It wasn’t a thing of beauty. Not by a long shot. But our Penguins managed to stave off a furious third-period push by the hated Flyers at PPG Paints Arena last night to triumph, 4-3, in their first game back following a 10-day hiatus.
Tristan Jarry literally saved the day with 16 third-period stops, many of the ten-bell variety. And captain redoubtable, Sidney Crosby, came through in the clutch as he always does, lacing a wrist shot past Philly goalie Brian Elliot from the right circle 55 seconds into overtime for the game-winner.
But…and it’s awfully big BUT…
There were issues aplenty. Including some personnel decisions that baffled me. I’ll get to those in a moment.
First off, in a style eerily reminiscent of last season, the Pens played in spurts. Granted, it was a terrific spurt…featuring goals by Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Kris Letang packed into a tidy span of 7:09…enabling our boys to snatch a 3-1 lead. But they proceeded to take the final 20 minutes off.
Not exactly a blueprint for success, especially for a squad with legit Stanley Cup aspirations.
I’ll give the guys a pass….for now. They were coming off the prolonged break. It’s obvious they miss Jake Guentzel and Dominik Kahun…how could they not. I’m surprised at the impact Kahun’s absence has had. It’s forced coach Mike Sullivan to juggle the forward lines. Suddenly, the pieces don’t seem to fit.
Perhaps it’s incidental, but we don’t seem to be winning as many puck battles. And if you don’t win puck battles, you can’t possess the puck, the lifeblood of Sullivan’s attacking style.
Oddly, that’s not what really bothers me. Rather, I’m concerned with some of Sullivan’s recent personnel decisions. To digress, I think he’s done a marvelous job this season. The fiery skipper definitely merits consideration for the Jack Adams Award. If there was an award for “comeback coach of the year,” he’d be deserving of that, too.
Still, I think he may be getting too smart for his own good while trying to fix what ain’t broke. Frankly, his decision to dress four right-handed shooting defensemen and play Chad Ruhwedel over Juuso Riikola was a head-scratcher.
I’m not knocking Ruhwedel, a solid depth defender who’s done a really nice job for us. But I thought he looked like a fish out of water at times playing the off side, no easy feat for anyone. Causing Sullivan to limit him to a dozen minutes of ice time while upping the load on the other defensemen.
To my eye, it’s not like Ruhwedel’s head and shoulders above Riikola. Their traditional stat lines are virtually identical. And Riikola has a decided edge in advanced stats. He has a better Corsi (52 vs. Ruhwedel’s 48.8) and a way better 5-on-5 shot attempts differential (plus-24 vs. Chad’s minus-24).
Plus, Riikola’s a left-handed shot. He’d be playing his natural side. And it’s not like the kid’s a stiff. He skates well, has some sand in his game and possesses a bomb of a shot.
It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Along those lines, Other Rick and I were talking yesterday about how excited we were to see Anthony Angello get a look. We both feel the Pens are missing a power element and hope Angello might be able supply it.
After raising the issue of foot speed I sarcastically remarked, ”Sullivan will probably play him four minutes.”
Okay, I was wrong. The kid got 4:13 of ice time.
Shades of 2017-18, when Sullivan meted out playing time to his fourth line of Ryan Reaves, Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl the way Ebeenzer Scrooge doled out schillings prior to A Christmas Carol. Granted, the unit wasn’t a combination made in hockey heaven. But Sully’s reluctance to play them made the Pens a three-line team. And you don’t win Stanley Cups playing three lines.
Back to the present. For some reason he favors journeyman Andrew Agozzino over kids like Sam Lafferty and Joe Blandisi. Okay, neither of them was lighting up scoreboards. But both can skate and they add some aggression. And he doesn’t play Agozzino, either (6:12 of ATOI). Again rendering us a three-line team in a four-line league.
Perhaps Sully’s just trying to weather the storm until Kahun and Nick Bjugstad return. But he needs to guard against being too cute or too conservative. Play the kids, for goodness sake. Their collective spunk, energy and enthusiasm’s contributed greatly to the team’s surprising success. It’s part of what brung you.
