There’s no denying that skating fast is an essential part of the Penguins system. Put a stopwatch on Carl Hagelin or Bryan Rust, blue line to blue line, and there aren’t many around the NHL who can come close.
But footspeed isn’t the only thing that enables the Penguins to play the uptempo game coach Mike Sullivan desires.
Making a good first pass might sound like a hockey cliché, similar to “getting to our game” or “putting pucks deep,” but those sort of lines become clichés because they’re true. And with the identity that Sullivan has helped the Penguins create, a defenseman’s first pass isn’t anything to take for granted.