PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Mike Sullivan’s exchange with the media was understandably brief after the Penguins’ latest “Groundhog Day Debacle,” a response that was predictable but regrettable.

“We have to compete harder,” the Penguins coach repeated after Tuesday night’s come-from-ahead, 3-2 overtime loss to Tampa Bay. “We need more guys to compete harder and pay more attention to detail.

“And we need to take more pride in playing defense.”

No news there, that’s been the case all season.

And yet nothing has changed.

The collapse against Tampa included the Pens letting a two-goal lead get away for the eighth time through their first 21 games (they’re 3-3-2 in games that include such an abhorrent occurrence).

The loss dropped the Penguins to 7-10-4 overall.

Their four wins in regulation tied for the second-fewest in the NHL, ahead of only San Jose’s three (the Pens blew a three-goal lead against the Sharks last Saturday night but somehow managed to prevail in a shootout).

And the Pens’ minus 26 goal differential the morning after the Tampa disaster was the NHL’s worst.

As is his habit, Sullivan kept it together in front of the cameras. He’s rarely if ever thrown his players or his team under the bus publicly, and he didn’t this time, either.

But opting not to do so was nonetheless an opportunity lost (much like the Pens’ most recent two-goal lead).

Sometimes, when it gets this bad this often, you have to vent for sanity’s sake as well as the sake of the fans and anyone else who might want something resembling a symbolic pound of flesh in response just because.

If nothing else, such acerbic oratory is entertaining, and sometimes you have to take entertaining when and where you can get it.

Ask Michel Therrien.

Back on Jan. 10, 2006, Therrien was a little less than a month into his tenure as the Penguins’ head coach after having taken over when the Pens fired Eddie Olczyk in December 2015.

The rebuilding Penguins were on their way to a forgettable, 22-46-14 record and a last place finish in the Atlantic Division in Sidney Crosby’s rookie season, but Therrien wasn’t about to endure the inevitable quietly.

After a 3-1 setback against Edmonton — Therrien’s eighth loss in 11 games behind the bench — he let everyone have it.

“Not impressed,” Therrien opined, choosing to begin a premeditated address rather than answer a specific question. “It’s a pathetic performance. Half of the team doesn’t care. You know it’s like, are we gonna be happy to play 8 minutes? I’m not gonna be happy to play 8 minutes.

“What will those guys say if we take 40% of their salary or 50% of their salary because they only play for 50% of the time?”

Turns out he was just getting warmed up.

“That defensive squad, I think their goal, I’m really starting to believe their goal is to be the worst defensive squad in the league,” Therrien continued. “And they’re doing such a great job to be the worst defensive squad in the league. They turn the puck over, they have no vision, they’re soft.

“I’ve never seen a bunch of defensemen soft like this.”

In conclusion, “There are a lotta guys that don’t care,” Therrien repeated. “They pretend to care but I know they don’t care.

“It’s a game of emotion. It’s a game of hard work. It’s a game of passion. Did they think that, as a coach, I have the feeling that team cares for each other? Wow.”

Wow, indeed.

It would be entertaining, not to mention refreshing, to see/hear/experience Sullivan opt for such an approach given the Pens’ current circumstances (imagine Therrien’s brutal truth but with a Boston accent).

It also might jolt the players into something resembling a response.

Sullivan may well assess things differently in private conversations with his players individually and collectively. But whether he has or hasn’t, what’s resulted on the ice “just feels like the same crap all over again,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson lamented.

Something’s gotta change.

If not the messenger or those on the receiving end, why not change the message?

The Pens technically didn’t start blowing two-goal leads this season until their fourth game of the campaign, a 6-3 win on Oct. 14 in Montreal.

So it’s actually happened eight times in the last 18 games.

That’s not a slump, it’s a catastrophic failure.

What harm could a public flogging do at this juncture?

Winnipeg’s in town on Friday night and the Jets were good enough to fashion an NHL-best 16-3-0 record through their first 19 games.

The Jets’ torrid start includes a 6-3 win over the Penguins on Oct. 20 in Winnipeg, a game in which the Penguins … wait for it … blew a two-goal lead.

It’s a good bet opportunity will knock for “Sully” again sooner rather than later.

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.