Karlsson's got the ideal solution for this infuriating power play ... but man, good luck putting it into motion

There it is. That's really, really it. Available to all with a tap of the play button.

But also right here in written form: “I think it was a tough one today. I don’t really think we got in," he'd begin, referring to multiple failed zone entries at the Philadelphia blue line and multiple botched setups once inside the zone that plagued the No. 1 unit, in particular. "I think the last one we had, we had control of the puck, at least. We got some shots off."

They did. The one shot. Final power play. Third period. Lasted only a minute, six seconds, and it was somehow more productive -- and less damaging -- than the first two combined, given that the Flyers fired five short-handed shots, including two clean breakaways, at Alex Nedeljkovic on the first two.

But Karlsson's main thrust came next, which I'll dissect phrase by phrase, if needed, in the interest of clarity.

"We've got to find a way to break them down over the course of time ... "

Shoot the puck. From wherever. The pursue it with a passion. As Mike Sullivan reiterated after this game, "There's nothing that breaks a defense down like a shot on goal. It's chaos. It changes everyone's focus, everyone's positioning."

" ... and take what's given to us."

Utilize the obvious shooting lanes, even if the shooter's completely convinced the shot couldn't beat the goaltender.

"We give teams chances from plays that we make, mistakes that we make. We're going to get those other kinds of chances regardless."

Knock off the relentless east-west threading of needles. There's no one on the No. 1 unit, including Karlsson himself, who isn't guilty of this. Opponents plant themselves in a rigid penalty-killing box, blades poised, and wait for the gifts, then bolt the other direction. My goodness, it felt like the Flyers' Travis Konecny spent the entire evening on one long breakaway, just by doing this.

"We've got to find ways to create it for ourselves. Which we haven’t done a good enough job doing."

Karlsson's "it" refers to that chaos. Rather than waiting for the PK box to spontaneously combust or something, the Penguins need to get the puck in there as if it's a pulled-pin grenade.

And this was where he started getting a little revved up.

"That correlates into the power play. If we have the puck for two minutes, we should create a lot more than we do. And if we don’t do it on the first one, we’re gonna do it on the second one."

Uh-oh.

"If we don’t do it on the second, we’re gonna do it on the third."

Double uh-oh.

"Right now, I think we’re just a little bit too antsy to try and create something out of nothing all the time.”

OK, right. Agreed. Nobody'd dispute that. But with those final couple sentences there, he began to lose me, and maybe he sensed that because, once the cameras and microphones dispersed, he maintained eye contact with me and kept right on preaching.

"Am I wrong here?" he asked.

Not at all, I replied. But I felt it fair to counter in asking how he thought this operation was going to magically manufacture the type of energy and eagerness necessary for those second and third efforts he cited.

He didn't blink.

"We can do it. With the team that we have here, we should be able to do that. Through the course of the season so far, we have not.”

All right, I started back, but ...

"We have it here," he interjected. "Are you telling me that, if Philadelphia or any team pressures us to the outside and we put the puck inside and go after it, that we won't find a way through? That we won't break them down? That we won't create our own chances."

By this point, he was backpedaling out of the room, bound for the showers, then the bus. But again, he kept right on preaching.

"Am I wrong?" he asked me one last time. "Tell me I'm wrong."

He's not. He's just not.

In theory.

See, it's like this: Karlsson's headed to the Hall of Fame. I'm just the columnist who'll drive up to Toronto someday to cover it. I know his place, and I know mine.

But I also feel it's fair to wonder if, as a still-new arrival to Pittsburgh, he can fully process what an aberration Patric Hornqvist was in his half-decade of excellence in black and gold. How there's been no one like him, before or since. How his own arrival changed the approach, the mindset and, never forget, the fortunes of the Penguins in capturing those two Stanley Cups the hardest way conceivable. 

This group ... tell me who's got that?

I'm not talking about size or strength or even skill at swatting rebounds or sticking deflections. I'm talking about the want-to. I'm talking about the DNA to be desperate to be in those areas of the attacking zone where the goals actually get scored.

Who's got that?

when we’re in the zone for that long, we got to find ways to get more pucks, bodies to the net and get some rebounds, get some tips — something.”

I asked Bryan Rust, after he'd just put forth his own similar-sounding proposal for the power play -- "We've got to find ways to get more pucks, bodies to the net and get some rebounds, get some tips ... something” -- if this roster's got the people to do that.

“Yeah," he replied. "I think, if you want to, you’ll make it happen. It doesn’t matter who’s on the ice. You can have a bunch of 3-foot-2 people, you have a bunch of 6-foot-6 people, it doesn’t really matter. If you want to do it, you’ll be able to do it.”

