Empty Thoughts: More lineup changes can't be ruled out for the Penguins

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-3 loss to the Canadiens:

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has a pretty standard answer when he’s asked about playing or not playing certain players.

That answer was established in the early portions of 2016 when he regularly scratched forward Sergei Plotnikov. When asked why Plotnikov was on the verge of a ninth consecutive scratch in February of the 2015-16 season, Sullivan’s reply was on point, even if vague.

“When our coaching staff makes lineup decisions, we’re trying to put a group of players together that we think gives us the best chance to win.”

Over the next four-plus seasons, that sentiment has rung true, even for players with far better credentials than Plotnikov.

Ian Cole and Carl Hagelin were each vital components of the Stanley Cup championship runs in 2016 and 2017, yet they found themselves scratched when they didn’t meet the standards necessary of providing “the best chance to win.”

And on Wednesday, in Game 3 of the Penguins’ qualifying round series with the Canadiens, Jared McCann, despite his considerable abilities, was scratched for that reason.

It might be necessary to apply that standard to other realms of the lineup.

With the Penguins facing elimination in Game 4, there can’t be any sacred cows in this lineup.

Not Justin Schultz and his place as a respected veteran who has two Stanley Cup rings.

Not Patrick Marleau and the reverence for everything he’s accomplished during a marvelous career over two decades.

Not Matt Murray and his history as a playoff-tested goaltender.

And certainly, not Jack Johnson and his $3.25 million salary cap hit.

Beyond All-Star goaltender Tristan Jarry, the options to make considerable changes to the Penguins’ lineup for a must-win Game 4 are finite. Chad Ruhwedel and Jusso Riikola are safe but limited as is forward Evan Rodrigues.

But Sullivan can’t dismiss any possibility. He saw fit to scratch McCann after winning Game 2. Few players, particularly those four identified a few paragraphs above, should feel secure about getting a jersey for Game 4.

A more contemporary idiom Sullivan prefers relates to depth. He is fond of pointing out that it takes more than 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders to win a championship.

It might take more than that to simply beat the lowly Canadiens.

What happened

The Canadiens struck first 4 minutes, 57 seconds into regulation. After a turnover by Johnson in the offensive zone, Canadiens forward Paul Byron drove the puck into the Penguins’ zone. With Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz defending, Byron pulled up above the right circle and flicked a forehand pass to defenseman Shea Weber trailing behind. Weber chucked a quick shot on net from above the circle. Goaltender Matt Murray made the initial save but allowed a rebound. Weber followed up on the puck and was denied again on a forehand shot. Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen crashed the crease and kept the puck free, dealing it to Weber positioned to the right of the crease. As Murray was tangled up with Lehkonen, Weber swept in an easy forehand shot for his first goal of the playoffs. Assists went to Lehkonen and Byron.

The Penguins issued a coach’s challenge claiming Lehkonen interfered with Murray. Following a review, the call was upheld and the Penguins were given a delay of game penalty.

A power-play goal by the Penguins at 8:40 of the first period tied the game, 1-1. Corralling a puck on the right wall of the offensive zone, Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin wound up and chopped a slap-pass through a seam to Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist low in the left circle. Hornqvist fired a somewhat uncharacteristic one-timer past the blocker of lunging goaltender Carey Price on the near side for his first goal of the playoffs. Malkin and forward Sidney Crosby netted assists.

Following the goal, Weber was assessed a cross checking minor for a hit on Hornqvist a few moments before the goal. And the Penguins remained on the power play. They cashed in again only 59 seconds later.

From the right half wall, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang fed a pass to the center point for rookie defenseman John Marino who snapped off a wrister which Price punched away with a blocker despite ample traffic. The rebound bounced to the slot where Penguins forward Bryan Rust spun off a check from Canadiens forward Philip Danault and feathered a soft pass to the right circle for forward Jason Zucker who whipped a wrister past Price’s glove hand on the near side for his second goal of the postseason.

The Penguins’ third goal came at the 5:34 mark of the second period. After Canadiens defenseman Victor Mete failed to keep a puck in the offensive zone, it slid up ice into the Canadiens’ zone on the right wing. Penguins forward Brandon Tanev hustled past Mete to claim the puck in the right circle and fed a pass to linemate Zach Aston-Reese trailing on the play. Aston-Reese’s forehand shot from the right of the crease was denied on an acrobatic right skate save by Price but on the ensuing rebound, Mete failed to recover the puck and allowed Penguins forward Teddy Blueger to crash in, pushing the puck into the net with a forehand shot underneath Price. It was Blueger’s first career postseason goal. Assists went to Aston-Reese and Tanev.

