The Penguins: Making the Grade Part 3

The season is over and the dust is now settling. Before I look ahead to the Playoffs (and the Flyers), I wanted to finish grading the regular season for our Penguins. With the Penguins finishing 2 in the Metro and another 100+ season, the overall team grade could not be as bad as what I gave the GM and the Coach.

Centers : B+

I can’t imagine a team that boasts both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby could ever get a grade less than a B. I was one of the people that worried about the loss of Nick Bonino and Matt Cullen this past off-season. It’s not that I had any delusions about the Penguins’ ability to keep Bonino, but I had hoped they would have at least made an offer to Cullen. When the curtain rose and Greg McKegg and Carter Rowney were the only Penguins occupying the bottom 2 Center spots, I was greatly concerned.

Fortunately for our Penguins, Malkin has had an MVP worthy season. Despite some detractors (my own brother one of them) who still keep insisting that Malkin is weak defensively, Geno was second on the team with a +16 and 4th in the league in scoring and 4th in the league in P/60 among players who played at least 41 games. The only problem for Malkin when it comes to the League MVP is that Connor McDavid and Nate McKinnon had monster seasons as well.

Perhaps the only thing that kept Sidney Crosby from tossing his name into the hat for the Hart trophy may have been the Penguins’ coaches’ personnel decisions often putting pylons on Crosby’s flanks. Crosby may easily have scored some of the most memorable goals of the season. His double tap goal of just a few games back will stand in my memory for quite some time. I can’t conceive of anything that could supplant it.

I was not a fan of the Riley Sheahan trade when it happened, but Sheahan surely came on and has had a very strong second half of the season. Previewing the coming playoffs, a writer for a local paper disrespected what may be the Penguins 4th line this spring suggesting that goals from that line (Sheahan, Aston-Resse, Tom Kuhnhackl) would be few and far between. I have to disagree with that paid writer, particularly if Aston-Reese plays the left side and Kuhnhackl goes back to Right Wing (RW) where he belongs and Mike Sullivan actually rolls 4 lines. If Sullivan does give 4 lines more than an afterthought, that 4th line may just lead the way. At the very least, it will certainly open up the ice for the top 3 lines, since there will be no break for opposing D.

I am not going to grade Derick Brassard, Josh Jooris or Jean-Sebastien Dea, since they really didn’t play that many games. However, as you see above I did not give Greg McKegg or Carter Rowney that high of grade but that doesn’t mean I didn’t appreciate what at least Rowney did for the team. Rowney was strong in the face-off circle and played well defensively most of the season. Unfortunately, offensively he was pretty much invisible. In Rowney’s defense, like Kuhnhackl, he is stronger on the RW.

Right Wings : B+

Our Penguins were also blessed this year with a strong stable of thoroughbreds on the RW. Just like at Center, Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist did their level best to offset some very questionable decisions by the Penguins’ brain trust. Phil “the Thrill” Kessel started off with an off-season of hard work and then exploded out of the gate, leading the way. He was an absolute beast in OT, regularly ripped shots past goalies (just ask Craig Anderson from last game), and displayed play-making skills most would have only thought Crosby and Malkin could flash. In the end, Kessel had himself a career year.

I don’t think anyone would ever question Hornqvist’s effort. To borrow phrase from a Mel Brooks movie, Hornqvist plays with only 2 intensities, super high and ludicrous intensity. The Swedish Winger was very close to career seasons in goals and points as well, earning himself a well-deserved contract extension.

Although I think in pure talent there is at least 1 other RW in the Penguins’ organization better than Brian Rust, this past season, he easily was the unsung hero of the team. His speed, tenacity, and utility were invaluable in keeping the team above water.

Like Sheahan, Ryan Reaves started off slowly and was under-used all season. I was not a fan of the trade that brought him here, but I do appreciate what he has accomplished. He never displayed the scoring touch that some espouse, but he did start to find the net right before the team was forced to add him to the Brassard trade. Most importantly, he filled the role for which he was traded most admirably.

