For Bryan Rust, it’s Netflix. For Nick Bjugstad, it’s walking his dog. For Sidney Crosby, it’s, of course, watching hockey.
The Penguins have been outscored 11-5, been ahead for fewer than four minutes, and are 1 for 8 on the power play. Oh, and they’re down 3-0 in a best-of-seven series for only the third time in the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin era. So with the Stanley Cup playoffs looking like one and done for Pittsburgh, Penguins players could be forgiven for wanting to decompress on the team’s off-day on Monday.
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“I think it’s huge to just give yourself a mental break,” Rust said. “The playoffs are so grueling, but they’re equally as mentally grueling. Just trying to focus to bring your best game every night, I think it takes a mental toll on you.
“It helps me to put that in the back of my mind and forget about it on the days off. I think it allows you to get a little bit more rest than you might.”
With the series on an every-other-day schedule, the Penguins have not had much time to decompress. After Games 1 and 2 on the road last week, their charter plane landed in Pittsburgh around 2 a.m. Saturday. They practiced 11 hours later and opened Game 3 just 23 hours after that session.
It was no surprise that even Crosby, who lives and breathes hockey, could not commit to fully watching other playoff games staged Saturday night. A captain has to sleep, right?
Still, players do become fans at this time of year. And Crosby was not alone among Penguins teammates who planned to set aside portions of their evenings to tune into other games.
“I don’t know if you want to (get away from hockey),” Olli Maatta said. “It’s a fun time. It’s a fun time of year, really.”
Maatta conceded to seeking out “normal, everyday stuff” on days between games. For him, that included watching movies.
“But I like watching those (other playoff) games, too,” he said. “You like watching the other teams play. It’s interesting. Especially when you love hockey, those are the best games.”
Crosby did not argue against that point.
“You know, it’s a fun time of year,” he said. “It’s intense. But it’s fun.
“There are a lot of other teams that would love to be playing right now. So, I think you get your mind off kind of your own game and your team’s game. But you can still follow along and enjoy this time of year.”
For Crosby, who has played in more than two regular season’s worth of postseason games, there is nothing new to handling the ebbs and flows of a series. However, several of his teammates are either going through the trials of a postseason for the first time.
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“It’s something that you learn with experience,” Crosby said. “You’ve got to find out what works for you. But, yeah, I think that’s just something you just figure out. It’s not something that happens overnight.”
Rust is playing in his fourth postseason with the Penguins. His first couple playoff runs ended with Cup parades. He learned then about the adage that the hockey playoffs are a marathon and not a sprint.
“First time around, I think you don’t really know what to expect,” he said. “You just try to take things day by day and be as ready as you (can) and for anything that comes up. The more and more you’re exposed to it, the more you realize that rest is a weapon. The more you can get away from the game during the playoffs without necessarily forgetting about it is a tool. If you can master that, it’s really going to help you.”
Matt Murray spent his first postseason returning to a hotel after games and practices in Pittsburgh. He poured over video of his performances, bent the ears of his goalie coaches and “basically lived hockey, hockey, hockey.”
It worked. He won the Cup.
By the time he won the Cup again the next postseason, Murray altered his approach. He built in more time between games “to recharge.”
Murray said he continues to keep his postseason routine fresh. More or less, he is always looking for an advantage in the name of staying sharp.
“Doing a lot more off the ice, trying to take care of myself a little better,” he said of the 2019 playoffs. “There’s so many new things you can do now. When you’re young, honestly, you don’t really feel the effects that you do when you get older. I’m not saying I’m really old by any means, but definitely, it’s a lot different.
“Diet, stretching, cold tubs and the weird, new technologies that I can’t even get into because I can’t explain them — but it’s all stuff you can do to make yourself physically the best you can even though you may be in, physically, a tough spot.”
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A tough spot is exactly what the Penguins find themselves in Monday. They face being swept from the postseason for the first time since losing four in a row to the Bruins in the 2013 Eastern Conference final.
As was the case in that series, the Penguins have struggled to create scoring chances, let alone actually score, against the Islanders. They have until Tuesday night to try to reverse that trend on Game 4.
All the more reason Monday didn’t need to be a deep dive into strategies, videos or drills. And anyway, it’s not as though doing any of that is working for the Penguins.
Get away to get things right — was that the Penguins’ best attack plan for what might be their final off-day of this season?
“It’s straight adrenaline; it’s fast and furious, and you’re just so excited,” Bjugstad said. “You’ve just got to find a way to cool down, whether it be (watching) a movie or go for a walk with your dog.
“I don’t know. But you need to do something else.”
(Photo: Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)