Penguins Progress Report

Let’s face it, so far, this season has been disappointing. On the plus side, our favorite flightless fowl are only 7 points down from the top of the division. On the minus side the team is only 3 points above the bottom spot in the division. Our Penguins aren’t the worst team, but they certainly are closer to that than they are to the class of the division. So just for the fun of it, let’s give our Penguins’ progress report.

In an effort to ameliorate I will start with the only bright spot on the team. I will start with the Centers.

Centers group effort: A-

Don’t get too cocky Penguins’ Centers, the bulk of you are riding Sidney Crosby’s and Evgeni Malkin’s coat tails. That dynamic duo has carried the team on their shoulders over this first 30% of the season. They have combined for 22 goals and 37 assists, and are a +5. Those 22 goals represent 27% of the goals. Looking at the advanced stats, Crosby and Malkin account for 1.8 goals per 60min G60 by themselves and are on the ice for 4.1 team goals for per 60 minutes (TGF60). In terms of Shot Attempts For per 60 minutes (SAF60), the team generates 64.4. Defensively, Crosby and Malkin have been on the ice for 52.6 Shot Attempts Against per 60 minutes (SAA60) and 3.2 Team Goals Against per 60 minutes (TGA60).

Mean while back at the ranch, Derick Brassard, Matt Cullen, Riley Sheahan, and Derek Grant have combined for 7 goals and 9 assists and are a combined -15. They have scored less than 1/3 as often as the top 2 Centers and are 20 points lower in +/-. Relative to time on the ice, the bottom quad of Centers has manage to only score 0.6 G60 and generate 52.6 SAF resulting in 2 TGF60. Unfortunately, defensively, these four players have been on the ice for 64.2 SAA resulting in 3.2 TGA60

Sidney Crosby: A+
Evgeni Malkin: A
Derick Brassard: C
Matt Cullen: D
Derek Grant: D
Riley Sheahan: D-

I give Brassard a slightly better grade than the other 3 because while he was injured the team did struggle. The only thing that Sheahan and Grant can say for themselves is that they win face-offs. Unfortunately, face-off wins do not correlate to winning games. I sincerely doubt Teddy Blueger or Jean-Sebastien Dea could do worse. And in Blueger’s case, since he is a relatively unknown to the NHL, he just may prove to be an improvement. As I said above, the team is only 3 points from the bottom of the division, what you are doing is failing. It is time for a change.

Right Wings group effort: B+

Just like at Center, the Right Wings (RW) are being carried by their top 2 players, Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist. I once thought this was a strength of the team, and with Kessel and Hornqvist at the top, it is hard not to think of this position as a strength, but get past these 2 players and it gets worse than at Center. Kessel and Hornqvist have combined for 19 goals while Zach Aston-Reese, Bryan Rust, and Daniel Sprong have a combined 3 goals. That’s bad.

True enough, Mike Sullivan tried to use Domink Simon at RW too, but Simon has only scored 4 goals. It hardly improves the offensive output of the RWs.

Not only are the bottom 2 RWs failing to contribute on the score sheet, they are a combined -13 (-10 if you want to try and call Simon a RW). I hate to fault Aston-Reese for the problems on the starboard side, since he started the season in Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS) and has only played 11 games. Furthermore, although I can’t deny that Sprong could have ignored the pathetic way he has been treated by the coaching staff (he could have used the situation as a motivator), I also can’t lay the as much blame at his feet as I can at Rust. Sprong still hasn’t had the opportunity to work with a top Center. All he has been given to work with has been Sheahan, Grant, and Cullen, 3 Centers that haven’t produced regardless of who they have had on their Wings. Rust and even the Left Wing LW, Simon have all been given time on Crosby’s starboard side and have failed to produce.

Truthfully, I can’t see Anthony Angello doing any worse than Rust or Sprong.

Phil Kessel: A
Patric Hornqvist: B+
Zach Aston-Reese: D+
Daniel Sprong: D
Bryan Rust: D-

Left Wing group effort: C

Frequent visitor to our board, Dee, has referred to the Penguins’ problem as too many passengers on the team. Left Wing (LW) is no different. From an over-all aspect only Jake Guentzel has been bringing it, night-after-night. Trying to stay positive, we must admit that, although he wasn’t scoring, Carl Hagelin was contributing defensively. Furthermore, Tanner Pearson has been looking pretty good, in his limited time here in Pittsburgh following his arrival via trade. However, despite getting some time skating with Crosby, Simon has been fairly pedestrian, only managing 4 goals. At his current pace, he will only net 14 goals by the end of the season.

As for Garret Wilson, he has been better than I expected, but he really hasn’t been around much nor contributed greatly on the score sheet. I do think he has added some character to the team, but not enough to warrant any better grade for him or the position.

Jake Guentzel: A-
Tanner Pearson: C+
Dominik Simon: C
Carl Hagelin: C-
Garrett Wilson: D

Defense group effort: D

Is there a word for the opposite of synergy? If there is, you would probably see a picture of the Penguins’ defense there as the perfect example. Looking at the Defensemen individually, you can find several silver linings in most of them. Unfortunately for the team, together as a unit, they haven’t been getting the job done on a regular basis for more than a year now. Over the last couple of games, there has been signs of life; finally!

