Letang's absence glaring, but current group can do better than this

Ron Hainsey entered Monday's Game 6 leading the Penguins in playoff ice time, with 20:55 per game.

This was not the role he was acquired to perform. Yet, here the defending champs are, with the workmanlike 36-year-old on their de facto top pairing, along with Brian Dumoulin.

Of course, Hainsey's was the spot occupied by Kris Letang in last year's Stanley Cup playoffs, so is there any wonder the Penguins are having major issues escaping their zone with control?

"Tonight we just really couldn't create anything up ice," Hainsey said after a sobering 5-2 loss to the cruising Capitals at PPG Paints Arena. "As a result of that, we were stuck in our end a lot."

Even though, as you can see in the video, Hainsey rattled off a grocery list of things the Penguins didn't do well Monday night, it really is as simple as his first point. Mike Sullivan likes to say that offense in generated from work in one's own zone, and there's no greater evidence of that than this series.

Tough to get through the neutral zone with speed and space when you can't even beat the first forechecker. Hainsey, playing his off-wing side as he has throughout the playoffs, can't make a play here with the puck on his backhand, one of several failed breakouts in the first period:

The lack of consistent starch in the Penguins' attack throughout the six games against the Capitals -- Washington has accounted for less than 40 percent of the shots, attempts and scoring chances -- had Sullivan doling out a snarky 'I told you so' to reporters after the most alarming loss of his 18-month tenure.

"Three games ago, you guys were praising our team for our counterattack," Sullivan said. "The reality is, we're trying to keep our eye on the right ball. We know how we play. ... Obviously I think our team's at its best when it's in the offensive zone."

Sullivan is correct. He's been harping since the start of the series that the Penguins need to possess the puck in order to give themselves the best chance to win, even if that might not be a feasible process to pursue with Letang out and the top playoff seed on the other side.

Somehow, they took three of the first four against the Capitals while chasing the game, but those birds have come home to roost over the past 120 minutes of game action. Monday's start was especially glaring, with the Penguins not even registering a shot attempt for the first seven minutes and going 35 minutes into the game with just five shots on goal.

"We didn't dictate the terms out there like we've talked about," Sullivan said. "The shot clock is an indication of that. ... We need a cooperative effort. We need to stay together."

Game 6 was especially brutal in the cohesion category. Even when defensemen made the right call, as Chad Ruhwedel did here, Phil Kessel makes a low-percentage pass between Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin, both of whom sprinted up ice instead of providing puck support:

When asked, Hainsey and Chris Kunitz didn't think there was much freelancing going on, but Sullivan's larger point stands. The Penguins didn't win the shot-attempt battle in four of the five games against Columbus in the first round, but they were efficient enough on their breakouts to punish the Blue Jackets for their reckless forechecking.

After two early games in which the Capitals spoiled solid performances with ill-advised risk-taking, they've laid off the throttle just enough to make breakouts a living hell for the Penguins lately. 

Washington has mixed in a passive neutral-zone posture when the Penguins have had full control of the puck, but any contested play is being challenged quickly and smartly.

"When teams come at you, you should move the puck by them and create that way," Hainsey said. "That's what we did so, so well in the first round, was move pucks past a lot of pressure that was coming maybe out of control and create offense. Tonight we couldn't do any of that."

In Sullivan's mind, his players aren't reading off each other as well as they should. With a talent like Letang in the press box, it's incumbent on execution to be in sync:

Kunitz said "coming up the ice together" is the best way for the Penguins to alleviate some of their breakout woes for Game 7 on Wednesday in Washington.

"Helping our 'D,' helping our goalie, wingers helping out on the walls," he said. "If we can come out together and beat their pressure, that's where you generate your speed through the neutral zone. If we're not able to get pucks out of our end, we're probably going to end up on the wrong side of the scoresheet."

There's something simpler to address as well. Yes, the Penguins' blue line is missing its anchor, but puck possession is often built via individual battles, ones that are winnable for players not wearing No. 58.

That doesn't have to mean a fight with an opponent for a loose puck. Take a look as Jake Guentzel can't knock down this Capitals' breakout pass on the boards, Ruhwedel gets sealed off by Marcus Johansson, and the Capitals generate a golden chance:

The play would've produced a goal if Evgeni Malkin wasn't hustling back.

A visibly irritated Matt Cullen said "a lot" of the Penguins' problems Monday were because of poor execution, but he didn't stop there. 

"A lot of it is that little extra work, that little extra battle that we're not winning enough," he said. "A lot of times it comes down to one-on-one battles. As simple as that sounds, we haven't done a good enough job of winning those."

Coincidentally, Barry Trotz attributed his team's defensive success to a similar principle, albeit in the opposite direction.

"We moved our feet," he said. "We stayed in the battle. We stayed above them."

If there was one play symbolic of the Capitals' complete dominance, it was Hainsey getting stripped by Andre Burakovsky in the early stages of the second period:

Not only did Hainsey freeze when he had a chance to move the puck up ice, he was physically beaten by Burakovsky in embarrassing fashion.

Still, in tying in with another theme from the night, Cullen said he thought the forwards weren't doing enough to assist in breaking the puck out, Hainsey's hesitant gaffe included.

“Our forwards need to do a better job of helping out," Cullen said. "Our defensemen are under siege every game right now.”

In stealing Game 4 without Sidney Crosby at their disposal, the Penguins bought themselves some margin for error. They've squandered most of that, and they have much to fix before their season gets put on the line Wednesday night at Verizon Center.

For Sullivan, though, the plan is rather basic, even though his team's process problems in this series have been multifaceted, no matter whether they've gotten a result at the end of the night. Seems like he'll be relaying the thought to his players that they remain 60 good minutes from eliminating the Presidents' Trophy winners and advancing to the conference final.

"We didn't play the way we wanted to play," he said. "But we're certainly not gonna dwell on it. I promise you that. We're gonna go back to work tomorrow. It's a matter of putting your best game on the ice. If we do that, we'll get the momentum back."