A month into the 2016-17 season, our Pittsburgh Penguins are in a good spot. The defending champs are perched atop the Metropolitan Division with a sparkling 6-2-1 record and 13 points—tied for third-most in the NHL overall.
With three wins in come-from-behind fashion, they continue to display the remarkable resilience that propelled them to the Cup last spring. Top guns Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and Evgeni Malkin are off to strong starts. So is rejuvenated goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Everything’s rosy, right?
Well…not exactly.
As the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving. The Pens have allowed a whopping 33.9 shots per game, according to sportingcharts.com. The second highest average in the league. Way up from last season’s 29.7.
Take Saturday night’s madcap 5-4 victory over the Flyers, for example. The black-and-gold yielded a stunning 92 shot attempts, not to mention 42 shots on goal. Only the continued brilliance of Fleury, along with clutch two-goal efforts from Crosby and Malkin, saved the day.
Hardly the way coach Mike Sullivan and his staff draw it up on the chalkboard.
Sometimes you have to be lucky to be good. And the Pens have, indeed, been lucky. Without fail, they’ve found the on switch just when they’ve needed to. Like on October 20, when they literally sprang from a zombie-like trance to shock Finals foe San Jose with three third-period goals. And five nights later, when they spotted Florida an early 2-0 lead and roared back to win.
Ditto last night, when the locals fell into a similar hole against Philly before popping three goals past shell-shocked Steve Mason in a span of 55 seconds to turn the tide.
They’re winning alright. But it sure ain’t pretty. A fact not lost on Sullivan, who reportedly read his troops the riot act at a recent practice.
“I still think we’re not where we want to be yet,” he said. “Obviously, the result we’re happy with. We’re getting some key plays at key times that are helping us grab points here, but certainly our overall assessment of ourselves is we know we need to be better.”
While it’s tough to pinpoint precisely what’s going on with the Pens, here are a few thoughts.
The Ouch Factor
Injuries. Every team gets ‘em. And we certainly haven’t been immune. Defensive linchpin Kris Letang missed the past five games with an upper-body injury. Creative Conor Sheary, whose exceptional work along the boards and in traffic provided a spark through the early going, likewise sat out the past five games. To say nothing of Derrick Pouliot, shelved with an undisclosed injury after logging a mere 12 minutes of ice time.
The Pens only recently regained the services of hustling Bryan Rust and Crosby, arguably the world’s most complete player. Sid’s unfortunate absence due to a concussion forced Sullivan to juggle his forward lines and shorten the bench.
Pass the Alka-Seltzer
Some call it the Stanley Cup hangover. A brutal coalescence of a long playoff grind and an all-too-brief summer. Barely allowing time for players to savor the sweet taste of their hard-earned success, let alone prepare mentally, emotionally, and physically for the rigors of a brand-new season.
Don’t forget the World Cup. Six Penguins—Crosby, Malkin, Carl Hagelin, Patric Hornqvist, Olli Maatta and Matt Murray—plus coach Sullivan, had their already abbreviated summers cut short by a couple of weeks.
Missin’ the Reverend
GM Jim Rutherford performed wonders in keeping his team mostly intact over the summer. However, one of the few players who got away has been missed.
Trusted in pressure situations, Ben Lovejoy led the team’s blueliners in defensive zone starts percentage (59.2) in ’15-16. The mobile defender also served as a glue guy of sorts on the second and third pairings. No one’s adequately filled his role thus far.
HBK MIA
Last season, the Pens rode the extraordinary play of the HBK Line to postseason glory. This year, the trio started out in a funk until it was recently split up. In particular, Hagelin and ultra-popular Nick Bonino have struggled to match their old form.
The good news? It’s a long season. The Pens have plenty of time to regain their competitive edge.
In the meantime, I’ll gladly settle for winning ugly.