Montreal made it a 3-2 game at 10:13 of the second. Off a cross-ice pass from Weber, Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot lifted a wrister from the left half wall toward the far side of the crease where Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin had position on Schultz and deflected the puck with the shaft of his stick behind Murray’s glove hand for his first goal of the playoffs. Chiarot and Weber netted assists.

The contest was tied, 3-3, just after a Montreal power-play opportunity had expired. Byron skated through a check by Schultz on the Penguins’ right half wall and centered a pass from the right circle to the slot for forward Nick Suzuki who fired a quick wrister on net. After Murray got a piece of the puck, Byron corralled the rebound behind the cage, kicking it from his right skate to his left skate, then tucked in a wraparound shot past Murray’s left skate for his first goal of the playoffs at 15:50 of the second. Assists went to Weber and Suzuki.

Montreal reclaimed a lead, 4-3, 5:33 into the third period. From the center point, Chiarot fed a pass to defenseman Jeff Petry low in the left circle. With ample space and time to operate, Petry lifted a bad-angle wrister which struck the right side of Murray’s helmet then clinked off the crossbar, deflecting into the net. Chiarot and Danault netted assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins had a 33-31 edge in shots.

• Penguins forward Jake Guentzel led the game with seven shots.

• Weber led the Canadiens with five shots.

• Letang led the game with 24:25 of ice time on 32 shifts.

• Weber led the Canadiens with 23:55 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• The Canadiens had a 36-33 control of faceoffs (52%).

• Danault was 16 for 27 (59%).

• Malkin was 9 for 16 (56%).

• Marino and Tanev each led the game with three blocked shots.

• Lehkonen, Petry, Weber and defenseman Xavier Ouellet each led the Canadiens with two blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• Johnson and Schultz had another rough game. And for as much scrutiny Johnson regularly draws, Schultz might have had a worse performance than him. He failed to tie up Drouin’s stick on his goal and was just feeble in defending Byron during the sequence prior to his score.

Schultz is a big part of their power play, regularly getting minutes with the top unit. And you don’t want to limit that group now that it finally gained some traction, but a healthy scratch in favor of someone like Ruhwedel, a fellow right-handed shot, can’t be ruled out.

• McCann was scratched in favor of rookie forward Sam Lafferty. Lafferty threw a couple of big hits early but was mostly ineffective. In his postseason debut, he logged a team-low 7:40 of ice time on 13 shifts, had a blocked shot and was 2 for 6 on faceoffs (33 percent).

• Lafferty isn’t particularly strong in the faceoff circle (49.6% during the regular season). But he does offer them a right-handed draw. Rodrigues is the team’s only other right-handed center. He won 46.7% of his faceoffs in the regular season.

• The Penguins don’t label their lines by number, but clearly, the unit of Aston-Reese, Blueger and Tanev have become the third line just based on how they have been deployed. The trio of Patrick Marleau, McCann/Lafferty and Hornqvist has been almost inert.

• Marleau had another unremarkable game. He logged 10:43 of ice time on 18 shifts and only had one shot attempt.

• Murray was fine but he needed to be great given the malfunctions of the group in front of him. The game-winning goal was a bit fluky but certainly preventable.

• Last week, general manager Jim Rutherford suggested both Murray and Jarry could see playing time in a lengthy playoff run. They might need to turn to Jarry, if for no other reason, to spark the team as a whole to even have a chance at a playoff run which lasts beyond four games.

• So much of Montreal’s offensive chances came off of rushes. It’s hard to say if the Canadiens being designated the home team (and getting better matchups as a result), played a role in what Montreal accomplished with speed, but it was clearly a different game compared to Games 1 and 2 in that regard.

• Crosby had an uncharacteristically rough night in the faceoff circle, going 8 for 23 (35%). Danault, in particular, gave him trouble. Crosby was 4 for 15 (27%) against the fine defensive center from Montreal.

• What makes this loss even more confounding is that the Canadiens played nearly half the game with 11 forwards. Reserve forward Jake Evans, who was making his postseason debut, left the game at 12:42 of the second period after a hit by Tanev caused him to strike his head off the glass.

There was no update after the game on Evans’ status.

• Weber had what was easily his best game of the series. For a bigger guy (6-foot-4, 230 pounds) who has had some knee issues, he can still move pretty well, and his mobility hurt the Penguins at times in this game.

• Petry doesn’t score much, but he sure makes his goals count. He also scored in overtime in Game 1.

• The Canadiens continue to struggle on the power play. They were 0 for 5 in Game 3 and are 0 for 10 in the series. That said, their tying and winning goals each came following the expiration of power-play chances.

