Penguins' Smothering Defense Has Them on Stanley Cup's Doorstep After Game 4 Win

SAN JOSE, Calif. — It's been like trying to sneak through the car wash without getting wet. Any shot the San Jose Sharks try to put on the Pittsburgh Penguins, it just gets all watered down by the time it gets to goaltender Matt Murray. That's if it gets through, which hasn't been often.

The Penguins' smothering, shot-blocking, lane-clogging defense was the dominant factor in Monday's 3-1 victory in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final over the San Jose Sharks, giving Pittsburgh a 3-1 series lead. The Penguins can win their first Stanley Cup since 2009, and fourth in franchise history, with a win in Game 5 back home Thursday night.

Ian Cole and Evgeni Malkin provided all the offense Penguins goalie Matt Murray needed, scoring goals in each of the first two periods on primary assists from Phil Kessel as the Sharks still have not held a lead in regulation in this series. Eric Fehr added a late insurance goal for the Pens.

The few times Murray faced any real danger from the Sharks, such as Patrick Marleau's walk-in bid early in the third period, the rookie was there with the save. He allowed one shot to beat him, from Melker Karlsson in the third, but that was it.

The defensive system of Penguins coach Mike Sullivan has thoroughly disrupted the normally high-scoring Sharks. The essence of the system is to collapse all five players in the middle of the defensive zone and dare teams to put shots on net from a longer distance. Some teams want to put as much pressure as they can on the point men in defensive formations, but Sullivan will give opposing point men some room with the puck, as long as it's close to the blue line. 

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The key is to clog their vision and either block the shot or just give them no good looks at the net and make them miss. The Penguins have blocked 93 shots in this series to the Sharks' 74 and they've outshot San Jose 133-98. 

Sullivan's closest friend in the game is Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, who employed a similar system to strong success with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. Sullivan, an assistant under Tortorella with the Lightning, Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, shares the same defensive philosophy, only he seems to have fine-tuned it to an even-higher degree of effectiveness.

When Sullivan was hired by the Penguins in December, Tortorella showered him with praise to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Jenn Menendez.

"

Sully to me? Sully is a, he’s a better coach. ... He is progressive. He’s a really good communicator where he can light you up a little bit sometimes with his emotion but also, I think he’s one of the best at drawing people into conversations so it’s a two-way conversation.[The Penguins] have some personalities on your team. There’s expectations on your team. That’s a tough job to coach that team because of the expectations and the personalities.

"

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

When Sullivan was hired on Dec. 12 to replace Mike Johnston, he immediately went to work changing the mindset of his players defensively.

"This is something we've said to our team all year long: It doesn't matter how many goals we score. We have to learn how to defend," Sullivan said after the game. "We have to learn how to make a commitment to keeping the puck out of our net. I know this team can score. When we start to make a commitment to playing away from the puck and out of our net, that's when we can become, in our opinion, a contender."

The Penguins took a 2-0 lead at the 2:37 mark of the second period, just nine seconds after Melker Karlsson was called for interference against Eric Fehr in the offensive zone. Kessel, with the puck on the left side, crossed a pass over to Malkin, who the Sharks let have too much comfort by the right post. Malkin had an easy tap-in.

Still looking for their first goals of the series are top Sharks players such as Joe Thornton, Brent Burns, Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture.

"There's no quit in our group. We've been the best road team in the league, and we're going to show up and try to get this thing back here for Game 6," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. "We've been chasing the game the whole series. We've got to find a way to get on the board earlier in the game, instead of chasing it all night."

Some goalies don't like teammates trying to block every shot, like the Penguins seemingly do. Hall of Fame netminder Patrick Roy used to get mad at teammates trying to be goalies themselves. He wanted to see the puck as much as he could, and not be screened by teammates getting in front of shots. 

But the game has changed. Coaches such as Sullivan and Tortorella want to keep as many pucks from getting to the net as they can, even if it makes it a little tougher on goalies to see shots off the stick.

"From my standpoint, it's just a matter of trying to battle through the traffic," Murray said. "It's not always easy. There's no exact recipe for it, but you just try to compete through the screen and do whatever you can to find the puck."

Cole, whose goal was his first of the playoffs, said his shot-blocking numbers went down this season because of fewer pucks getting through all the bodies in front.

"It kind of sucks for us defensemen, because there's no shots left to block," Cole said. "The forwards are doing such a fantastic job up high, taking away the lanes and not letting pucks get through."

Suddenly, the Sharks are down to their last shot. If it goes like it has for most of of the series, the Penguins plan to block it.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.