Since my duties at Wright’s Gym kept me otherwise engaged, I didn’t get to watch a whole lot of last night’s Penguins-Capitals game. In fact, my back was turned to the big screen TV behind the front desk on our first two goals. I didn’t get to view Jake Guentzel’s incredible deflection tally until I watched it on NHL.com.
Still, I witnessed enough of our 3-2 overtime triumph over the Caps at the appropriately named Capital One Arena last night to share a few impressions.
Despite our recent 5-1 run…very encouraging by the way…we’re far from a perfect team. The fourth line is practically non-existent and the second line is still struggling to mesh (a combined minus-six last night).
Worse yet, most of those second-unit troubles seem to be attributable to Evgeni Malkin, minus-five over his past four games despite the fact that he’s been on a little bit of a roll with three goals and eight points in his last nine.
Now it appears the team may be without one of its more vocal and popular players, Jason Zucker, for a spell.
Yet as I glimpsed the Pens pushing the game to overtime before snatching the two points thanks to a pretty bit of teamwork by Teddy Blueger and Kasperi Kapanen, a word popped into my head.
Character.
Our Pens have been down more times this season than you can shake a stick at (no pun intended). Yet they keep battling back. And they keep finding ways to prevail.
I confess, when I watched former GM Jim Rutherford sack his assistant coaches last fall and add players in what seemed to be willy-nilly fashion, the last thing I expected was to see this group bond as a team. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. They appear to have a marvelous esprit de corps, along with that dogged never-say-die attitude.
There’s a long way to go yet…39 games to be exact…and so many things can go wrong to kibosh things between now and the end of the season. Injuries, unexpected slumps from key players to name a couple. Not to mention that six of those games are with first-place Boston and half-dozen more against Philly, teams we don’t match up so well with.
But at the very least, we’re beginning to resemble a playoff team.
Puckpourri
The Pens outshot the Caps, 37-22, and won 56 percent of the faceoffs, with Blueger (75 percent) and Sidney Crosby (68 percent) leading the way.
Tristan Jarry stopped 20 shots (.909 save percentage) to earn the second star. Following a rocky start to the season, he’s won four of his last five outings while posting a 2.20 goals against average and sparking .932 save percentage.
Malkin, Guentzel and Kapanen were the goal-getters for the Pens. Freshly motivated following his previous game benching and a talk with coach Mike Sullivan, Kapanen responded with a strong performance, collecting a goal and an assist. He was named star of the game.
Special teams…atrocious earlier in the season…have improved dramatically during the recent hot streak. Over the past five games, the Pens have killed 12 of 14 penalties (85 percent) while converting on three of 12 power plays (25 percent).
We’re presently tied with the Islanders for third place in the MassMutual East Division with a record of 10-6-1 and 21 points, two points ahead of the fifth-place Flyers. We have a game in hand on the Isles…Philly has two in hand on us.
Rookie Pierre-Olivier Joseph continues to tumble back to earth. He’s a minus-six in his past five games, which pretty much coincides with being paired with Kris Letang. Could there be a connection? After all, “Tanger’s” not the easiest guy to read.
Opinyinz
Our speed has really been telling against the heavier-footed Caps (4-1) and Isles (3-1). However, I still wish we had some functional size and grind to go with the wheels. There are times when we struggle to win puck battles.
Following an excellent stretch, Mike Matheson had a bit of a rough game (minus-one). The Caps’ heavy forechecking pressure seemed to rattle him, especially deep in his own end.
On the flip side, I thought Cody Ceci played a really good game. He’s a better skater than advertised and is very smart when it comes to jumping into the play. I think his overall decision-making’s been good, too. In my book, his quietly steady play has been one of the most pleasant surprises thus far.
Belated kudos to Rutherford for having the cojones to sign the former first-round pick despite the mostly negative scouting reports and metrics. A shout-out as well to Sullivan and the coaching staff for using Cody in situations that give him the greatest chance to succeed.
Speaking of pleasant surprises, how about Blueger? With three goals and 11 points in 17 games, a 53.3 success rate on faceoffs and a Corsi of 54 to with a plus-six, he’s blossomed into a legit third-line center right before our eyes.
A rare Pens second-round pick who’s panned out.
Hey all,
Ron Hextall made his first official move as our general manager. I have to say, it’s a curious one. He claimed defenseman Mark Friedman off waivers from the Flyers.
When I first read about it on “Pittsburgh Hockey Now,” who referred to him as a “feisty d-man,” I confess I got all excited. I envisioned a 6-3, 210-pounder who might bang some bodies.
Wrong. Friedman is 5-11 185…Penguin-sized. He’s 25 years old, a right-handed shot and a former third-round pick of Hextall’s in Philly. He’s got 11 games of NHL experience, including four this season, and one assist.
Along with a bit of an edgy demeanor, I guess he can skate. He’s making $725 thousand and is slated to become an RFA at the end of the season.
