Letang rounding into familiar form for Penguins

CRANBERRY, Pa. --Kris Letang's road back from neck surgery April 13, 2017, hasn't been easy.
It began with the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman's recovery during the offseason, which went as well as could be expected, and is still ongoing as the Penguins enter their Wednesday Night Rivalry game at the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, NHL.TV). The Penguins (38-25-4) are second in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Flyers and one behind the Washington Capitals.

But the difficulties really began when Letang, 30, met with coach Mike Sullivan before training camp in early September.
It was hard for Letang to hear Sullivan say the Penguins didn't expect him to play to the standard he set through his first 11 NHL seasons. In fact, Letang didn't believe him.
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Then the regular season began.
"When you're fit, conditioning-wise, you think it's going to be all right, but it was not," Letang said. "A hockey game, back-to-back games, travel, it adds up and it was hard. It was a long time without playing, without training. I didn't believe [Sullivan] at first, but it made sense."
The points were there, for the most part. Letang, one of the top offensive defensemen in the League, has 40 points (six goals, 34 assists) in 64 games after he had 34 (five goals, 29 assists) in 41 games last season.

The production wasn't the problem, though. There were uncharacteristic defensive miscues, like slightly hesitating to send a pass along the blue line in his own zone before letting go just to be intercepted, leading to a breakaway.
"If I miss eight months, it didn't allow me to train," Letang said. "I was only allowed to skate the last week of the summer. I had a lot of catching up to do, and the bad thing about it was that it was during the season when I had to do it. I think I was a work in progress."
During that time, the errors were noticeable.
"It was not so much, 'Oh, I can't play anymore.' It was lapses," Letang said. "It was one good shift, one bad one, one good shift. At the end of the day, people remember, and I remember, my bad shifts. But I was totally capable of doing the job. I was able to be myself, but it was just a question of doing it for 60 minutes and being committed to the details."
Letang, averaging 25:22 of ice time this season, tried to remain aggressive and trust his talent, which had made him a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL in 2013. Sometimes it betrayed him and he would turn over the puck, but knowing Sullivan hadn't lost faith helped him maintain confidence.
"He kept playing me," Letang said. "He knew I'm the type of guy that builds up a workload and that's how I get better. He kept having confidence I would improve my game by playing me and playing the minutes I should be playing. I think that was the biggest thing."
Taking Letang out of the lineup wasn't something the Penguins ever considered, Sullivan said.
"There was never a time that we questioned it because he's so important to this team," Sullivan said. "In the big picture, it was important to allow him to play through it. … He's a terrific person and he cares so much about this team and trying to help this team win. He's a hard critic of himself. That's one of the things we love about him."

Eventually, Letang's season began to turn around. He had seven points (two goals, five assists) in a five-game point streak Feb. 13-23. After scoring three goals in his first 54 games, he has three in his past 10.
More importantly, those lapses have become less prevalent. They still come, but when they do, Letang usually makes up for it.
Take Pittsburgh's 4-3 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Monday. Letang couldn't stop Mikael Backlund from dragging the puck around him and scoring to tie the game 2-2 midway through the first period.
Later, Letang took a pass from center Evgeni Malkin, cruised into the Calgary zone, and snapped a shot off goaltender Jon Gillies' shoulder and in to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead at 17:01 of the second.
Penguins center Sidney Crosby thought that goal was indicative of how Letang has rebounded.
"He plays a lot of minutes and joins the rush, like he did on his goal last night," Crosby said. "He controls the puck a lot and kind of controls the momentum and the pace of the game out there sometimes with the way he plays. He's a big part of our team on both sides of the puck. He's been playing great hockey for us."
Even with that compliment, Letang isn't satisfied, but he is getting there.
"I'm starting to play a little bit better," Letang said. "Hopefully, I'm going to hit my best strides when we get into the playoffs."