simply turn off their ears. It’s a different world, and Herb Brooks upending the table is a long-past tactic.
“I think we have to continue to review (the defensive zone struggles). We continue to practice it,” said Muse. I mean, that’s what we’ve been doing, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do. That’s what we’re going to continue to do as a staff, and now we want to see more consistency with it.
Lie: Muse is at Fault
Yes, Muse has achieved buy-in, and yes, the team is playing an unbelievably undisciplined, disjointed game. Both can be simultaneously true. But no, it would be incorrect to assume that the head coach can do much more.
There are obviously larger issues at play. Analogously, when a leaky boat hits the iceberg and is going down, there comes a point of no return at which it cannot be saved. The Penguins’ championship era is now there.
Undoubtedly, there have been some curious lineup decisions, but each has had a purpose for the greater good. It was important for the organization to get Andrei Kuzmenko into the flow. It was important to get Declan Carlile and Kaedan Korczak playing their best. The same principle applies to Tommy Novak, whom the organization values.
But players aren’t stupid, and they don’t live in a locker room bubble. They are struggling, and trades are coming, and the players know it. They are having trouble sustaining emotional engagement and finding their best game because the team is a dead man walking. Look no further than Erik Karlsson’s acknowledgment on the first day of training camp.
“The team is in a … weird place,” he said to a couple of reporters, including PHN. Make no mistake, if Karlsson could vocalize it, others agreed.
The late goals and third-period mistakes point to a team hoping to win, not demanding it. The Penguins are like a team that has been eliminated from the playoffs, trying to find the gumption to finish strong, but it’s only November.
Soon enough, Muse will be in the type of developmental role he was hired for.
Truth: Carlile, Koivunen Prime Examples
Carlile has fairly received a heaping spoonful of criticism for his play in the first 16 games. His job was to take Parker Wotherspoon’s spot in the lineup, and after a strong camp and preseason, that plan looked to be progressing forward with appropriate results.
But then the wheels came off.
So, what is Carlile a prime example of? General manager Kyle Dubas’s rough summer? Possibly. The Penguins’ struggles this season? Yep. But also, on Wednesday, Muse played the one card that cannot be argued, or at least should not be argued: Development.
Indeed, buried in Muse’s vigorous defense of Carlile was the very blunt reasoning for Carlile’s continued inclusion in the lineup despite some very high-profile gaffes.
“But if you want to put blame on him, I think it’s a misstep by you and by everybody else because there are also some other things that he’s doing really well, and he’s a guy who played 44, 40-something NHL games prior to this year,” Muse said. “So he’s come in here, is he taking on bigger responsibilities? He is. Is that part of it? Is that something that sometimes players need in order to grow and to get better? It is, and so there’s going to be times too where if you want guys to continue to grow.”
The Penguins crash has created an odd switch. Now it’s fans and media, including this writer, who have advocated for sitting some of the young players while the head coach is putting them in the lineup.
The 180-degree shift from the vociferous critiques of former coach Mike Sullivan, that he wouldn’t give young players the runway, got served back to us Wednesday.
And yes, Ville Koivunen counts as the same. Play the young players! Carlile is 26 years old and has 60 NHL games played. Koivunen is 23 and has played in 61 games.
Without question, Koivunen has struggled this season. His game ebbs and flows with confidence; based on our conversations from last season and this season, our firm opinion is that he sometimes feels small in the NHL game. His development is taking an extra minute or two, but welcome to the process.
Grab a fork for some humble pie. This is all part of the rebuild and Muse played the trump card, and as much as many of us hate to be wrong, he was right.