Pascal Dupuis celebrates his first-period goal with Evgeni Malkin on Thursday at Consol Energy Center. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

The horn sounded on the 48th NHL opener to be played on Pittsburgh ice Thursday night, the big scoreboard at Consol Energy Center showed a 6-4 victory over the Western Conference powerhouse Ducks, and the home locker room was whooping it up with high-fives and attaboys all around.

Until Pascal Dupuis, as he’d devilishly retell the tale later, pierced through that din.

“Flower! What was that?” No. 9 recalled shouting in furious tone in the direction of Marc-Andre Fleury, making transparent reference to the goaltender’s second-period gaffe that gave Anaheim a goal an fresh life in the game. “You’re killing us out there, man! Just killing us!”

This, of course, caught the attention of absolutely no one who knows Dupuis’ playful personality, never mind his deep friendship with Fleury.

“They knew I was kidding.”

But then, not everyone knows Dupuis just yet.

Patric Hornqvist, newcomer by way of Nashville, began to rush to his goaltender’s defense by beseeching Dupuis, “Come on, Duper, he’s …”

And then he saw Dupuis’ grin, and all concerned — Fleury included — had quite the laugh.

“It’s going to take us some time,” Dupuis said. “We’re just getting to know each other. A lot of stuff feels really new.”

Oh, it’s new, all right.

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Mike Johnston gathers his Penguins at Consol’s center ice Tuesday at practice. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

From the magical moment Marc-Andre Fleury went all rock-em-sock-em robot on Nicklas Lidstrom’s rebound try to cap that triumphant summer’s night in Detroit, the Penguins have been a franchise trying far too hard to get back to that Stanley Cup Final stage.

Think about it.

They had the top two talents in the game, and yet engulfed the group with a system so complex, so inflexible it would cause a teenage Scotty Bowman to think twice on the breakout.

They had the top two talents in the game, and yet they’d draft defensemen year after year rather than finding additional scoring depth. The objective was to trade those defense prospects for wingers down the road, as if a delay for some reason had to be worked into the equation.

They had the top two talents in the game, and yet never lifted so much as a CCM-coated pinky finger to protect them in recent seasons, in part because after the many Matt Cooke debacles they hoped to portray themselves in some broader angelic light.

It never should have been all that complicated, you know?

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A Flying V? No, that’s just the Penguins listening to Mike Johnston at practice Saturday. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

Let’s get this much clear: There’s nothing pioneering about prioritizing puck possession in hockey.

It’s never come with some big eureka moment.

It’s never required any meaningful statistical measure.

It’s never featured a single coach or franchise at the forefront.

I brought this up with Mike Johnston, the Penguins’ new coach but also a 57-year-old lifer in the profession, Saturday afternoon at Consol Energy Center, shortly after he put his players through drill upon drill upon drill emphasizing keeping the puck. They did it on defense. They did it breaking up ice. They did it cycling. Every emphasis, including verbal, was on that singular point.

And at the same time, Johnston had to laugh a bit when I asked if he’s breaking some new ground.

“Yeah, if you go back and talk to Scotty Bowman about his earlier days of coaching, and the puck possession of those Canadiens, if you had a clock on them, was probably, was very high,” Johnston said in referring, of course, to the Montreal dynasty of the 1970s. “And when talking about regroups, about swinging back to make sure you kept the puck when, then you’re talking about those old Soviet teams. Even the other night, when we’re playing in Detroit, they were the hardest team we’ve faced so far in the neutral zone, with the speed and puck possession they had.”

There are those examples off the top of his head and countless others, even predating Bowman’s Canadiens. The concept of keeping the puck, really, is more common sense than anything else.

Or at least it should be.

I spent the day discussing this topic with the several of the Penguins’ coaches and players, team leaders and rookies alike, to get their feel for where Johnston is taking the team strategically, and here’s a rink-length breakdown:

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