Enough grumbling. To borrow from the old Eat’n Park commercials, Crunch the Capitals!
Hey Rick,
We talked about this a bit earlier.
You know we are pretty much on the same page.
As you say, Ruhwedel is a decent enough depth defenseman, a 7th or 8th.
However, he is also 29yrs old, allegedly at the prime of his career and his play is roughly good enough for spot playing time on a team that when healthy has Letang, Marino, and Schultz on its right side.
Although both Ruhwedel and Riikola both have played 28 games, Riikola gets almost no ice time even when he dresses. I know you talked about Angello’s TOI and I will address that lter, Riikola averages only 13:57 per game, so when you balance even the 2-Rs stats out for TOI Riikola wins in, pretty much, all categories, often by wide margins – and he is left handed.
Now to Angello, yep, we saw that coming. IN the brief seconds that he was on the ice he did his job in all 3 zones and he appear to do a pretty good job taking away Elliott’s eyes in the all too brief opportunity he had in the attacking zone. Two Flyers had to come over toward him while Angello’s line mates tried to work themselves in position for a shot, while Elliott was doing contortions to see around the 3 bodies collapsing toward him.
No, Angello got 4:13 but take heart, Simon got his 16:40. Simon was able to notch a -6 Corsi, -6 Fenwick, -1 Shot Diff, and a -1 Goal Diff at 5 on 5. Even though he only had 1 Defensive Zone start, Simon managed to get all minuses. Not bad for his 16:40 Ev TOI. He is really earning his top 6 minutes.
Even though Simon was only credited with 1 Giveaway but 3 Take away s, I saw the Flyers bully him and take the puck off of him at least 3 times. It would be interesting to see what his stat line would look like if the league not only tracked Take Away s but which baby was having the candy taken from him. I am not going to posture and say that my anecdotal thoughts are correct, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Simon led the team in that dubious honor, if it were tracked. The only player that my eye test would track as lower would be Conor Sheary when he was here.
I could go on, but I won’t. At least not for now.
Hey Other Rick,
Great comments…and you had me chuckling with your discourse on Simon. I think he’s generally a useful player, but I certainly can’t argue with the stats you dug up. That’s a heck of a lot of minuses.
I usually don’t mention other blogs on PenguinPoop. But Hooks Orpik dedicated a full article to the questionable Ruhwedel over Riikola decision on Pensburgh. He’s far more versed in advanced stats and metrics than I and displayed a SKATR chart that shows 5-on-5 ratings for all sorts of categories. As you mentioned, Riikola’s head over heels better than Ruhwedel…all the more puzzling because they’ve frequently been paired together.
The only thing I can think…and this is really a stretch. Maybe Sullivan wanted another right-handed defenseman in the lineup in case Schultz wasn’t 100 percent and had to exit early.
Aside from that, perhaps a case of Sullivan being more comfortable with a veteran…and maybe not trusting Riikola…although goodness knows why.
Just saw the Pens recalled Lafferty. Thank goodness. Whatever minuscule edge Agozzino provides in faceoffs (50 percent to Lafferty’s 49 percent) doesn’t merit playing him over the kid. Of course, they’ll probably sit Angello and dress Agozzino.
Anyway…good comments.
Rick
Wonder who will play then and who will sit.
Will Lafferty play and Angello sit.
Lets not sit the 29yr old guy that hasn’t really cracked an NHL line up yet and sit a 6’5 kid with strong scoring potential.
That sounds like a Sully move to me.
Good question.
Hornqvist missed practice yesterday for a dental procedure, but it doesn’t sound serious enough to cause him to sit.
Like you, I’m not on board with Sullivan’s practice of playing 29-year-old journeymen (Agozzino and Ruhwedel) over kids like Lafferty and Riikola, who display infinitely more promise.
I guess he feels safer with the vets. But now isn’t a good time to get conservative. Especially if it results in shortening his bench on a game-in, game-out basis.
I hope he’ll dress both Lafferty and Angello to better match up with a physical Capitals team. However, even if he plays them I wouldn’t expect them to receive a ton of minutes. Probably five or six tops.
