Penguins defenseman Ryan Graves remains honest but optimistic over struggles
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Ryan Graves would be a terrible politician.
He is way too honest.
As it is, things aren’t going great with his actual vocation as an NHL defenseman with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the moment.
During a 4-3 home loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, Graves was directly involved in some fashion on three of the opposing scores.
“You can’t be on for three goals (against) regardless,” Graves said after the game. “It’s inexcusable.”
On the opening score by Capitals forward Tom Wilson only 55 seconds into regulation, Graves offered a generous buffer to Wilson, who lobbed a far-side wrister that goaltender Tristan Jarry failed to stop.
Then, Graves was the victim of flat-out rotten luck at 11:16 of the first period when Capitals forward Beck Malenstyn sauntered up the left wing and clunked a pass attempt off Graves’ stick over Jarry’s right shoulder.
The winning goal by Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin on a power-play opportunity at 19:18 of the opening frame might have stung the worse for Graves as he wound up screening backup goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic on the sequence (along with Capitals forward Aliaksei Protas).
“The power-play one, I should have boxed him out,” Graves said. “Or fronted it. One of the two.”
By the end of the night, Graves found himself demoted from the second pairing to the third and only logged three shifts in the third period.
By Wednesday, that deployment and Graves’ audit of his own play had not changed after practice in Cranberry.
“I feel the same as last night,” Graves said. “It obviously didn’t go well last night. You give up that many, however they go in, it doesn’t matter. There are no excuses. I feel the same way. You just need to improve, you need to look at it, you need to learn from it and you move on.”
Penguins management moved aggressively on Graves in July and signed him to a six-year contract worth $4.5 million per season (along with a modified no-trade clause). It was the franchise’s most prominent free-agent signing over the offseason, and it was hoped Graves could replace the departed Brian Dumoulin as the team’s shutdown eraser of a blue liner and allow Kris Letang the freedom to be aggressive offensively.
Five months later, Graves is partnered with Chad Ruhwedel and even alternated with reserve Ryan Shea during practice drills.
On Dec. 11, president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas offered his thoughts on Graves.
“In just going back and studying his career as he’s transitioned from different places — he was in the Rangers’ organization, went to Colorado, then from Colorado to New Jersey — he’s always been someone that when he’s gone (elsewhere), he’s taken a little bit of time to get rolling,” Dubas said. “With Ryan, you know what you’re getting. He’s going to clear the net front. He’s going to be able to kill penalties.
“For us, it’s just continuing to encourage him to get in motion with the puck and not do everything from a standstill with the puck and continue to build his confidence that way. He’s starting to integrate himself more deeply into the team, which I think takes time.”
Graves doesn’t dispute that notion. But he also suggests it’s well past time for him to be acclimated to his new surroundings.
“There’s an adjustment period,” Graves said. “(The Penguins’) system and the way (New) Jersey plays is really different than most teams. There was definitely an adjustment period to that, but I think it’s time that’s over with. There’s been good hockey, there’s been bad hockey. I just need to find some consistency in it.”
By no means is Graves a lost cause, especially given the parameters of his contract. But there is clearly room for improvement.
“I think Ryan would admit himself that there’s another level to his game,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s incumbent upon our coaching staff to help him, and it’s incumbent upon Ryan to continue to work at it. That’s what we’re going to do. We know he’s a good player, we know that there’s another level to his game and we’re going to do everything in our power as a coaching staff to work with Ryan to try to help him through this process.”
Graves feels he has made progress in some granular areas of his game since the season opened in October.
“There’s been a lot of improvements. Early, I struggled a lot on things like breakouts, kind of the way we play in the (defensive) zone. … I think I’ve adjusted to that. If you look at the last stretch of 10 games or so, my breakouts have been a lot cleaner. It’s been steadily improving. That’s one positive. As a whole, I think I’m getting into the (defensive) zone, things like that, a little bit better.
“It’s just been a bit more of a process than I hoped for.”
Graves is blunt in how he has played. But optimistic as well.
“I’m fully aware of how it’s gone,” Graves said. “There’s been some games that have not gone how I would have liked it to go. But I think there’s been some good hockey in there, too. When you look at things, the negative is a lot easier to pick out. … You need to find ways to focus on the positive. When you look at the season, there’s been more good than bad.
“Especially a guy in my role, you want your mistakes to be very small.”