Mark Madden: Disappointing players, strategy, weeping spelled demise for Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the playoffs for a second straight season. It feels like an eternity. Or like Buffalo.

Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust deserve better. Not many others do. Those who frustrated outnumber those who didn’t.

These players are the most disappointing:

1. Erik Karlsson. $11.5 million doesn’t buy what it used to. Karlsson had 101 points with San Jose last season but just 55 heading into this season’s final game. What Karlsson lacked in production he made up for by having zero defensive acumen. The power play went from bad to worse on his watch, absolutely imploding. I’ve never seen a good player seem so comfortable being on a bad team.

2. Tristan Jarry. He’s not a No. 1 goalie. He’s proven it time and again. He’s simply not capable. Jarry has no focus, no head for the game. He lost his job to a journeyman in the campaign’s late going.

3. Ryan Graves. Big contract, horrible season. He performed well in the context of New Jersey’s structure. But the Penguins don’t have New Jersey’s structure. Graves too frequently got caught betwixt and between.

4. It’s a tie between Rickard Rakell and Reilly Smith. They combined for 27 goals. They should have closer to 27 each. Rakell and Smith were nonfactors more often than not.

5. Evgeni Malkin. Malkin turned it up some in the season’s last four weeks, but it was too little, too late. Malkin took too many dumb penalties, made mistakes in the neutral zone and mostly didn’t do enough. (Michael Bunting arriving to play on Malkin’s wing helped. Bunting forced Malkin to play more north-south.)

The Penguins performed valiantly down the stretch, but that’s totally negated by missing the playoffs. Why didn’t they accelerate sooner?

The mourning period over Jake Guentzel being traded and the slump that accompanied was embarrassing. It’s pro sports. Players get traded all the time. Guentzel wanted to stay, sure. At his price.

The Penguins went 1-7 in the games surrounding the Guentzel swap. More points and less weeping puts the Penguins in the postseason.

It was a fine line, obviously. Too many costly failures to mention. Disastrously dropped points at every turn.

The same ineptitude kept happening: Goals allowed in the final minute of periods. Goals conceded in quick succession. Goals surrendered just after scoring. Rotten power play. Terrible in overtime. Bad pinches. Inflexible approach. Little regard for score, situation or opponent.

I would not bring back coach Mike Sullivan. But the Penguins will. Sullivan’s staff likely will be fired. There have got to be scapegoats.

Sullivan is hockey’s Mike Tomlin. He’s living off the first part of his resume, with latter-day flops ignored. Sullivan hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018. Given the resources he’s had, that’s easily grounds for termination.

With Sullivan’s dismissal off the table, a timetable should be set: If the Penguins aren’t in the top two of the Metro Division halfway into next season, Sullivan should be replaced. Otherwise, it’s the same team having the same season for a third straight year.

Disclaimer: It’s tough to hire the right coach in midseason. But the Penguins have done that before. Most recently with Sullivan.

Sullivan, like his locker room, is too averse to change. That’s made his message (and the team) stale.

If Sullivan and the four big contracts all return, it’s the same team and will take the same approach. Nothing changes.

Sullivan and president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas might find themselves at cross purposes. Dubas wants to make the team younger, a tough task in the NHL. Unrestricted free agency starts at 27 or after seven accrued NHL seasons. Youth must be served via draft or trade.

Dubas got young forwards Ville Koivunen and Vasily Ponomarev from Carolina in the Guentzel deal. What if they make the team at training camp, then get less ice than, say, Noel Acciari once the season starts? Sullivan prefers veterans.

Perhaps that will change. (It needs to.) A few relatively young players made impact late in the season, like Drew O’Connor (25), P.O Joseph (24) and Jack St. Ivany (23).

The Penguins sold more than 97% of their tickets this season. Let’s see if that continues after a second straight season not making the playoffs. (It might. It should. Crosby is worth the price of admission.)

The false dawn at season’s end probably did enough to assuage any fears Crosby might have had moving forward. He very likely will sign a two-year extension July 1, the first day he’s able.

But the odds of this team doing much better next year aren’t good.

Perception counts a lot, though. Just making the playoffs will seem like cause for a parade. Pittsburgh certainly has dropped its standard. It’s no longer the City of Champions. More like the Municipality of Mediocrity.