Penguins – How About Some Primary Scoring and Defense!

In the wake of the debacle of a 5 – 0 shutout, handed to them by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the cry has gone out, once again, for secondary scoring. Now, I am not going to complain about that. A team can always use secondary scoring. However, I am about to suggest that the Penguins most pressing problem isn’t secondary scoring, but primary scoring and defense.

What?! How can you question the Penguins’ primary scoring, the Other Rick?

Well, with all the whining about Daniel Sprong, who is only now getting some ice time, but down on the 4th line, pulling the plow, a subtle veil has obscured some interesting facts;

Our Penguins are relying only on one line; the Carl Hagelin – Evgeni Malkin – Phil Kessel line. Sorry my faithful Penguins’ fans but perhaps our team Captain, Sidney Crosby, may be the place to start looking. The fact is that outside of the incredibly successful Canadian Tour, the Penguins’ Captain has been rather pedestrian in his production and not his normal Conn Smythe candidate self. Subtracting out the Canadian Tour, Crosby has only scored 1 goal and is a -1. He was -3 last night during that embarrassment.

The rumor mill has suggested that Crosby has been unhappy with every Right Wing RW Mike Sullivan has tried on his line. I hope the rumors are wrong. The Penguins have a plethora of really good RWs. I would think that Crosby, as Captain, could work with at least one of them. However, I try not to be a hypocrite, and since I lobbied for Sullivan to let fellow top gun Kessel to play on Malkin’s line like the then rumors indicated, I will also lobby for Crosby as well. But to do that, I may suggest asking for a bit of truce to build Sprong’s stats up on the top line, to make him as attractive as possible to get Crosby the RW of his choice, even if it turns out to be for just one year on a rent-a-player.

Patric Hornqvist, another Penguins’ top 6 frequenter has also struggled mightily this season, so far. After getting the big money (of which I agree, he has earned), Hornqvist has no goals, only 1 assist and is a -6 when you subtract out the Canadian tour. Perhaps this dearth of production is tied to the rumored dissatisfaction in Crosby for Hornqvist on his line, coupled with the injury to Derick Brassard. Perhaps, once Brassard is back from his injury Hornqvist and Brassard can form the basis for a solid 3rd line.

Although his line is producing, Carl Hagelin is also suffering from a scoring drought. In fact, Carl Hagelin hasn’t really been a top 6 scorer since his first season with the Penguins. This season, when you subtract out the Canadian trip, Hagelin only has 1 goal and 1 assist. Perhaps his scoring drought is related to the Penguins not really using the stretch pass where his blazing speed was an asset, since that first season. Who knows?

Defensively, Hagelin is still a gem, but a top 6 he is not. Unless the team can get back to the stretch pass to take advantage of Hagelin’s speed, maybe it is time he drop to 3rd or 4th line.

Before worrying about bottom 6 scoring, it may be time to look hard at the top 6 scoring, Malkin and Kessel, who keep on rolling, notwithstanding.

Defensively
The news isn’t so good here either. Take away the Canada trip and Jack Johnson has 0 points and is -6, Brian Dumoulin only has no goals, 3 points and is -3. Olli Maatta has no goals, 1 assist and is a -2. Jamie Oleksiak at least has 1 goal and 2 assists to go with his -2. And, although Kris Letang, is being hailed by some as a Norris candidate, his stats drop considerably to 3 goals and 4 assists (Better than Crosby’s offensive numbers) but his +/- also drops to a -2. Chad Ruhwedel and Juuso Riikola have no points and are a -5 and -4 respectively. With all due respect to fans of any of the above, Letang and Oleksiak are the only 2 that can claim some level of acceptability when looking at them individually, the rest range from below par to downright abysmal. Worse yet is looking at them as a whole. The whole is worse than the sum of the parts, sort of a reverse synergy.

But then again, I shouldn’t wonder when there is no balance on the blue line; nearly all left handed Defensemen and all “mobile, puck moving Defensemen” and no defensive Defensemen. Our friend Rick Buker recently mused “Where have all the Gary Roberts gone?” How about where have all the Ian Coles and Ben Lovejoys gone?” Where have all the Defensemen that know how to funnel at least a couple of shots to the perimeter gone? Where have all the Defensemen that know when not to pinch so as not to give up odd man breaks gone?

Perhaps the over-loading of this team with “mobile, puck moving Defensemen” has hamstrung the ability to move the puck. Perhaps you need a defensive Defenseman paired with the offensive Defenseman to free up the offensively skilled Defenseman to flash his skill.

If all of these “mobile, puck moving Defensemen” really were able to move the puck, why do our Penguins have a negative CORSI? And where is that stretch pass? There is a thought that offense starts from your own zone and then radiates out. Perhaps the dearth of secondary scoring is really on the defense’s inability to do their part.

Anyone who has ever read Penguin Poop no doubt knows although I don’t dislike any of the Defensemen on this team individually, I do dislike their make-up of the team defense.

Ethan Prow has never done anything to impress me in either preseason that he has been with the club, but having watched a couple of highlights from AHL games and his stats down there 4 goals, 2 assists and a +4 in 10 games now. I don’t dislike Riikola but maybe it is time to switch Riikola out for Prow (Since Riikola is waivers exempt) and get another Right Handed Defenseman RD on the big club. I am not sure if any Defenseman in Wilkes Barre – Scranton can play all that much worse than what Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith have been subjected to this season.

Furthermore, I doubt that Prow is a long term solution. I am moving closer and closer to the idea that the team needs a trade to really right the ship into a Cup contender instead of a pretender hoping just to get to the dance.