Penguins Insider: Mike Sullivan averts comments on Matt Calvert’s crosscheck
CRANBERRY TWP. 无毛视频� Toward the end of Game 2 of the quarterfinal playoff series between the Penguins and Blue Jackets on Friday, Matt Calvert appeared to take out his frustrations on Tom Kuhnhackl.
After the game was in hand for the Penguins, Calvert, a Blue Jackets forward, broke his stick on the back of Kuhnhackl无毛视频檚 neck before shoving him. Calvert received a two-minute penalty for cross-checking. Such aggression, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said, is to be expected in the playoffs.
无毛视频淧layoff series get emotional,无毛视频� Sullivan said. 无毛视频淎s the series goes on and history is developed, the series take on more intensity and emotion.无毛视频�
Since last season, the Penguins have taken on a 无毛视频渏ust play无毛视频� mentality, focusing solely on the game and not getting baited into penalties. That mentality extends from Sullivan on down.
无毛视频淚 think what we focus on is what we can control,无毛视频� Sullivan said. 无毛视频淲e无毛视频檙e going to do our job, I无毛视频檓 going to do my job and coach the players that I have, the league will do their jobs, the refs will do their jobs.无毛视频�
NEWS & NOTES
Beyond the expected absences from practice due to injury, Trevor Daley, Marc-Andre Fleury and Conor Sheary did not participate. 无毛视频淛ust maintenance days,无毛视频� Sullivan said.
Sullivan hasn无毛视频檛 lent much information on the injury status of Chris Kunitz, who has been sidelined with a lower-body injury for the duration of April. Kunitz, though, was skating by himself before Saturday无毛视频檚 practice.
The Penguins have blocked 45 shots through two playoff games. The rate at which they are blocking shots is significantly greater than in the regular season, when they finished sixth in the league with just under 16 blocks a game.
无毛视频淚t无毛视频檚 part of defending, just keeping the puck away from your scoring areas,无毛视频� Sullivan said. 无毛视频淭he more we keep the puck away from our scoring areas and deny those second-chance opportunities, the better chance we have to win.无毛视频�
Through loads of injuries to Penguins defenseman, the silver lining was that Sullivan had to experiment to find his best pairings. Now, with a mostly healthy defensive group beyond Kris Letang, the Penguins have found a solid group of six and three pairings that have been effective.
无毛视频淥ut of necessity, it gave us an opportunity to explore combinations. So we did get an opportunity as a coaching staff to try to figure out who we thought were complementary and which guys worked well together,无毛视频� Sullivan said. 无毛视频淩ight now we settled on three pairs that we believe in, that we think are good, solid balanced pairs that can play at both ends of the rink and can play against anyone.无毛视频