Penguins patiently adjusting to change

The first thing you notice about the new Pittsburgh Penguins is that they look a lot like the old Pittsburgh Penguins.

They are scoring plenty and have given up more goals than they would like. How many years have we been saying that about the Pens?

C'mon, you really didn't think a Mario Lemieux-owned NHL team was going to evolve from an entertaining offensive force into a team that could strangle you defensively the way the New Jersey Devils did in the mid-1990s?

The new-look Penguins are still trying to push the pace, and new general manager Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Johnston want their defensemen jumping into the offensive flow more than they have in the past.

The Penguins are trying to be more of a puck-possession team, changing the way they retrieve the puck when it is dumped in their end and also how they break out of their zone.

It is supposed to be a simple defensive system that allows the Penguins to take advantage of their skill and quickness on the back end.

But it is new to this group of Penguins, and the Penguins are still trying to adjust.

"It's a fast game out there, and you can't think out there," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "And to some extent, we are thinking out there still, and I think that is normal."

Johnston expected it would take Pittsburgh players eight to 10 games to adjust and the Penguins have won their seventh through ninth games, with two shutouts in the mix.

"It's a work in progress, as it is for most teams at the beginning of the year," Johnston said. "We had six exhibition games to build our framework, and now in our first few games we've had moments when we've really hit our stride and other times when we've said, 'Hey we've got to work on these areas.'"

Crosby's take is that changing the system shouldn't be a license to make mistakes.

"Confidence and execution needs to come from doing," he said. "So we just have to learn it."

The Penguins acquired slick defenseman Christian Ehrhoff with the idea he could be another gunslinger on the blue line.

However, he has started slowly in terms of point production, registering three assists in nine games.

One change that has been a plus for the Penguins is the acquisition of Patric Hornqvist, who arrived from the Nashville Predators in the James Neal trade. He's a good fit for Crosby because of his nose for the net.

"He is an energy guy, and he's very good on the forecheck and around the net. You see it on the power play and also five-on-five," Johnston said. "He is always around the net. Good stick. He creates traffic and havoc out there. His energy is contagious."

Although Hornqvist had five goals and 12 points in his first nine games in a Penguins jersey, he said it still felt as if he was starting over in Pittsburgh. He has played six seasons in the NHL.

"There is still a transition," he said.

The Pens' adjustment to the new system became more complicated this week when it was revealed that essential defenseman Olli Maatta needed surgery to remove a potentially cancerous thyroid tumor.

A full recovery, with no chemotherapy or radiation, is expected. But Maatta will be out of the lineup for about four weeks.

"Watching a young man continue his life and play the way he's played is absolutely amazing," Rutherford said. "It's amazing that he can still concentrate and continue on. He's kept this to himself. I know a couple of his teammates knew about it."

Maatta's short absence probably will be more disruptive than normal because the Penguins are trying to become comfortable with a new system. Maatta is 20, but he's a key figure in the team's hope for the future.

The early reviews on Johnston's work have been favorable. He is a viewed as a professor of hockey, a modern teacher who understands how the dots are connected.

For Pittsburgh fans who were hoping the Penguins were going to embrace a more defensive style under the new regime, it should be pointed out that puck possession is the purest form of good defensive hockey.

If you control the puck, the other team can't score. That is Wayne Gretzky defense and is effective when executed properly. Puck-possession teams seem to know how to get the puck back when they don't have it.

The criticism of the Penguins over recent years is that they did not play a style that was effective in the grittier, tighter-checking NHL playoffs.

Puck possession and a simplified defensive scheme do work in the postseason as long as the team using them is committed.

The Penguins shouldn't sweat the occasional bumpiness associated with adjusting to Johnston's new system. They have six months to figure it out.

Nothing really matters in Pittsburgh until the playoffs start. That's when Pittsburgh fans will decide whether they like Johnston's new system.