Mark Madden: Penguins determined to travel most difficult path possible

Desperate times call for unusual measures. In the 1992 Stanley Cup playoffs, the defending champion Penguins trailed Washington three games to one. The Penguins were a high-octane flying circus led by Mario Lemieux, scoring a league-high 343 goals.

Problem was, the Capitals netted 330 times, second-most in the NHL. The Penguins couldn’t stop them.

So the Penguins started using a trap. A 1-4 delay, in the parlance of the times. They contained Washington, counterattacked savagely off turnovers and won the series, then another Cup.

Fast-forward 28 years. The Penguins, trailing heavy underdog Montreal one game to none, held a precarious 1-0 lead Monday thanks to Sidney Crosby’s goal in the fifth minute. As the game grew older, the Penguins became a dump-and-chase team. Protect the lead. Play conservative.

The adjustment may have been tactical. It may have happened organically. The Penguins might have done it because the ice started bad and got worse. Perhaps wanting to exhaust Montreal’s big-minutes defensemen (Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry) figured in.

It worked. It didn’t necessarily shut down the Canadiens (they got 14 shots in the third period). But it got the Penguins’ legs going, and eventually led to Conor Sheary finding a sliver of ice to skate through and feed Jason Zucker for a 2-0 lead and some breathing room.

That lasted all of 189 seconds before the Canadiens scored to set up a tense finish. These Penguins are determined to travel the most difficult path possible.

That’s being proven by the power play. A slight remedy got provided when Patric Hornqvist was reinstated to the front of the net, finally impeding the sight of Montreal goalie Carey Price occasionally. But the fiasco of a left-handed shot on the left half-wall continues. It’s apparently more important to be right than it is to have a power play that doesn’t stink.

That’s not the only problem with the man-advantage unit. Nobody out there looks comfortable, as going 1 for 12 on the series confirms.

Coach Mike Sullivan made zero lineup changes Monday. It’s likely that none will happen unless injury occurs. He will live or die with those who played in Games 1 and 2.

That was a bad move in Patrick Marleau’s case. He played even less than he did in Game 1 and played just as innocuously.

It was a good move in Matt Murray’s case.

Murray justified Sullivan’s faith and calmed the echo chamber’s clamor for Tristan Jarry, at least for a couple days. Murray made 26 saves, including a handful of big ones. Just as important, the shaky saves that made everyone flinch in Game 1 were replaced by confidence and control.

After seven straight playoff defeats, Murray needed Monday’s victory even more than the Penguins did. He will be a restricted free agent at season’s end, unrestricted the season after that. He will almost certainly exit the Penguins sooner, not later.

So Murray is playing for money and trying to impress a new team. His playoff performances of 2016 and ’17 get smaller and smaller in the rear-view mirror. He reportedly wants big money — maybe $8 million per year over eight years — but drastically diminishing NHL revenues and Murray’s drastically diminishing performances make that a pipe dream.

But, for a night, anyway, Murray kept that dream and the Penguins alive. If he keeps playing like he did Monday, who knows?

Sidney Crosby answered the bell. He scored for a second straight game. Evgeni Malkin got seven shots on goal, but didn’t score. That’s after going 0 for 8 from the field on Saturday. There’s a lot to be said for shots. But big-money stars have to produce.

The good: The Penguins played very responsibly Monday. (They don’t always, just like in ‘92.) A few players have been good in both games: Crosby, Zucker, Bryan Rust, Kris Letang and John Marino. Sheary was as good Monday as he was lousy Saturday.

The bad: The Canadiens stink. They’re the No. 24 seed, worst in the playoffs. But the Penguins can’t establish clear superiority despite talent that dictates they easily should. Perhaps that’s the romance of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Or perhaps it’s cause for continued worry.