Mark Madden: Penguins are stale, and it's time to call things into question

The Pittsburgh Penguins need change. They too often come out flat. There’s a sense of familiarity about their mistakes, almost comfort. Little gets solved.

Good teams don’t have long losing streaks. But the Penguins recently lost six in a row and had lost seven in a row before that. Bad becomes an avalanche.

The Penguins are stale. That word has applied for years.

The Penguins have 21 wins and 19 losses. (The column in the NHL standings that says “OTL” is failure disguised as success.) They’re in the Eastern Conference’s second and last wild-card spot, just one point clear of the New York Islanders.

Things turn weird if the Penguins miss the playoffs.

Coach Mike Sullivan would be on the hot seat, which has long seemed unfathomable. (It was once unfathomable with Dan Bylsma, too.) The wisdom of keeping the core three together would be questioned. Issues like declining attendance get magnified.

So when small improvement presents itself, embrace it.

Defenseman Ty Smith, 22, would have made the team at training camp except for salary cap issues. Smith came from New Jersey in the John Marino trade this past offseason. He made the NHL’s All-Rookie team in 2021.

Injuries forced Smith’s call-up from the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club. He has one goal and two assists in five games. Smith had two power-play assists in the Penguins’ 5-4 home win over Vancouver on Tuesday.

Smith has performed well. Certainly better than fading veteran Brian Dumoulin, though Dumoulin played arguably his best game of the season Tuesday.

Smith is left-handed. But if there’s no room on the left side, he has shown he can skate on the right side. (He’s currently playing there.)

Smith should stay with the Penguins till he proves he’s incapable. Smith also should play on the top power play. He doesn’t have the marquee value of those who otherwise comprise that unit, but that needs to stop mattering.

Smith is better than anyone the Penguins have at running the power play, and that includes those hurt. He enters the zone, walks the line, controls the pace, sets things up and moves the puck. He’s a Dollar Store Sergei Gonchar. He’s a legit quarterback.

The handy excuse for not keeping Smith is the Penguins are tight against the salary cap.

GM Ron Hextall created that problem by signing Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen to stupid contracts.

So Hextall needs to fix it. That’s the GM’s job.

It’s also the GM’s job to make the team better. But Hextall has been the Penguins GM for nearly two years, and his imprint on the franchise is absolutely minimal. Somebody should hold a mirror in front of Hextall’s face to make sure he’s still breathing.

Hextall has done little besides maintain the status quo, and that has led to what seems a slow and steady decline.

It’s also made his job easy. Maybe that’s the goal.

Hextall is known for patience. Perhaps we’ve confused patience with an aversion to work.

When Fenway Sports Group bought the Penguins near the end of 2021, Hextall told FSG he couldn’t put his plan on paper because it was in his head. Big red flag.

Hextall’s predecessor, Jim Rutherford, never let things get stale. Not all his moves worked, but at least he made moves. Personalities differ, but Rutherford seemed much more invested.

Hextall seems like he’s just cashing a check.

It’s time to start calling things about the Penguins into question. (It probably should have happened earlier.) They haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. This past offseason, they extended their commitment to an aging core. They have an accomplished coach, but all coaches hit their expiration date.

The Penguins just aren’t that good anymore and are poised to go splat.

The Penguins are excellent at convincing themselves they didn’t fail but instead got unlucky. That’s been the babble after their last two playoff losses.

But in the end, you just fail.