As with the Centers, I am not going to grade Daniel Sprong, Aston-Reese or any other players that didn’t play very many games. However, I am sure almost everyone here knows my opinion of Sprong.

Left Wings : C+

Unfortunately for the Penguins, there is not the same depth on LW as on RW. This forced the team to play a few players out of position. However, Guentzel, despite a weak showing in the +/- department, is the class act of this position. Perhaps part of the problem with Guentzel was line pairings and having to play Center for part of the season, as he did have a bit of a drop off from his rookie season. Like many of the players on the team, he did start picking his game up down the stretch run, particularly when he was paired once again with Crosby. Guentzel also led the team’s Forwards in hits once the Penguins traded Reaves.

Carl Hagelin, like many players, started the season with a whimper, finding scoring to be a bit of a challenge. However, his speed and defensive work kept him a valuable asset until he was once again reunited with Malkin. Down the stretch run his scoring touch appeared to have returned.

Dominik Simon was easily the 3rd best LW on the team, but he didn’t have much competition. Conor Sheary certainly has some offensive skill and good anticipation, but his defensive work and softness on the puck limit his true value to the team. Since Kuhnhackl is a left handed shot, he was used at LW, but like so many Europeans, he plays much better on the RW (recall how he swooped in from the RW to rip that goal past the goalie on the Penalty Shot he was awarded). Unfortunately, Kuhnhackl never got comfortable on the LW. Rust, the utility man, did show equal skill regardless of wing, however, and since he is a natural RW I graded him as such. Scott Wilson didn’t play that long for the team this past year before being traded, and he displayed a capricious work ethic in the preseason.

Defense : D+

I can’t believe anyone tries to defend this group of players. I would have to think that anyone defending the Penguins. D either knows nothing about hockey or never closely watched a game this year. I am not sure if anyone charts the number of break-aways or odd-man breaks a team gives up, but if someone does, I would be extremely surprised if any team gave up more than our Penguins. The same could be said for number of times an opposing Forward stood all alone in front of a goalie. When all is said and done, the Penguins’ D needs to take all of the Penguins goalies out (including Antti Niemi) for the best dinner they can buy them for the number of times they left them hanging out to dry.

Of the Penguins Defensemen still on the roster, the only 2 who I can give could passing marks to are Justin Schultz and Jamie Oleksiak. Even though Ollie Maatta and Brian Dumoulin put up career numbers for offense and their defensive lapses may really be attributable to poor pairings, defensively they were suspect. After mid-season, Kris Letang finally started to get back to form offensively, though he still had serious problems with his defensive game. Ian Cole was easily the 3rd best D-man on the team and best defensive defenseman, but I won’t get into that here, the wound is still very sore. I do like Chad Ruhwedel as a 7th Defenseman but he shouldn’t be counted on regularly and the Matt Hunwick signing, well, I am not going to posthumously beat that horse. Sullivan should have given Kevin Czuczman, Andrey Pedan, or Jarred Tinordi some ice time before the season ended to get them ready for the play-offs, but in the end, I would still feel more comfortable with one of them out there this post season than several of the players we will see, even though they only played AHL games all year.

Goalies : B-

To anyone that complains about Penguin goalies to me, I am deaf to you and question how you look at hockey. If the Penguins’ goalies had put up the numbers they did behind the defense that played here 2 years ago, then maybe I would lend some credence to your criticisms, but this beleaguered batch of rookies and kids did beyond a yeoman’s job backstopping the turnstiles that masqueraded as Penguins’ defensemen. And anyone, including both of my younger brothers, that wants to complain about Matt Murray’s glove hand, go back to the NHL website and scroll through the videos of this past season and watch how many times Murray flashed the leather. With the number of odd-man breaks and break-aways they faced, Penguins’ goalies must have felt as though that the NHL changed their format and reduced each game to Shoot Outs.

Well, so much for the regular season, now comes the real defense of the Cup. I hope that the weakness of this team get straightened out. Go Pens.
3ELIEVE