To digress, I can’t imagine how deflating it would be for a young kid like Angello to be called up…then essentially sit on the bench for the entire game. What kind of message does that send? “Sorry, kid, you’re not my guy” or “you’re not good enough to play for me.”
Note to Sully…get over yourself and give the kids a chance. They just might surprise you…in a good way.
Rick
Big Amen Rick,
Play the kids, play to Win – do not play not to Lose.
Mr Sullivan, Kids like Lafferty have you 4th in the league right now.
Question Rick,
You say you think Simon is generally a useful player, useful to who, the Penguins or their opponents?
Against the Caps he got 11:52 5 on 5 TOI and once again he dominated play for the opponents. His Corsi was a -16 a -16, his Fenwick was a -12, his Shot differential was a -4, and his Goal Differential was a -2, all of that in just 11:52 of TOI. Yes he did get a goal for the Pens but he helped Washington to all 3.
On a team that is +20 in 5 on 5 Goal Differential, and +25 on its +/-, Simon is tied for the worst +/- among forwards at -6 (Galchenyuk is his only competition for +/- clunkers against regular forward roster players).
But as I said above, Simon got 11:52 5 o 5 TOI and a total of 15:36.
In contrast Lafferty had a goal also and was a +1 in 5:34 5 on 5 TOI and 5:40 total TOI and Anthony Angello had no goals but was a +1 in his 5:42 5 on 5 TOI and 5:49 total TOI.
At the rate he is going he is going to aggravate Crosby’s hernia sooner, rather than later.
TBL is next. I don’t think JR really needs to trade for a player, rather trade away some dead wood.
I don’t delve into the advanced stats the way you do, but I was surprised to see Simon was a minus-2 despite scoring a 5-on-5 goal. For the season, he’s a minus-6 on a team where just about everyone else is a plus.
I know you’re crunched for time, but maybe this would be a good time for your Simon analysis article. I’m serious. It would provide a lot of insight into how certain metrics and indicators (5-on-5 shot attempts differential for example) can be misleading when measured against other factors.
Simon would seem to be the test-tube subject for an “analytics analysis”…
Rick
Hey Rick,
At some point, when I can sit back and actually write something cogent I will use Simon as a discussion of Stats and how different stats influence others and which really mean more than others.
+/- looked at as a discreet number is meaningless, but as we mentioned above when Simon and Galchenyuck are the only minuses on a team with a team +/- of +25, now that is significant.
Looking at today’s game, it is easy to see how Simon ended up a -3;
On the Caps first goal, Simon was sitting back lazily waiting for the puck to come to him rather than skating to the puck to break out. The Caps intercepted the puck and converted the turnover into a goal.
On the 2nd Caps goal, I am not sure who was suppose to be where but when Murray moved the puck up the boards to his Defenseman who bumped the puck to Rust, both Wingers were on the same side of the ice (Rust and Simon). Rather than circling back to the other Wing, Simon stopped and and tried to charge ahead of Rust on the breakout. Rust lost control of the puck and it went the other way. So, although Rust coughed the puck up the opposite wing was open due to Simon being on the same side as Rust. The Caps moved the puck to the open side of the ice and worked it in tight for the goal. Poor decision on Simon’s part.
Schultz also looked rather lazy in that play.
On the 3rd Goal, again, Simon looked a little indecisive. The Caps Goalie topped the puck behind his net to set it up for his Defenseman. Simon was the forechecker. Instead of attacking the puck immediately, he moved toward the net to shadow that defenseman as he waiting to decide how he wanted to break out in that stereo-typical cat-and-mouse break out.
That might have worked out had he continued to play soft.
However, he changed his mind and attacked the puck from the right while his support, Crosby was coming toward him. Once again bringing both Penguins to one side of the ice.
With Crosby cutting left to right and Simon chasing the puck left to right, that gave the Caps defenseman an option behind Crosby. That lead to a successful stretch pass and a Goal.
Few people will look that forward into the play as to how it started and give Simon a pass on the minus but sorry, he earned all 3 of his minuses in my book. Yes, he had help at times, but he was not faultless.