The much maligned Penguins’ Defense led the offense last night, helping the team slip by the Calgary Flames in OT. Since I am one of the more outspoken maligners, I feel I have to give a shout out when it is truly earned and earn it they did. Fifteen of the Penguins’ 32 shots and 3 of the team’s 4 goals came from their blue-liners, including the game winner in OT.
For most of the season, Chad Ruhwedel has been over looked and banished to the press box. However, after suffering through a 3 game skid after the trade deadline Mike Sullivan finally called Ruhwedel back from the tomb of the Press Box and he has responded. Two games ago, he helped stabilized a “D” whose Matt Hunwick led chaos in the defensive zone resemble a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off rather than NHL or even AHL defensemen. Last night, Ruhwedel got into the offensive act as well. The Defensman tied for the team lead in shots last night with 4 and opened up the scoring.
Riley Sheahan provided good fore-checking pressure at the start of the play that led to Ruhwedel’s goal, forcing the Flames to cough the puck up to Phil Kessel. Kessel, with eyes in the back of his head spotted Ruhwedel, wide open center point and slipped him the puck with a laser beam pass as Dominik Simon started backing up to give Kessel options. Depending on the angle of the replay, it really appears that Sam Bennett then decided to slew foot Simon. On several different replays, it looks like Bennett intentionally clipped Simon’s skate to send him dangerously backwards to the ice, as Bennett skated up toward Ruhwedel. However, Bennett was too late, Ruhwedel got the shot off and into the back of the net.
Evgeni Malkin, the lone Penguins’ forward to score jumped all over a Jon GIllies guffaw less than a minute later, knocking down a clearing attempt with great eye to hand coordination and racing the Flames goalie to the front of the crease. Long story short, you don’t give Malkin opportunities like that, he converts them and he did. The Penguins looked like they were about to explode.
Unfortunately, a desperate Flames team, a broken stick, and poor defensive work by Conor Sheary let the Flames back into the game. The Flames are just outside of the final Wild Card spot in the West so they were not going to go away easy. They came to play with all the desperation you would expect from an NHL caliber team trying to make the playoffs. Add to that the right handed defenseman Kris Letang had broken his stick and even though Tom Kuhnhackl passed Letang his stick so that the Defenseman would not be totally unarmed, Kuhnhackl is left handed. So, when Letang tried to clear the puck he couldn’t had trouble getting any authority on the clear. Finally, Sheary, helped out the desperate Flames with poor positional play, getting himself on the wrong side of the puck.
Mikael Backlund then made a great move to walk around Letang and Tristan Jarry to pull the Flames even.
However, the Letang would have his revenge in the second period. Carl Hagelin started the play with great back-checking. The Swede jumped on a loose puck in the corner of his defensive zone and backhanded up the boards to a swooping Malkin. Coming out of his turn the Penguins’ Center took the puck in flight and flew up the left wing before spying Letang flying up the right wing to join the play. Malkin whipped a cross-ice feed to Letang, who took the puck just inside the attacking blue-line. After a couple of strides down the wing, the Penguins’ defenseman ripped a wrist shot over the Flame’s goalie’s shoulder. And the Penguins were back up on top.
The Flames still wouldn’t go away. A slick little pass back in front of the net that found its way through a tangle of legs to Troy Bower on the back door and the score was tied again.
The game would remain that way, tied through the third period and into OT. This time the late game heroics was provided by another defenseman, Justin Schultz. After trading blows, including Jarry shutting down a 2 on 0 play, with his back to the net, Malkin whipped a backhand pass across ice to Kessel, just inside the blue line again. Malkin got the puck up a little too high with his back hand pass. Kessel made a great play to knock the pass down with his hand, to his stick and settle it down. Then for the second time, the Right Winger displayed vision few players have, found Schultz all alone back across ice at the bottom of the left wing circle. Gillies had come out to cut the angle down on the Penguins sharp shooting RW, so he was nowhere to be found when the puck hit Schultz’s stick. Schultz wasted no time in planting the puck into the wide-open net.
I haven’t had a chance to read anyone else’s take on the game, but after the squeeker that was the Islander’s game I read several articles and blogs not just suggesting that the Penguins’ tail spin was over but asserting that they were back hitting on all cylinders. In fact, I read someone quoting Sullivan praising Sheary (What?).
There is something to be said for the power of positive thinking, but I am sorry, there still are holes left in this team’s play compared to before the trade deadline. Yes, Ruhwedel is an upgrade over Hunwick but he isn’t quite as good as Ian Cole. More importantly, there still is a serious hole on the 4th line.