Hey Rick, Hey Jim,
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of this season, some thoughts;
There is a lot of talk about how bad this team’s Defense is, insinuating that the blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of 6-8 guys patrolling the blue line (intentional or not). There is a lot of talk on other boards deriding the D as leaving MAF out to dry. However consider this; last I looked the team was in the top five in blocked shots. So, once in the D zone they are doing there best to protect the net, Unfortunately, being in the top 5 in blocks combined with the team being in the top 5 in hits, they really aren’t holding on to the puck all that well. The bad becomes the sad fact that this team is weak on the puck this year.
Now that could be due to the targets on their back as defending champ, causing opposing teams to come after them a lot harder on fore and back checking. Another contributing factor could be as you noted Rick, a bit of a hangover from winning the Cup and/or being exhausted from too short of an off season (Although at least in Crosby’s case that doesn’t seem to be a factor, he is flying).
Look at what Phillie did just a couple of games ago, they were able to squeeze off 92 shots, 25 missed the net, 25 were blocked, and 42 made it to the net.
So, although this all does come down to team D, it is really a factor of team D breaking down in the offensive zone.
The Ugly factor, and I hate to brooch this subject, because I do like Fleury, but Murray seems to exert a calming affect on the whole team. (This is something else that you have noted Rick), Although the team is in a much better position at this time of the year than they were in last year, just as no deficit really seems to be to big for Crosby and crew to over-come, no lead really seems all that safe.
A discussion appeared on another board that I read where someone defending MAF (not that I really think he needs it, he is a good goalie) tried heaping all the blame on Maatta in particular and the defensemen in general and suggesting the team goes back into the MJ shell to help MAF look better statistically.
But in the end, a lot of the problems MAF does have are self inflicted. He is much better now, thanks to the goalie coach, but this year he has had problems with rebounds, particularly kicking them into high percentage scoring areas. He also has reverted at times to poor decisions with his stick; wandering behind the net (twice leading to goals) and choosing the wrong time to try and poke check and then end up down and out of the play. He also has been struggling with Point shots lately (not sure if this is really the case, it could just be a factor of the deluge of total shots that he has to react too. But the redounds and poor stick play do tend to help the other team keep the puck tied up in the Pens zone leading to higher shot totals.
It will be interesting to see how the stats look compare once Murray gets more games under his belt to see if the D has an easier time with their breakouts and/or at least cut down on shot totals. Hopefully the goal differential will start improving.
The good of course is that even when MAF does make his work harder, he does have the athleticism to cover up his own mistakes most of the time as evidenced by the fact that the team is still tied for the top point total in the division; only dropping back on the total win tie breaker.
Let’s go Pens, Finish the road trip with a win and 5 of 6 points.
Hi Coach
As always, you raise many good points and you are a very astute student of the game. I enjoy reading your analysis.
If I may, two points that you mention, Defense and Goal, are of particular concern for me as well. Only time will tell if we can keep Murray and MAF .
Now that Mario has decided not to sell his share of the team,I wonder what or how that will affect MAF long term employment with the team. Mario in the past has been very loyal to his players, especially the ones from Quebec.
What a difference a year makes? This time last year, the team was in a free fall with no bottom in sight. The team had been on the open market for 6 month’s previously and had no serious offers.Now that appears to be all behind them and they move forward to try and repeat as back to back champions.
This may secure MAF’s long term employment as well. Unfortunately for me, I am one of those who believe that MAF should be traded for the highest possible return, sometime this year. I know a lot of people do not share my viewpoint, and since Condon was traded to Ottawa, I believe this will not happen unless they are forced to by the expansion draft.
With regards to the defense, I believe that we need to trade ” someone” to get a larger,mobile,and defensive orientated D- man to augment our defense. Derrick P. is not the answer in my opinion. A lot of fans will disagree with me, but I have posted this before. Most recently,I have come to the conclusion that Mattaa may not become the replacement for Letang that I had hoped for 2 years ago. Since his injury, he has been “off ” a little in his game. He definitely is slower by a step or two. But he is still very young and may, I hope,return to the form of two years ago.
