Column: Johnston flunks his own first exam

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Kyle Okposo goes hard forehand to beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the winning shootout goal. -- GETTY IMAGES

Kyle Okposo goes hard forehand to beat Marc-Andre Fleury for the winning shootout goal. — GETTY IMAGES

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Apologies in advance, but this deserves all kinds of disclaimers before the first significant sentence:

• The Penguins’ 5-4 shootout loss to the Islanders on Saturday night was one game of 82. It was no big deal from the season scope nor even this singular outcome. It came down to the final, decisive strike by New York’s Kyle Okposo. Could have been anyone. Could have gone either way.

• The Islanders are as skilled, as creative offensively as any team in the NHL. If you don’t think so, power up that DVR and take a harder look. They’re legit.

• Mike Johnston has been nothing less than a godsend.

And I can’t stress that last one emphatically enough. Jim Rutherford couldn’t have fared any better in finding the right man with the right plan for this group.

But — and yeah, I’m finally getting to that first sentence — Johnston just failed his own first exam.

Not by my definition. By his own.

These were his words earlier in the week regarding this home-and-home that continues Saturday night in Uniondale: “You have a chance to prepare for a team, play a game and react to how you’ve played and what you need to do the next day. You know they’re going to react, and they’re going to adjust their game plan. I look forward to these two-game series that we have because it does give us a chance in the busy schedule that we have to see simulate playoff action.”

Well, wonderful.

The Penguins under Dan Bylsma treated the regular season as if mattered, which, for a team blessed with so much talent, it didn’t. They could coast from October to April and still finish among the East’s top eight. As a result, they’d foolishly convince themselves that having one get-to-our-game system was plenty and that their way could trump any counter-strategy.

Johnston is to be commended for stating and behaving, from his opening drills of camp, as if the regular season only matters as a launching pad for the one that follows.

So, why oh why, would he have picked this game to unleash his inner Bylsma?

No, really, how else to explain his worst move coming hours before faceoff with the inexplicable healthy scratching of Simon Despres?

He’d been one of the Penguins’ most dynamic defensemen through the first 17 games, and one of those unmistakably was a bullish showing in the 4-0 shutout Tuesday in Montreal. He was aggressive on the attack, smart with the puck, physical and sharp in his end.

He didn’t deserve a benching. He deserved a boost in ice time.

He didn’t deserve a blow to his confidence. He deserved assurance that, just because the coaching staff wanted Robert Bortuzzo involved, it wouldn’t come — as it almost always did under Bylsma — at his expense.

I asked Johnston about his decision, in precisely that context, right after this game:

Some might find that answer acceptable. Sorry, I don’t. Johnston’s first order of business today is seeking out Despres, attempting to explain what happened, then letting him know with a pat on the shoulder that he’ll be back in the lineup Saturday and for the foreseeable future. If Johnston was serious when talking about learning from his mistakes, he’ll correct this one immediately.

I don’t want to read too much into body language, but the sagging Despres I saw walking out of the Penguins’ room late Friday night sure looked like a guy who could use that.

Once Johnston mends that fence, he can get about doing some DVR duty himself and, from there, admitting that his New York counterpart, Jack Capuano, handed his hat to him.

The Islanders came out hard, much more emotionally invested, much more ready to pounce.

“If there’s one thing we could change, it’s how we started,” Marc-Andre Fleury said, hardly omitting himself after a first period in which the Islanders put three of their first eight shots behind him, including an unscreened wrister by fourth-liner Matt Martin that originated somewhere in Swissvale. “They were really flying, and it took us a while to match that.”

That’s no big deal for mid-November. But to remind, it was Johnston who hoped to use this as a playoff barometer of sorts. That message apparently never resonated, if it was even received.

Next, Johnston can ask what in the name of all that is sane he was thinking to pair Bortuzzo and Rob Scuderi, his two slowest defensemen, against a group of forwards that is the NHL’s fastest without Michael Grabner, the league’s fastest skater currently to injury. If Grabner had shared ice with that duo, he’d have looked like one of those 99-rated skaters in EA video games.

Next, Johnston can ask how a system predicated on putting pucks to the net only did so twice in the game’s opening 15 minutes, even though the Islanders’ backup goaltender, Chad Johnson, couldn’t control rebounds in the slightest.

I asked Johnston about that, too: “We passed up some shooting opportunities to try to make plays. We weren’t doing enough, especially early on.”

Hm. At least one of the Penguins’ players afterward intimated that part of the plan was controlling the puck — not shooting it — to wear down New York’s defensemen and suppress their attack. If that was, in fact, vocalized, it wouldn’t be the kind of adjustment any team would want to make. Shots are your friend. Always.

Finally, and this is a little thing by comparison, but Johnston balked when asked how he felt about the Penguins having no power plays in a game that was plenty chippy at times: “That was a well-reffed game. I didn’t think there were any penalties that deserved to be called.”

One must assume, then, that he took no exception to the vicious, dangerous leg-on-leg hit by the Islanders’ Johnny Boychuk on Evgeni Malkin, one that felled Malkin for roughly 90 seconds. Malkin was lucky to return, and Boychuk would be lucky to avoid a suspension and/or fine if this weren’t the NHL we were discussing. Especially if anyone is familiar with a bit of history between Boychuk and Malkin.

Do what no one at the league will do, and watch this hit for yourself:

Never mind how a ref misses that. How does a head coach miss that?

You’d better believe that working the refs, during and after a game, are part of the playoffs.

So, class, what’s been learned?

First, to repeat, the Islanders are legit. Just ask Fleury:

Second lesson: It’s better to fail the midterm than the final. That’s tonight.