A reactionary change is needed for the Penguins before it’s too late

Ultimately stating that obvious, last night was a nightmare for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now needing to win out to advance, they need a reactionary change and soon.

For starters, everyone on the entire Pittsburgh Penguins roster needs to take a good long look at themselves. The majority of the heat may be on Mike Sullivan, but it also fell onto the shoulders of Matt Murray and last night’s villain of choice, Jack Johnson. However, like this paragraph initially stated, this falls on everyone, follow with me.

After the Game 3 debacle last night, you will find that Johnson and Justin Schultz’s relationship falls right at the top of the Penguin’s problems. However, if you keep going and going and going, you find more. For example, the third line is still getting buried, Evgeni Malkin is still goalless, and the before mentioned Murray, he fell off of his Game 2 pedestal early and often last night.

Coach Sullivan is a wizardand touted by some as one of the best in the game. Last night, however, he didn’t do anything right, although I’m not sure he did anything at all. As a result of all of this, the now rolling Pittsburgh Penguins are on the brink of another postseason failure.

A reactionary change is a need for the Penguins before it’s too late

The few bright spots in the return of Jake Guentzel, or the emergence of John Marino and the newly acquired Jason Zucker, now all seem miles away due to Friday night now being a make of break evening. This is now, no time to sit our there laurels and hope things change. No, a reactionary measure needs to take place, and soon.

A quick reaction should be to replace Murray with Tristan Jarry. Not that Murray has been awful on his own, but it would send an immediate message to the entire team. Jared McCann has been nonexistent this postseason, so bringing him back isn’t the answer, but neither was last nights try with putting Sam Lafferty in the same role.

Mike Sullivan now needs to move down the depth chart and give Evan Rodrigues and shot in that role. The defense needs a new life as well. I don’t think Jack Johnson has a Twitter account, but if he does, he needs to stay off of it. Replacing him and possibly Schultz with Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel is the only answer before tomorrow night.

This time of year, individual players typically either play above or below their skill level. The likes of the before mentioned are not, and now it’s time to try out some new blood before it’s all be lost. The Canadiens have been playing with house money since last Saturday, now time for the Penguins to do the same.