We Penguins’ fans cannot bury our head in the sand. The Penguins’ Defense has been atrocious. Something has to be done. To that end, Mike Sullivan looks like he is about to do something. Newcomer Juuso Riikola, late of the Finnish League, looks like he is about to get his first taste of NHL regular season hockey. However, he is neither of the 2 Defensemen that I want to talk about.
I just read a quick little article by John Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette in which Riikola’s fellow Finnish Defenseman Olli Maatta owned up to his part in the debacle that has been the Penguins’ Defense; “There’s a lot of scoring chances we’ve giving up. We have to clean that up.”
You said a mouthful Olli Maatta. However, you aren’t the Defenseman who needs to sit. Unfortunately, it appears you will be made the scapegoat.
So, on to the point that has motivated me to writing; on one hand you have Defenseman 1; a 24 year old, 6′-2″ tall, 204 lb Defenseman who, over the course of his career has been on the ice for 2.3 Goals Against per 60 Minutes (GA60) at even strength. In fact Maatta has the second best +/- of all Penguin Defensemen since 2000-2001.
Mackey, mused about the fact the Penguins will be paying him $4+ million to sit in the press box. However, despite having good numbers for his career, Maatta has been struggling this year. His GA60 is 5.4, which is well more than twice his career average. Sitting him would seem to be a good motivation for the rest of the team. Sitting a $4+ million veteran should reinforce commitment to playing better Defense.
However, let’s move on to Defenseman 2. Defenseman number 2 is a 31 year old, 6′-0″, 201 lb Defenseman named Kris Letang. Letang’s career GA60 is 2.7, which is nearly 20% higher than Maatta’s GA60. Furthermore, this season, Letang’s GA60 is 7.2 or 33% higher than Maatta. Considering the amount of Ice Time (TOI) Letang is given, that means he is responsible for far more goals against than Maatta.
Unfortunately for Penguin’s Goalies, Letang doesn’t appear to be getting the much earned rest in the Press Box. Instead Maatta will serve Letang’s time in the dog house. (It must be nice to have others pay for your mistakes)
If someone thinks that sitting a young but veteran Maatta who makes $4+ million per year shows Sullivan’s willingness to do what it takes to get players attention, sorry, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it, when a $7+ million per year, true veteran, a veteran who has been around long enough to finally learn how to actually play defense, a player who should have several veteran tricks up his sleeves by now, but who still under performs pretty much everyone else on the ice when it comes to defense, not only doesn’t get press box time, but still gets 25+ minutes per game to give nightmares to his goalies. Sitting Letang will gain far more attention to detail and remove the biggest stumbling block.
And sorry the argument that the team needs him doesn’t fly. The Penguins won a Cup without him 2 years ago. In fact, the Capitals won without him last year.
Wait, maybe not, Letang was on the ice for over half of the Capitals goals against the Penguins in the Penguins – Capitals series. Letang was the Capitals best offensive force.
Letang is a solid offensive force, but the team doesn’t need offense. The team needs defense. The Penguins have Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Derick Bressard, and Jake Guentzel, who all can provide tons of offense for them. On Defense, Justin Schultz provides amble offense as well.
It is time to to get Letang’s attention. Sit him!
Riikola looked good last night. Spent his down time (time away from the puck) tying up players and clearing the front of the net like Maatta does. I’m hoping maybe the other defenseman learn from Maatta & Riikola rather than the other way around.
Amen to that Phil,
I liked what I saw from Riikola!
Too bad I couldn’t say the same for some other D men. It was a good thing that Casey DeSmith gave us better goaltending than we have seen so far this year. Vegas had 76 shot attempts of which 37 were on goal.
It also didn’t hurt to have Kessel and Malkin hitting on all cylinders. I loved the speed draw and the two tape to tape passes converted into top shelf glove side goals. I am not all that confident that they boys could have come back if Kessel doesn’t get us that lead.
Hopefully this will give some confidence to the team and they can start building.
Hello TOR,
Omg . I agree 1000 % percent. I can’t wait for the article on the Vegas vs Pittsburgh.
Letang on the ice again for opposition goal. He was slow to get back , pucking watching, near Dumoulin while he defending and didn’t take his man . Woof . Määttä is scratch for that.
Hey Dee,
I am having a really busy day today, so I may not get time to organize my thoughts for a full article but thank you DeSmith for giving us goaltending last night. Not all Defensemen played as well as Riikola. I still saw the Keystone Kops take the ice on several occasions and there were times they really had their hands full with Reaves and the Knights 4th line.
Riikola was all that and more but the usual suspects did their level best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
And let’s not forget to take off our hats to “Phil the Thrill” and Evgeni Malkin for serving up his (Kessel’s) Hat Trick with a beauty of a speed draw and 2 great passes.
Hopefully I can get some time later this afternoon.
Hey TOR,
No problem.
My take?
– Riikola is a solid player and he’s great. It make Johnson signing look bad and 3 million could’ve been used somewhere else. RW for Sid or LW.
-Johnson should be sitting in the box or on the bottom pairing. I don’t understand him being deployed on the second pairing. He should be on the third pairing. He brought Shultz down , imo. From what I have seen Shultz was good and see to be more defensively covering for Johnson with his 2 assists. Johnson is ok. Do ok things. Johnson is the common denominator with Määttä and Shultz.
