Mark Madden: Penguins need to dominate meetings with Devils, Sabres

Refreshing hockey notes: Maybe someday they can be the lead story on SportsCenter! (OK, probably not.)

• The NHL reportedly signed a seven-year national TV contract with ESPN. The NHL is in the final season of its rights deal with NBC, but the league is pursuing multiple carriers (finally) like the NFL, NBA and MLB have. It seems big to get hockey back on the Worldwide Leader. But the impact also depends on how much NHL coverage increases on SportsCenter and the debate shows. Right now, ESPN treats hockey like it smells bad. I’d love to experience Stephen A. Smith’s enunciation of some of hockey’s more exotic names. But we’ll probably just hear Max Kellerman say, “Nobody cares about hockey.” (He has said that already, and with great disdain.)

• ESPN has some great hockey media at its disposal. John Buccigross, Linda Cohn, Steve Levy and Barry Melrose are superb at discussing and covering the NHL.

• The Penguins are 5-1 vs. the New York Rangers after Tuesday’s 4-2 win at PPG Paints Arena. The Rangers are sixth in the East division. The Penguins play seventh-place New Jersey and last-place Buffalo 16 times during the season’s remainder. They must dominate those teams starting Thursday and Saturday at the latter. Making the playoffs in the East could hinge on who beats up on the Devils and Sabres worst. Twenty-six of the 32 points available should do it.

• New Jersey is rotten. Buffalo is worse. The Sabres have lost eight straight. Top player Jack Eichel is hurt. They look like they’ve checked out. If the Sabres finish low enough, perhaps they can draft a franchise talent — like Eichel. Buffalo got him No. 2 overall in 2015 but still stinks.

• Tuesday’s win over the Rangers wasn’t easy. Goalie Tristan Jarry didn’t quite steal the game, but was involved in a few instances of robbery. He made a fistful of amazing stops in the third period, including two on Rangers top scorer Pavel Buchnevich. The Penguins didn’t get a shot on goal in the third period until Sidney Crosby’s empty-net tally with 33 seconds left. The Rangers are fast. The Penguins skated right with them. But the Penguins got tired.

• Perhaps the Penguins just aren’t going to play easy games. They have trailed in 14 of their 15 wins. They have 1o one-goal victories. They are 7-1 in overtime and shootouts. That has to even out sooner or later — unless it doesn’t. But those numbers defy probability.

• Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are playing very well right now. To quote “Slap Shot,” “That’s what you’re paid for, Braden!”

• Defenseman P.O Joseph is currently with the Penguins’ minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but will return to Pittsburgh when a left-sided defenseman gets hurt or traded. Joseph mostly did fine in his 16 NHL games. But he hit a bit of a rookie wall, presumably because his lithe 6-foot-2, 161-pound frame took a battering. Management was wise to give him a break from the NHL’s rigors. He will be in the top pair at the beginning of next season.

• The toughest job on the Penguins is being Mike Matheson’s defense partner. His play with the puck can be spectacular, but his defensive approach has little rhyme or reason. John Marino looks constantly flustered when he’s paired with Matheson and occasionally terrified. Me, too.

• When you consider who the Penguins are going to trade from their glut of left-sided defensemen, consider most who other teams might want. For example, there’s no trading Matheson’s contract, which has a cap hit of $4.875 million and runs out in 2026. Matheson isn’t terrible, just confusing. But given what the Penguins already had on defense, ex-GM Jim Rutherford didn’t need to get Matheson from Florida this past offseason. But coach Mike Sullivan didn’t trust Joseph until he had to, and maybe still doesn’t.

• Sullivan has benched and demoted Kasperi Kapanen a few times. Maybe he had good reason. But that needs to not happen. Kapanen is a heady blend of speed, energy, skill and finishing. He is also the only winger who has meshed with Evgeni Malkin. Kapanen needs to stay on Sullivan’s good side because he needs to stay on Malkin’s right side. Kapanen’s goal Tuesday was pure class.

• Bryan Rust started his NHL career as a two-way energy-type forward, but eventually started to get points. Teddy Blueger has that potential. His skating and persistence create chances.

• The Penguins’ fourth line has been terrible, as have each of its components. But Anthony Angello shows promise. He’s big (6-5, 209) and seems to realize he’s not that good.

• The Penguins are 11-2 at home. Make your own rink into a fortress, and it invariably pays off.

• If the NHL wanted to eliminate violence like that perpetrated by Washington’s Tom Wilson, it could. But it doesn’t. None of NHL’s teams will truly take a stand, because all of the league’s teams would gladly take a player like Wilson. Outcry against will never be that loud from within.