Sully Says: We'll Feel Good About This One Tonight

Over the last week or so, as the Penguins looked to snap their winless streak, Mike Sullivan said there had been a lot in their game to suggest they were leaning towards getting out of it.

"There's such a fine line between winning and losing. I think it starts with one shift, one goal, one period… a power-play goal, a blocked shot, a big penalty kill... I think it boils down to a lot of little things that add up to win games," the Penguins head coach said.
That is exactlywhat the Penguins got on Wednesday in Washington as they defeated the Capitals 4-1 to procure a huge two points, and end their skid at 0-6-1.
"The team win means everything," goalie Casey DeSmith said. "Safe to say we needed it, and we earned it."
One example is veteran forward Jeff Carter - returning to the lineup after missing the last three games with a lower-body injury - having to go back for a shift on defense. The team briefly went down to three blueliners in the third period when Jeff Petry headed down to the locker room to get checked out following a hit (Jan Rutta and P.O Joseph left the game in the second).
"I was worried there for a second, but luckily he came back, and Carts stepped up big time for us," Marcus Pettersson smiled.
"I was a little bit out of my element there, but Sully says you've got to play your position," Carter said with a grin.
Another example is Filip Hallander, who got recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and appeared in his second NHL game, coming up with a huge blocked shot that had his teammates standing up and banging their sticks in appreciation on the bench. He then helped the penalty kill, which had been struggling heading into this contest, go a perfect 4-for-4 in the game against Washington's always-dangerous power play.
And of course, they got goals - from Jason Zucker, Brock McGinn (shorthanded), Petry and Jake Guentzel (empty netter) - and they got saves.
"I thought it was the most complete game we've played," DeSmith said. "Everybody stepped up."
Here's what Sullivan had to say after the game.
On what happened to P.O Joseph and Jan Rutta, and the resiliency the four remaining guys - Kris Letang (who skated a game-high 28:48), Marcus Pettersson, Jeff Petry and Brian Dumoulin - all showed: "Rutts is being evaluated for a lower-body injury; P.O is being evaluated for an upper-body injury. I thought the four guys that had to play the rest of the game did a terrific job. That's not an easy task. I thought they did a tremendous job just keeping the game simple, managing the game appropriately. And I thought our forwards did a pretty good job helping."
On if he'd ever had just three defensemen at his disposal as an NHL coach: "I can't recall if I have, so I'm not sure. But we were trying to figure out which forward could skate backwards. I'm not sure he can skate backwards, but he's a pretty smart player, and we figured he could use his wealth of experience in the league to help there."
On the key to getting back to their game: "I just thought our stick-to-it-iveness was more consistent. I thought we defended hard. We got a lot of sticks on pucks. I thought there was a level of urgency to our game. I thought for the most part, we managed the puck pretty well. I thought our penalty kill was much improved. The guys on the penalty kill did a terrific job. I thought Filip Hallander had a really strong game, especially in that regard on the penalty kill. So there were a number of things. I think that that helped us tonight. But overall, I think just a complete effort. I thought we started to get a little bit of swagger back on the bench. Sometimes when you go through those things like we did in the third period, when you're down to four defensemen, it's a little bit of a rallying cry for the guys. You could feel that on the bench in the third period."
On his decision to go with Casey DeSmith tonight, and whether that was a hunch or if Tristan Jarry is battling anything, and how DeSmith responded: "I thought Case had a really strong game. I'm not going to get into the details, but we made a decision to go with Case tonight, and I thought he played extremely well. He made some timely saves for us. We feel like we have two goalies that are capable of helping us win games."
On what he thought of the Pettersson-Letang pairing, with Dumoulin moving down: "I thought they got better as the game went on. I thought Marcus had a really strong game. I thought Tanger settled in as the game went on. They made some really good outlet passes under pressure to beat their forecheck. I think one of Washington's strengths is their forecheck, and they challenged it with pressure and physical play to beat their forecheck. I thought Tanger made some really nice plays to bypass that pressure. I thought Marcus had a really strong game as well. So we obviously liked the pair."
On if he felt the team backchecked with more ferocity than we've seen all season, especially in the first period after a couple of early turnovers, and if that's been an area of emphasis lately: "Well, it's just an important aspect of being hard to play against. It's a game of mistakes, it's not going to be perfect out there. We're going to turn the puck over sometimes because we're trying to make a play. The most important thing is that when it doesn't go the way we want it to go, we need to recover, and we need to have people in positions where we have an opportunity to recover. I think that's an area where maybe we haven't been quite as diligent, where we're thinking too much on the offensive side - or we're trying to do too much with the puck in the wrong areas of the rink - and we put ourselves and our teammates in tough spots. And so, I just thought we were in better positions to track when we didn't execute on a play. I think that's when our team is at its best."
On just how heavy that winless streak got for everyone: "We've got a proud group, and we have an accomplished group. And when things don't go the right way, we all take it to heart. It stings, you know? And part of it is because our care factor is very high, and our pride factor is high. No one has higher expectations of this team than ourselves and our players. So I know this has been weighing on all of us to try to find ways to get a favorable results. We made some progress tonight. We'll feel good about this one. But we got to turn the page tomorrow and get ready for the one ahead of us."
Next up is Toronto on Friday as the Penguins continue along their three-game road trip.