-Letang was alright. Letang is Letang. I would sit him him and Johnson to see how Defensemen produce without them. I believe Penguins are better without them and should get another solid top 4 RH defender.
-Penguins still struggles to win puck battles, clearing their zone, keeping honest opposition out their zone/in the neutral zone, bad puck decisions and defenseman cheating to much to be a fourth foward instead of defending first then supporting fowards..
-Slow Start and no urgency.
-Letang bad icing and defense on that first goal.
-DeSmith was very solid.
-DeSmith,Phil and Geno pull Penguins out this game to win. It could have been a different game if Vegas capitalizes on their scoring chances and heavy zone time. Lucky game.
-Penguins are their worst enemy in games.
-Penguins D Corp pairing is very flawed, imo. Pairings are not balanced at all. Coaching staff are having them cheating to much and their stretch passing is bad ..
-Sid and Jake are still getting it done. They were buzzing Puck won’t cooperate with Sid . I didn’t like Rust passing to him. But Sid does need to keep doing his Sid things with being more selfish shooting the puck .. That line needs a solid new RW that can give them the best..
-Sprong was good.
-Penguins have a long way to go. I don’t like Johnson on the second pairing. Coaching staff will learn the hard way with Jack Johnson..
– Penguins miss a player like Cole and Fowards who are eager to win puck battles. Heavy forecheck.
Also I don’t understand Murray concussions situation. He should be home resting. It’s interesting he get hurt after a two poor games.. he won’t talk about his concussion nor give solid explanations..very ironic..
Penguins needs to be better. They need a revolution/Spark on this team.
Grit? Trade Letang? Youth? ‘A’ off Letang’s sweater? Better D Balanced Parings? ???
Hey tOR,
I did do a quick stats lookup for the last 4 years when I saw they were benching Maatta. I looked at the basics +/- & points scored. I came to the conclusion that our best defensemen are ranked in this order: Shultz, Maatta, Letang, Oleksiak, Dumoulin, Johnson.
This didn’t take into consideration Penalty Kill, giveways or any other stats. The big surprise is how low Dumoulin was. Maybe Letang drags him down, I couldn’t tell you.
Anyway, it would seem Sullivan doen’t like defensemen that play defense like Cole & Maatta. Having Gonchar as the defensive coach may have something to do with that. It will be interesting to watch. I can’t wait to see the new guy tonight.
Hi Phil,
I could agree more.
I always thought ( well observed that)Pens Defensemen don’t play solid defense because Sergei Gonchar was a offensive defenseman on the Penguins. Every defenseman that plays two way hockey for them. They get run out of town.
That’s why pens continue to have trouble. I don’t mind Jacques Martin. I don’t think he get another credit. It was the same Rick Tocchet with fowards and powerplay..
He has everything thing to do with it. Sullivan and Gonchar don’t like solid defenseman who defends first and chip in offensively. That’s why Letang has longer leash than other defenseman. Jacques Martin is a different breed on defense. Määttä play good defensively and offensively. I like his gap control and hustle to stop plays when he has the right partner to compliment him. He skates out hard to make the right passes after defending hard. It is what it is.
Jacques Martin make them so play on hard defensive drills while Gonchar is focus on passing and do offensive stuff on the ice without defending heavily.( in practices)
I don’t know if Rick Buker and Other Rick can agree on this. I would be surprised if they MAke Rikkola change his game ..
Hi tOR,
I’ve pretty much given up on seeing anything at all done regarding Kris Letang. Maybe someday, but not now. He’s a darling with those behind the bench and in the press. No one who matters takes him to task.
I won’t, however, lay this scraggly defense at his feet, or anyone, or any pair of defensemen. I went to camp five days. I saw almost no defensive drills. Everything was geared to that first pass, that holy grail breakout. If this team has any defensive schemes, they’re barely practiced and well camouflaged, or perhaps, not really defensive schemes at all.
Having offensive minded defensemen is a great asset. Every team should have a few. But, you don’t need six of them, or seven, or eight. There’s no balance on this defense. Everyone is asked (instructed) to do the same thing. Move the puck. Make that first pass. Get out of your zone as quickly as possible. But, that mantra obviously comes at the expense of everything else. Perhaps it leads to some laziness, too, or carelessness. They’ve been throwing the first pass right up the middle too often and having it spiked right back in their face.
The Montreal game showed me two things. One, the number of teams in the league that the Pens can outskate gets smaller every year; and two, defending your blue line works. You can call it the dreaded, boring trap if you want, but a very good offensive team spent the better part of 60 minutes failing to get into the offensive zone with any structure, or any presence. Hey. If lowly Montreal can do that, so can the Pens. They just have to want to. Scoring six goals is great, but it’s of little consequence if you can’t stop the other team from doing the same. I sometimes wonder what the hell Jacques Martin is doing there?
— 55
Hey 55,
I have said the same thing, this D is not balanced. Losing Cole was wrong on multiple levels. He was some semblance of balance. I didn’t get to see any of the camp, but watching this team stumble and bumble thru these first 2 games, I don’t doubt what you say (no Defensive practice except 1st passes). There doesn’t seem to be any recognition of opponents plays.
Having said all of that, Letang was always this bad defensively. He has always been very good offensively but a millstone on D. You are right, no one with any say so will acknowledge the obvious, so instead, Maatta picks up the tab for Letang’s ineptitude!