Does Kyle Dubas like the fact that the Penguins are 2-4?
No.
Does he like the fact that they have lost three in a row?
Again, no.
But is he going to learn a lot about everyone that they have in this group, much more so than he would if the Penguins were cruising along?
“Absolutely,” said Pittsburgh’s President of Hockey Operations and GM.
Dubas provided his perspective on the team’s start to the 2023-24 campaign, his first with the franchise, to Penguins broadcaster Josh Getzoff in this week’s edition of the GM Show.
This current stretch feels different for Dubas compared to more tenured members of the organization, with it being his first two weeks with the Penguins in-season and seeing how they respond to the ebbs and flows.
“In my case in particular, being new here, I'm learning a lot about where we're at; where I want to see us improve in terms of our operation day in/day out; and then try to help the group come through it as best I can through my own actions and from a leadership perspective,” Dubas said. “But also, evaluate really objectively where we sit and where we're at, and how we want to continue to go through the year.”
The highs and lows of the emotional rollercoaster that come with each year feel especially pronounced in the discourse surrounding the Penguins, and Dubas can hear the alarm bells that are starting to sound on the outside. But on the inside, Dubas said he doesn’t necessarily view this current four-game homestand that started with a 4-1 loss to Dallas on Tuesday as a focal point of this young season.
“As I think this team knows from last year, every single game and point is important. It could be pivotal in the end,” Dubas said. “That said, we just need to continue to build on our foundation of how we want to play; eradicate some of the stuff that's hindered us early; and use it as a lesson for how we can't do things moving ahead.
“Every game provides us a chance to really build out the way that we want to play and exert ourselves, and tomorrow night against Colorado, it's going to be an extraordinarily difficult test. I'm excited to see how our guys react to it.”
Head Coach Mike Sullivan recently said there’s been a lot of hockey that they’ve liked, and there’s been some that they haven’t – and consistency is the operative word the Penguins have to start establishing in their game.
For Dubas, it’s about threading the needle between knowing that the team has been successful with offense as its DNA, they can’t sacrifice too much in order to score goals. Dubas mentioned how, in St. Louis, three guys jumped in offensively with no one high to support, which led to odd-man rushes against … or trying to hold onto the puck at the end of a long shift against Dallas in hopes of making something happen instead of resetting and playing the next shift out, winning it, then stacking those shifts one on top of the other.
“So, it's early in the year, we've got a lot of change on the roster. I'm not overly panicked about it,” Dubas said. “I'm excited to see how the guys in the group come through it, and we'll do all that I can to support it. It's been a strong defensive group in the past, overall. I know we'll get there as we get to going into the schedule here.”