Conor Sheary was on the ice for two of the Flames’ goals. He also continued to get bullied around, with opposing players just knocking him off of the puck and taking it the other way. And he also continued to struggle taking passes. To win back-to-back Stanley Cups Mike Sullivan has to be a good coach and in most cases I do trust him. However, like you and me, he still is human. For the life of me, I just do not get his blind spot when it comes to Conor Sheary. Sheary has pretty good instincts but he is too small to play on a team that every other team is gunning for. There has to be someone in Wilkes-Barre Scranton that could fill that hole until Zach Aston-Reese gets back.
Hey tOR,
Good recap. I thought it was a bit of a boring game, even with seven goals, some good saves, and no officials, mostly. I don’t know why. I think I was getting tired of watching them play in their own end and tired of the Flames running Jarry, or rather being able to do it without much resistance. He took a couple shots.
I think Sprong should be here. When he was, he didn’t hurt the team in spite of the dire warnings of his defensive game. I think Sid liked having him on his line, and for those eight games, his fire was reigniting. And Sprong and Simon worked well together, too. Since Sprong was sent down, Sid has cooled, again. I’ve seen many questions elsewhere, re: What’s wrong with Sid? I think the answer is as plain as the nose on Sully’s face. it’s time to burn down the dog house and give Sid a winger he obviously enjoyed playing along side.
They’ve won two bounce back games, in OT. A win is a win and all points are welcome, but they aren’t the kinds of victories you can depend on come April. With Hunwick out, the defense has been better, but it’s like they’re still trying to mesh at a time things of that nature should be solidified. That bothers me.
I think Brassard is a good acquisition, but he won’t change the dynamic of the team. Their offense was pretty good before he got here. He’ll bolster the bottom six, and that’s a good thing, though the fourth line has been a bit of a mess lately. I’m beginning to get the feeling the defensive loss, and the loss of some toughness, have already begun changing the dynamic. They were rolling. Now they aren’t. Squeaking by a few marginal teams after that surge is step back. Yeah, I like the resilience. It’s nice to know it’s there, but I don’t want to depend on it.
They’ve got to toughen up, again, with what they’ve got, and If there’s any common sense wandering about, get Sheary off the ice. Garrett Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, or Ann or Nancy Wilson, I don’t care. AND, get Sid some damn help!
That’s my nickel’s worth.
— 55
Agreed 100%
Sid/Simon/Sprong was extremely dynamic. I can’t help but think that a lot of the Sprong bashing is a PR campaign to justify burying him. As I wrote below, Sully you are the coach, if you don’t like him , fine, trade him for someone you will use, but remember the man in charge of process is totally accountable for outcome. So it dumoing a solid D man like Cole and refusing to lay Sprong causes the Penguins to miss the Playoffs or they bounce early because of it, then you Sully are accountable!.
When it is one player that you can’t get along with, then it probably is the player. When it is 2 players, then it may still be the players, but should the more players that start to fill that dog house, particularly in the do or die stretch run and playoffs, we have to start looking for common denominator.
As you write, the D is by no means out of the woods, just better than it was, stabilized.
And winning in OT is is still a win but beating fringe teams like the Islanders and the Flames in OT is a warning sign. These are teams that the Pens need to handle easily if they are to go deep in the playoffs.
As for Wilsons, I never liked Woodrow Wilson, I don’t mind Garrett Wilson, but if the Pens could somehow sign a young Ann and Nancy Wilson, that would be a coup. Then, then the Pens could go “Crazy on the league”
tOR,
Don’t know why my post came up Anonymous?
Re: The Wilson’s, etc., I wouldn’t mind a 25-year-old Grace Slick, either. Liking “Crazy on the league.”
Maybe a 20yr old Grace Slick could find the one pill to make Sheary 10′ tall
Hey Other Rick,
Great pic–the perfect depiction of the “Thrill of Victory vs. The Agony of Defeat.”
Thanks, as always, for doing the summary. The Pens are winning, but they’re doing it by the collective hairs of their chinny, chin chins. They’re obviously still trying to find their chemistry and work out combinations in the wake of the Brassard trade. Now’s the time to do it.
Agree that Ruhwedel is an upgrade over Hunwick. While Chad isn’t a standout in any facet of the game, he plays a fairly solid all-around game and makes a decent first pass, which gives him a decided leg up on Hunwick.
I’m not as big a Sheary hater as others. But even I can admit he’s not playing well. We certainly need more out of Conor than we’re getting.
Wish I knew how long Aston-Reese is going to be out. He became an important piece in a relatively short time. With Reaves and Cole gone, we sure could use his grit.
