Mark Madden: For Penguins, things will get worse before they get better

As the Pittsburgh Penguins continue to nose-dive, even searching for solutions is problematic.

There’s a lot the Penguins won’t do.

The Penguins won’t make a coaching change. Because Mike Sullivan is their Bill Belichick, according to owners Fenway Sports Group. Except this Belichick didn’t wait to lose Tom Brady before the decline started. Sidney Crosby is still a Penguin.

Sullivan won’t temper the Penguins’ style. They will attack, activate and pinch their way to oblivion. Their method has become madness. Their commitment to crazy is perversely admirable.

There’s a lot the Penguins can’t do.

They can’t ditch Erik Karlsson. The human hand grenade will be on their books at an annual $11.5 million cap hit for two seasons beyond this one. Tuesday night’s 5-3 home loss to Minnesota was another example of Karlsson doing nothing helpful. For Karlsson, a good game is not being too terrible.

They can’t move Tristan Jarry. He might be at their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm team. He might be recalibrating mentally. He likely will be back with the Penguins before long. But Jarry will be on their payroll through 2028, costing their cap $5.375 million per. (If Karlsson and/or Jarry would miraculously get traded, a lot of what they’re paid would be retained. The damage would linger.)

The Penguins can’t get appreciably younger. That takes time, draft capital and disassembly.

There are a few things the Penguins can do, might do and should do.

They need to do them.

Crosby and Evgeni Malkin should keep skating on the same line. Third wheel Rickard Rakell scored twice in Wednesday’s loss. That trio was mostly threatening and was plus at night’s end.

Using Crosby and Malkin together undoes the Penguins’ balance. But this isn’t a playoff team regardless of line combinations. Keep Crosby and Malkin engaged and producing. These two don’t enjoy losing. Don’t pile not hitting their numbers on top of that.

Crosby says he doesn’t care about stats. Don’t test that by ending his streak of a point-per-game in each of his NHL seasons.

Send goaltender Joel Blomqvist to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. That means bringing Jarry back to Pittsburgh. But what the heck, you’re paying him anyway.

Blomqvist has been the best of the Penguins goalies. That’s like being the smartest guy in prison. But his numbers aren’t great, and bad goals are piling up. (Like the short-side disaster he conceded for Minnesota’s first goal Wednesday.)

Being in the blue paint for these Penguins is like tending goal in Stalingrad. Blomqvist’s development won’t be helped by being under siege constantly.

Making sure Blomqvist evolves into the goaltender the organization needs him to be trumps whatever help he currently provides the NHL team in the name of futility. Blomqvist will not rally the Penguins to a playoff berth. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is what’s best for him.

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Winger Valtteri Puustinen should stay in the lineup. When forward Vasily Ponomarev is healthy, he should get a jersey. The former is 25, the latter is 22.

You only get younger by using younger players.

You can’t get younger all at once. It must be done incrementally.

Promote players from the minors if they’re doing well. Reward them. If they stumble, send them back. The roster should be fluid. Former first-round pick Sam Poulin has seven points in six games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He can’t be worse than Cody Glass.

The Penguins are overloaded with useless old talent in the bottom six. Slow, slower, slowest.

Puustinen and Ponomarev are what they are. They don’t need to be developed in the minors. Ponomarev has potential to be a solid bottom-six player.

Whatever Puustinen and Ponomarev provide in terms of energy and hunger is better than whatever’s brought by has-beens and never-wases stealing a paycheck.

Veteran respect can’t matter when you’ve got the second-fewest points in the NHL.

This will get worse before it improves.

But it’s better to finish 32nd than it is 17th. Time to invest in the lottery.