A bit of a curious move, given that we already have five right-handed defensemen (Letang, Marino, Ceci, Ruhwedel and Weber). But obviously Hextall is familiar with Friedman and has an affinity for him.
We’ll see if any moves follow …
Rick
So much for the idea that the Pens are cheap. They will have to pay Friedman $700k even when he is in WBS.
On the other hand, the Pens only need eight more for a minyan.
Rick
I got excited as well when I heard we picked up a “D” MAN from the
Flyers. There has to be something brewing in terms of a trade.
Just my gut feeling.
Go Pens
Hi Rick,
They have looked good of late, though I don’t think they’ve played all that bad in general so far. They were stinking on defense for a bit, which seems to be getting better. For how long is anyone’s guess but I’ll enjoy it while it’s here.
You have a mistake in your copy, the Pens have 21 points, two ahead of Philly, who has 19.
Other Rick, I agree with Mike on Malkin, stats notwithstanding — and this is from someone who has been a big Malkin fan since day one.
His coasting around pouting, oh woe is me act has worn thin. He needs to suck it up and be the team leader he’s expected to be, and that he’s paid to be. It’s a toss up between him and Letang for most stupid passes, but more than that, by my eyes, he’s yet to be 100 percent engaged this season, though he has come closer in some recent games. I honestly don’t know why he hasn’t been benched for a couple games to maybe try to shake him loose.
— 55
Nice catch, 55. Thanks!
To borrow from Dan Bylsma, we seem to be getting to our game more consistently, and our speed really is telling at times. We still have a tendency to unravel defensively in the high-danger areas, and we’re usually good for about a five-minute stretch where we cough up a few odd-man breaks. But overall, we’ve been much better.
Still wish we had a physical grinder or two to help out in the high-traffic areas and to do some policing. At least there’s hope for it with Brian Burke on board.
Agree with you on Malkin. The giveaways in particular (18…tied for third in the league) drive me nuts. I know you’re going to have a certain amount of those with a creative player (high risk/high reward), but sometimes it looks like he’s purposely passing the puck to the other team. And he and Zucker just have no chemistry at all.
Anyway, hope we can keep the upswing going…
Rick
Hey Rick,
Before you let your Malkin bashing get set in stone consider this;
Zucker
has a 50.84% CORSI 5 on 5 Overall
has a 51.93% CORSI 5 on 5 with Malkin
has a 43.86% CORSI 5 on 5 without Malkin
Malkin
has a 52.21% CORSI 5 on 5 Overall
has a 51.93% CORSI 5 on 5 with Zucker
has a 54.35% CORSI 5 on 5 without Zucker
Just who is holding whom back?
These numbers hold true all the way down the line in HDC, G Diff etc.
They say Zucker is bouyed up by Malkin but Malkin is being tied to a millstone in Zucker. Objective evidence (raw data) says that Malkin’s biggest problem is the almost 7 times more TOI with Zucker than without Zucker (207:57 with vs 30:13 without)
Enough is enough with the unwarranted Malkin hate.
The lines should have been
Zucker – Crosby – Kapanen
Guentzel – Malkin – Rust.
right from the get-go and the team would have more than 4 Regulation wins and better than the 0.441 Regulation Points% (bad enough to still be 23rd in the league)
The Other Rick
This is why the numbers lie. No one was holding Malkin back but
Malkin himself – no matter what the numbers say it was obvious that
Malkin was playing without passion and moving lethargic and
slow. His passing and decision-making were horrendous. Those
are facts that can’t be disputed.
Your trying way too hard to be right on mixing up the lines – Malkin
supposed to be a great player so it’s his job to make his linemates
better not the other way around.
Hey Mike,
All I have done is present easily identifiable evidence. I am not “trying” anything at all. Since there is no metric to measure passion or lethargy, these are subjective discussions, easily influenced by a person’s prejudices. Furthermore, even if there was a metric to measure such traits as passion or lethargy they are only dominoes subject to other influences.
Passing, on the other hand could easily be turned into a metric if someone would study films and take note of at least how many times a player passes the puck, how many times the puck was legitimately on target, how many times the player receiving the pass failed to control the pass, and how many times the pass was intercepted.
So, just as with the above discussion with passion and lethargy, there are many factors influencing passing such as the person receiving the passes ability to accept a pass (or do they have bricks for hands?).
In the absence of someone creating that more accurate metric, there is an existing stat that could give us a hint as to who the better passer is – Assists and First Assists. Since Malkin has 5 assists and only 3 players have more assists than him. And since even the leader in Assists, Blueger, only has 2 more assists than Malkin, then Malkin would not have that bad of a passing metric – definitely not horrendous.
Decision making? That too could be turned into a metric. It would be a lot harder and require more work. However, to make it useful confounding variables like how much time a player has possession of the puck, passes to bad passes, missed opportunities, was there actually a better option or was it a kobayashi maru and no matter which decision he made it was going to be bad and did he at least not choose the worst option. Analyzing decision making would be very, very difficult.