One of my frequent criticism of the team defense has been the limited number of games that they have played where the Penguins’ opponent have been held to less than 30 shots. I am trying to be hopeful that things are changing after seeing a couple of games like this. I know the Goalies have got to be sighing in relief.

Kris Letang has upper level offensive skills but quite often looks lost in his own zone and often picks the wrong time to jump up into the offensive zone, or send a blind pass in any of the 3 zones. Olli Maatta has statistics on his side and the eye test would seem to indicate that he gets it defensively, but he is slow and can get turned. Brian Dumoulin has shown flashes of real talent but has been hampered by Letang’s defensive lapses. Jamie Oleksiak has been a bit of rock. He doesn’t really make many mistakes and has flashed some pretty good moves that look even more impressive because of his size. He is still young, like Maatta and Dumoulin and like Dumoulin has shown steady improvement. As for his physical presence, let’s ask Dustin Byfuglien. And Juuso Riikola has been a real pleasant surprise showing he can play in all 3 zones.

On the other hand, Jack Johnson has struggled. He has the teams worst +/- at -12 but hasn’t been given any press box time. Chad Ruhwedel also has struggled so far this season, checking in at -8.

Since Justin Schultz has only played 4 games, I didn’t feel it was right to grade him.

Kris Letang: B
Jamie Oleksiak: B
Brian Dumoulin: C+
Olli Maatta: C+
Juuson Riikola: C
Jack Johnson: D-
Chad Ruhwedel: D-

Goaltending effort as a group: C

The Penguins Goalies have been a paragon of inconsistency. They stole 2 games that they never should have even been in, let alone win, let alone get the shutouts. Matt Murray rejected 38 shots in a 3 – 0 win against Toronto and Casey DeSmith not to be out done stopped 39 Coyote shots in a 4 – 0 win. Unfortunately, both of these goalies have turned in clunker games as well.

Everyone here, no doubt knows I am a Matt Murray fan, however, he has been the more inconsistent of the Penguins’ goalies. He has a bloated 4.08 Goals Against Average (GAA) and a below average Save Percentage Sv% of 0.877. It is hard to believe that he is the same goalie that won 2 Cups with a cool, calm, stand-up demeanor. Going up against the best of the best, chasing Lord Stanley’s Cup, as a Rookie, he had microscopic GAAs of 2.08 during the first Cup run and 1.70 during the second Cup play-offs, turning aside 92.3% and 93.7% of the shots against him in those play-off series. In fact, he put an exclamation mark on the Second Cup performance with back-to-back shutouts,carring that dominance over to the following year, posting 3 consecutive post-season goose-eggs.

Now, instead of playing a calm, stand-up style, he seems to frantically lunge back and forth across the net, often times taking himself out of the play, as if he were trying to emulate Marc-Andre Fluery. However, Fluery was more acrobatic and could play that frenetic style., while Murray doesn’t seem suited to it. I don’t know if this change in style is intentional or a result of the gross number of pucks thrown at him over the last year or so. If it is intentional, I can’t help but wonder who is wanting to change him?

Casey DeSmith: C
Matt Murray: D

Coaching group effort: F

Mike Johnston was fired even though his team was playing better. The only way Sullivan and his staff can even tie Johnson’s numbers at the point at which he found himself out of a job is by winning all 4 of the next 4 games. Only in picking up all 8 points will the Penguins have 33 points, which is how many they had at the 28 game mark when Sullivan took over the team.

The Penguins’ defensive woes may not really be attributable to the lack of skill by the players but a testament against the coaching. Since the first Cup year, the team has not made tactical adjustments in a timely fashion. It took around a quarter of the season for the team to abandon their ineffective breakouts that kept them pinned in their own zone for extended periods of time.

When Sullivan lit a fire under team going through the motions, he did it with kids, kids he brought up from WBS, while benching high-priced under performing veterans. I was excited. I was tired of watching the fossil hunter Johnston, looking for the oldest most experienced player he could find. I though there was going to be real change. Unfortunately, Sullivan stopped with the youth movement. He only brought in HIS men. after that, he has turned into the same archaeologist that Johnston was. And just like Johnston, he has consistently given extremely long leashes, even in play off games (Letang last year in the Capital series) while punishing kids (Sprong) for the failure of veterans.

GM: D

I appreciate what Jim Rutherford has been saying. It is always the right thing. However, he has apparently allowed Sullivan to get away with insubordination. Rutherford, over the summer last year brought in Ryan Reaves to protect the team and give it some grit. Sullivan didn’t play him. This past off season, Rutherford said Sprong would be a part of the team this year, yet in a passive aggressive maneuver, Sullivan has put Sprong in position to fail to excuse his insubordination. And let’s not forget the Jack Johnson signing. Not only has Johnson been the weak link on defense, the Penguins were over-stocked with Left Deefensemen.

Our Penguins are 3-1-1 over the last 5 games. They do seem to be trending upward. However, they are still much closer to the bottom than the top. This last 5 game swing may be a sign of good things to come and I do hope so, but it could just be more Jekyll and Hyde.