Final point is that it is difficult to repeat !!! No question about it. Other teams have had a chance to adjust to our speed game, and now it is more difficult to execute our game plan. Yes, I believe we can win another cup in 2017, but not with ALL the players we have now.
Trades will have to be made.
cheers,
Hey Rick,
Good to hear from you my friend.
The Pen’s are indeed a mystery of sorts. Giving up 42 shots against a team
like the Flyers is recipe for trouble going forward. We are supposed to be a
“puck possession” team utilizing our speed and four line play to keep the opposition off balance.With 90 plus shot attempts, who had the puck??
Only the great play of MAF has made it close this season and the return of # 87. We need to get desperate again. Last year the Team played the last half of the season,( most of the time) and thru out the playoffs with a level of desperation that was the key to their success.They played as if every period mattered.
On the bright side, are the facts that Letang will return and now we have Crosby back. As I posted earlier,the play of Crosby at the World Cup was incredible. His line had 25 points in seven games and his play without the puck was what really impressed me. HE WAS THE MVP of the tournament !
It looks like he is playing at that level again in his first few games back since his minor concussion.
To me, it looks like # 87 really wants to repeat the success of 2016.
That is really good for us as fans. Should be another interesting season.
Let’s Go Pens .
Cheers.
Good morning, Jim.
My apologies to you and our other faithful PenguinPoop readers for my prolonged absence. I actually spent the summer writing what I hope will be my third book about the Penguins. It starts with the team’s Cup victory in ’09 and runs through last season’s equally glorious victory. I’m still in the process of searching for a publisher.
Back to our Pens. To say they’ve been inconsistent would be the understatement of the century. Poor Mike Sullivan. He’s so intense. During the loss to Montreal, he was just smoldering. I think you could’ve fried eggs on his forehead. I only hope he doesn’t get burned out over the course of the season…he’s a really good coach.
I agree 100% about Crosby. He’s in another zone right now. Sid’s really matured as an all-around player these past few seasons. No question Letang will help the defense when he returns.
Speaking of, I’m a little concerned about our mix on the blue line. Not that Lovejoy was a star, but he seemed to do everything at least reasonably well. Maybe Olli Maatta will morph into that kind of player, although I’m still concerned with his skating. At least for now, I think they lack a Lovejoy-type “all-arounder”.
An odd question for you. If you don’t mind sharing, what’s your last name?
Rick
Hey Rick
Gr 8 to have u write another Pens book.
That takes alot of dedication and TIME.
You continue to amaze all of us who follow ur blog.
It is really a gift that u have to be able to find topics to blog about every other day and with some much factual data. I tried to do it for only 4 or 5 times and failed. Glad to have u back.Maybe now the others will return.
With regards to my last name….You have it on my email.They are one and the same.
Please feel free to contact me anytime you want.
Cheers
Thank you, Jim … 🙂
Hi Rick
It just occurred to me….50 years old.
NHL Hockey has been in Pittsburgh for 50
years. Philadelphia as well.
I was 9 years old when the unthinkable happened and the NHL expanded from 6 to 12 Teams.
It is very interesting that the NHL chose 2 of its possible 6 expansion Teams to come from the great State of Pennsylvania. 50 years later the orgininal power brokers in Detroit,New York, Boston,Toronto and Montreal were proven right.
My beloved Penguins are indeed a story worth writing about. ( 3 Times….Wow ). So it is with great respect I say good luck on your new Venture.
Do you have a Title for new book?
Cheers☺
Hey Jim,
I’d done a little research on this a few years ago. The NHL wanted a team in Philly, so that was a done deal. Pittsburgh was competing head-to-head with Buffalo for a franchise. Both had successful teams in the AHL.
As the story goes, Steelers owner Art Rooney called in a few markers and twisted some arms to get the Board of Governors to choose Pittsburgh.
My book is tentatively titled “Just Play: Rise of the 2015-16 Pittsburgh Penguins.”