Last season, playing with Rust and Guentzel, Malkin put up the best 5 on 5 numbers of any Center in the NHL. His numbers were better than McDavid’s, Matthews, McKinnon’s, all all of them. His numbers were the best. The numbers when middle of the pack may be somewhat misleading, but on either end of the spectrum, they speak volumes. Barring a severe injury, skill doesn’t erode that quickly.
Malkin has won 3 Stanley Cups, Zucker none. Malkin has won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, 2 Art Ross Trophies, the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Hart Memorial Trophy, and the Ted Lindsay Trophy. Zucker has never won a Stanley Cup or any of the awards and accolades Malkin has won. I would take a Malkin over Zucker every time. Malkin is a winner. He has a long and storied history of winning. Zucker does not.
Zucker’s only accolade has been the King Clancy Award, an award not really tied to hockey performance but on being a nice guy.
You can like Zucker all you want. If I ever met him, I probably would like him too. However, some players are winners and some are just nice likable guys that you may wish well for.
If Zucker is really as great of a Wing as you say he is, then why are you even arguing where he plays. Playing him with Crosby would only be elevating him to the top line status you appear to be saying he deserves. To argue that he should be playing 2nd line is to say he isn’t that good.
I really didn’t want to go there but there it is.
In the end, as it stands now, to say Malkin is playing without passion, lethargic, has poor passing, or decision making is horrendous is very disputable and even if those traits were horrendous this season they are not exclusive to my statement that Zucker should not have been playing with Malkin but with Crosby, not for Malkin’s sake but for the sake of the entire team.
The Other Rick
That’s a horrible argument “Come on” If Zucker would of played with Crosby during Sid’s younger days he would have a couple
Cups as well.
And even though of late I’ve been critical of Sully I find it hard
to question any of his moves or decisions. He has them playing
as a unit / great chemistry. He’s pushing all the right buttons and
deserves his due.
One more point I would like to make unlike Malkin you can put
a statue on the wings with Crosby and he’ll make them look
good – I can’t say the same for Malkin. He’s a moody feel-good
type player.
The Other Rick
Also, I’m not arguing where Zucker plays – I’m saying don’t try
to blame him for Malkin’s lack of effort, intensity, and lethargic
play. That’s all on Malkin – Also, sometimes when making
Coaching decisions even though it may be better for Malkin to
move Zucker up with Crosby it may not be better for the team.
As a Coach, you have to factor in all of the variables.
Mike,
It was Malkin who put the team on his back and carried them to their first Cup, that is why he won the Conn Smythe that year.
Furthermore, Zucker has always, repeat always disappeared during the stretch run and playoffs. There is no definitive way of knowing what would have happened, but the laws of probability suggest that no, the Pens would not have won Cups if the team was leaning on him and Crosby.
As for Sully, there is a very, very good reason why the Pens have only 4 regulation wins and it comes down to Sully. He is the problem. This is his team now. He is the one that wants no grit, no size, only speed.
As for Statues on Crosby’s wings, ah that is a definitive no. It took him 13 games this season for him to score his first 5 on 5 goal. He is struggling just as much as Malkin, his only saving grace has been playing with Guentzel and Rust. When it was Rodrigues on that line it was worse 5 on 5 than Malkin’s – and watch Sully try and go back to that when Rodrigues gets healthy.
Outside of when Crosby is injured, it is Malkin that usually skates with Pylons. Everyone wonders why it is that Malkin’s numbers jump when Crosby gets injured. A large part of that is that he finally gets decent wingers.
If you listened at all to the last games between period interviews, I believe it was Hathaway that came out and said that teams prepare for playing the Penguins with the idea of taking away Crosby’s wings to neutralize Crosby’s line because Crosby thinks pass first almost always. Conversely, they prepare to neutralize the second line by focusing on Malkin.
That was out of the mouth of an opposing player discussing how they plan their defenses.
Again, if Zucker is/was all that great, then in your logic, he should have been playing first line and to continue arguing that Zucker doesn’t play with Crosby but Malkin is to acknowledge is Zucker who needs a Center as indicated by his lack of assists vs Malkins increased assists.
As for your point about a coach doing what is best for the team, look above, that was my point earlier in this thread and several times throughout this season. Zucker – Crosby with Guentzel – Malkin – Rust has history on its side. Those combos equal the best team goal differentials per 60 when added together vs Sullivan’s square peg in a round hole approach.
CORI is a orthless stat. Zucker’s RGQA is 55% without Malkin and 33% with. Malkin is obviously holding Zucker back.
Stratton
Couldn’t agree more – For me it’s tough to criticize Zucker – the guy
competes night in and night out – does he have his bad games of
course but he never lacks effort and plays with a high compete
level. I would take a couple more Zuckers around 6-3 and 220.
GO PENS