Rick
I know I seem like a Sheary hater, and if people want to categorize me as such, so be it. I don’t really hate him, I really wish he could succeed. If he is succeeding, the team is winning. Unfortunately, playing for the defending Champions Sheary, like the rest of the team has cross-hairs plastered all over his back. Every team is coming at the Penguins as hard as they can and since Sheary is not exactly the biggest player in the league and he is failing miserably against that pressure. The clock is chiming Midnight for him. It was painfully obvious in the play-offs last year when he just evaporated for a large part of the post season.
As I wrote once before, the attraction of the David and Goliath story is that it only happens once every couple thousand years. If mites like Sheary always succeeded there would be no magic to the story.
Perhaps the team could still win while coddling Sheary, but they would increase their probabilities of not only 3-peating but making the play-offs with just about half of the WBS roster substituting for him on the Penguins 4th line.
I would think that I am more a realist than Sheary hater.
The best thing that could have happen for Sheary’s career would have been that the Penguins had let him walk RFA and he signed with Buffalo or Arizona or other team that would not constantly be drawing the best from their opponents. Or perhaps a team that was loaded with a bunch of Ryan Reaves to pummel the opponents before they had a chance to bully Sheary.
Hey Other Rick,
I can certainly understand your frustration with Sheary. Going back to the opening round last spring against Columbus, Conor really hasn’t been the same player. While it wasn’t evident at the time (at least to me) in hindsight perhaps he was riding Sid and Guentzel’s coattails to an extent.
Sheary does get a lot of open looks with his speed and hustle, and I love his energy. But we sure do need him to bury some of those chances, which he hasn’t been doing…at all.
I just don’t know if there’s a better option down on the farm. Sprong appears to have flamed out to a degree since being sent down (3 goals, 16 points, minus-7 in 17 games). Based on his first go-round with the Pens, Sullivan doesn’t seem real keen on him.
Rick
Hey Rick,
A lot of people we know have defended Sheary asking the very same question you did, who would you replace him with.
I start by reminding them of the old adage about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We know Sheary is failing and Sullivan constantly putting him in a position to hurt the team…. well….
I know Sullivan seems to have a grudge against Sprong. If Tocchet was still here, I can’t help but wonder how things would be working out. Sullivan has lots of Cred for winning 2-Stanley Cups so he can afford to throw away a solid defensive defenseman during a playoff run with no plan B. He can even demote and bury a prospect. But if this becomes a pattern, players getting thrown out of town, and the team fails to win, then even Sullivan needs to be looked at.
However, that may be a while before we have to have that conversation, the team is still winning and right now the number of players Sullivan can’t seem to get along with is only 2, so it really just may be them.
However, if it really is Sprong that is the problem, I wish JR would have traded him for Grabner or Kane or something. If the Pens aren’t going to use him on the ice, get someone you will.
In defense of Sprong’s play since being demoted, WBS was still flying high initially with a 4 game winning streak, but since that time, starting around Feb 9, WBS has been nothing more than a 500 team. Since I don’t get the chance to really watch the games that closely, all I take from it is that Sprong can’t carry the team himself the way Crosby or Malkin can, but then again how many players can?
As for who else I would consider calling up; after Sprong, Since Sheary is more of a LW and Kuhnhackl is more of a RW, I think I would see how Garrett Wilson, Adam Johnson, and/or Tom Sestito look. Wilson and Sestito are certainly bigger, tougher, and have NHL experience, so I would understand if Sullivan starts there. However, they are slower and may not have Sheary’s O instincts, so I think I would start with Johnson. He is taller but maybe not that much bigger from a weight perspective. On the plus side, from what I remember of him in training camp, he is not afraid to hit and his stick handling skills in traffic reminded me a little of Ryan Malone or Craig Simpson. He also has the type of toughness I like during the playoffs. He doesn’t whine or take retaliatory penalties but just keeps coming at you.
I also would limit my search of a replacement to just wingers. I would give Bleuger and Dea auditions if Johnson didn’t work out. Next year the Penguins may just have a serious glut at Center with Bellerive and Angelo competing for spots with Brassard, Sheahan, and Blueger and Dea. I would think that they may want to prove they could adapt.
Josh Jooris is another player that comes to mind, although a recent addition, he does have some NHL experience.
All in all, I actually think all of the above are a better answer than Sheary. Since all of the big names of the team have bought into Sullivan’s system, Sullivan has no need of sitting big name players for an undersized winger.
Sorry, I should have proofed that before posting. I apologize for the many typos
Sorry Rick,
I agree, Phil grabbed a great Pic for this.