• Canadiens coach Claude Julien had a pretty heads-up moment late in regulation. With the Penguins on a power play and about to take a faceoff in Montreal’s left circle, Sullivan tried to pull Murray for an extra attacker with 2:12 left in the third period after each team had sent out its lines. But with Montreal serving as the home team, that change was not permitted. Julien protested to officials and Murray was forced to return to the net.

Historically speaking

• Blueger became the fourth Latvian player in NHL history to score a postseason goal. He joined defenseman Sandish Ozolinsh (23) as well as forwards Sergei Zholtok (four) and Ronalds Kenins (one).

• Lafferty (Hollidaysburg) became the second locally born player to appear in a playoff game for the Penguins. He joins forward Ryan Malone (Upper St. Clair).

• The Penguins’ last postseason game in which they gave up a two-goal lead and lost was a 4-3 defeat at home to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final, May 22, 2016.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on what turned the tide of the game:

“It just seemed like we gave up two goals at the end of penalty kills where the penalty expires. We’ve just got to be diligent there. Those are situations where I think we could have done a better job. But overall, we were on the wrong side of the puck a little bit too much tonight. We’ve got to make sure we defend hard (and) we create some of our offense off of our defense.”

• Crosby explained the let down from Games 1 and 2:

“Just holding onto pucks in their zone. We did a better job of that, I thought, in the first two games as opposed to tonight. We’ve got to do a better job of that, putting them in their own zone and creating from that way and hopefully drawing some penalties.”

• Blueger on what happened after his goal put the Penguins up by two goals:

“I think we just kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit. Momentum shifted and they were able to get those two goals (in the second period). It was a pretty even third period but we gave up that one goal after the power play. After that, we couldn’t find a way back into it. Tough to pinpoint one thing. I think we just didn’t defend hard enough. Allowed them to get the blue paint and get those chances in and around the net.”

• Crosby on his team’s errors:

“I think we just made a few mistakes. This time of year, those mistakes are magnified. And (the Canadiens) are opportunistic. They’re waiting for those mistakes and they capitalized on them. We might have been guilty of getting a little too loose there and with the lead and that changed pretty quick.”

• Blueger on Game 4:

“Going into Friday here, everyone’s got to be at their best. We’ve got to pick up the intensity a little bit, be hard to play against. We know we have a good team in here. … It means nothing. It’s all about how you go out and perform. We’ve just got go out there and do that.”

• Sullivan on Game 4:

“I would expect us to have a lot of urgency. When your backs are against the wall, you’ve got to win. It’s win or go home. Our guys understand what’s at stake. We’ve been here before. We’ve just got to make sure we bring our best game.”

• Crosby spoke about his team’s improved power play:

“We were just quick to pucks. We won a couple of battles and made some great plays. (Malkin) had a great look to (Hornqvist) there. Same with (Rust) to (Zucker). We were quick to pucks but we also executed really well with some nice plays. So probably a combination of working hard and using some skill.”

• Sullivan explained the decision to scratch McCann in place of Lafferty:

“The reason was because we felt we weren’t getting enough of an impact from that line. We thought we would make a change. We really liked Sam’s speed and his physicality and that’s why we made the decision that we did.”

• Lafferty on his playoff debut:

“I found out this morning. Obviously really excited. I feel like I’ve been playing well all through (training) camp and was just excited to get a chance and help the team. Obviously, not the result we wanted. But I tried to bring what I bring, my speed and my physicality. We’ll regroup here and bounce back the next game.”

• Crosby was asked about the change in home and road designations:

“I don’t think either coach is glued to certain matchups, per se. That’s really the biggest thing but it doesn’t feel that way playing. That’s something you’d have to ask (the coaches). But as a player, it doesn’t feel like it changes a whole lot besides the last change. With that, it doesn’t look like it’s a huge game of trying to match lines out there.”

• Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher played through an undisclosed ailment:

“This is the Stanley Cup playoffs. Any chance you get to be in the lineup … as long as you can help the team, you’re going to be out there. I would never put myself in a situation where I’m going to hurt the team. Hopefully, I was able to contribute tonight.”

• Petry explained his unusual goal:

“When I got it, I was looking for somebody on the backdoor. I saw a little opening above (Murray’s) shoulder. There’s no bad shot this time of year. I was able to pick my spot and got the goal.”

• Julien spoke to the importance of his team getting its final two goals after unsuccessful power-play chances:

“They’re not power-play goals. It was right at the end of it. But for the most part, when you look at where our power play was the last game and even the game before, I thought out power play was much better tonight. We created some chances. We didn’t get the results. But at the end of the day, if you’re not going to score, you’ve got to have at least a little bit of momentum.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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