I then asked Sullivan the same:

"Well, I think we have a good group here, you know?" he replied. "I think the type of goals that you have to get against a team like Philly that collapses coverage, blocks shots ... you've got to put pucks at the net. You've got to have off-net sticks to create different avenues to get pucks to the net. You've got to go try to bang in rebounds. They're not highlight-reel goals. That was something that we talked about before the game."

To no avail, apparently.

Look, I get that no head coach, much less another player, has anything to gain by criticizing roster makeup in any capacity. And that'll apply in the double when it comes to casting aspersions on the raw desire, if not outright courage, required to address this glaring -- no, grotesque -- shortcoming.

But the one individual who can, Kyle Dubas, hasn't done a blessed thing in this regard to date.

Dubas, who took turns between pacing outside the visiting locker room and poking away at his phone, needs to make the same assessment as everyone above sooner rather than later, and he needs to act on it. I'm not about to make suggestions -- Hornqvist's awaiting the Penguins this weekend in Sunrise, Fla., by the way where the Panthers will honor his retirement -- but this isn't anyone's mystery anymore.

In fact, this power play's about to capture the hockey world's attention for all the wrong reasons:

• In going 0 for the past 30, the Penguins have registered just 39 shots, or 1.3 per opportunity, lowest in the NHL.

• It's believed to be the longest in franchise history, though such slumps aren't routinely tracked. Best indicator: They just tied the franchise record with an 11th consecutive game without a power-play goal, matching the 2019-20 team that went 0 for 25 from Oct. 16-Nov. 9, 2019. So, 30 is obviously greater than 25.

• It's believed that the longest slump in NHL history is 51, belonging to the Maple Leafs, though no one anywhere cites the season. The Panthers hit 43 in 2-14, the Sharks 41 in 1997.

• It's not as if the power play was gangbusters before this: The Penguins now rank 30th in the league with a 10.5% success rate, just seven power-play goals overall, with one of those being at five-on-three, the other six at five-on-four.

• They've logged 109 minutes, 22 seconds on the power play, meaning it takes them the rough equivalent of 15 minutes, 34 seconds to score a goal.

And more important than any ignominy involved, this is hurting them in the standings more than anyone might care to admit at the moment: They're 11-10-3, 11th in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the final wild-card team, and they just tossed across two precious points to their archrival between this game and the 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers back home Saturday.

It's nuts. All of this.

Sidney Crosby's goal in this game ...

... was his 15th already, and he's the league's leading scorer at even-strength. Evgeni Malkin's had his ups and downs, but he's at 10 goals. Rust's bounced back with 10 goals, as well. Jake Guentzel's the team's top scorer with 28 points. Karlsson's 19 points are matched nicely by a plus-11. Kris Letang's been a defensive demon, particularly on the PK. And the goaltending tandem of Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry now rates in the league's top three in nearly every category.

But the power play, of all things, could be what blows this up.

With enough talent to populate three units anywhere else.

As I see it, with due respect to Karlsson's appreciated analysis, these three actions need to be put in motion immediately, in no real order:

• TRADE FOR THE NET-FRONT ... NOW

My eyesight wasn't sharp enough to spy Dubas' phone screen, and I'm not privy to who is/isn't available this time of year. But the risk that the power play could kill this season by Christmas isn't worthwhile. It's not enough to be patient, not enough to hope -- no matter what the analytics say -- how this'll suddenly do a 180.

Moreover, this need would be a need even if the power play were faring well.

• SEEK ADVICE FROM OTHERS

This isn't a swell time to be too proud. 

Rust shared after this game, "Everybody who's on that unit, been on that unit, thinking about that unit, coaching that unit, is really upset with how things are going. We're trying our best to get going, and things aren't going. So, we've got to just keep working.”

That sounds commendable, but it hasn't worked.

Eddie Johnston's in his 80s, but he's in the team's employ and in the press box for every home game and he once presided over a power play that shattered the league's record while employing a cast of Randy Carlyle, Rick Kehoe and three previous unknowns. I'll bet he'd scrawl up something smart on the back of a napkin in about six minutes.

Craig Patrick's up there, too. Anyone needing a reminder of his credentials doesn't belong in hockey.

I'm never been one to excessively advocate Mario Lemieux's involvement beyond the immense contributions he's already made to the Penguins and the city, but he's only the greatest power-play performer the planet's ever seen. He'd read this like a cheap novel.

Anyone still have his number?

• STOP THIS CRAP AT ONCE:

From the final opportunity on this night, I managed to capture the Renaissance painting version of the Pittsburgh power play:

Karlsson overpasses. Geno overpasses. Whoever's on the left half-wall gets utterly ignored. Jake posts up way too small and way too out of the way. Sid unconditionally refuses to accept that he's most dangerous on a power play in tight and, therefore, freezes in the bottom corner while awaiting a pass he'd only kick right back out to Geno, anyway. ... And Geno shoots wide. Because every corner exists to be picked, and who needs rebounds, anyway?

Good luck, gentlemen.