The Malkin Blame Game Continues

Let me begin by writing, I hate excuses! Take an honest look, find the problem, and fix it. Don’t play the blame game, not unless you are the one accepting the blame and not trying to shift it on to someone else.

Why am I writing this?

Waking up this morning, I saw another blogger writing an article entitled “After Malkin’s Return, Penguins in Flux, Turnovers, Mistakes & Passengers”. Said blogger kept writing it wasn’t Malkin’s fault, over and over again, and in so doing was blaming Evgeni Malkin.

First let’s address the idea that the team is turning the puck over more now that Malkin is back – FALSE!!

Using the NHL’s own web site, before Malkin returned, Our Pittsburgh Penguins Gave the puck away 7.15 times per 60 minutes (Gv/60). In the games Malkin has played in, the Black-and-Gold’s GV/60 is 6.96, down 0.19. Conversely our favorite flightless fowl only managed to Take the puck away 7.07 times per 60 minutes (Tk/60); that represents a -0.08 in the Tk – Gv/60 differential. Since Malkin has returned our home town heroes have a Tk/60 of 7.95; the Tk/60 has jumped up 0.80 and the Tk – Gv/60 differential is now on the plus side +0.99. Our team’s Tk – Gv/60 has jumped 1.08.

Let me repeat this for those Malkin Hater’s, the statement that the team has more turnovers with Malkin back is absolutely FALSE!!

So, what is wrong with our Penguins?

First, at least at this point, maybe nothing is wrong. The team is only on a 3-game losing streak, but picked up 2 points in those losses because 2 of those loses were OT/SO.

Second, if the team is about ready to slide; oh, I don’t know, maybe I was right when I said don’t get too excited while our Pens were on their vaunted 18-2 streak, they were playing the bottom of the league. During that 18-2 streak the average position in the league rankings that Mike Sullivan’s team faced was 21.05; bottom third of the league. The average Points Percentage Pts% of our opponents was 0.492, or below 0.500.

I know some people will say, “every team has to be played and the Penguins do not make their own schedule”; I know that, but that response is not really listening to what was said, or more accurately, not critically thinking about it. I said don’t get too excited, don’t buy your Stanley Cup Finals tickets yet. Sidney Crosby and crew were only doing what they should be doing, beating the bottom third of the league.

Prior to that 18-2 streak against the bottom third of the league, our Penguins were 17^th in the league with a Pts% of 0.568.

Honestly, why isn’t anyone asking why the [your favorite euphemism inserted here] is Dominik Simon still in the lineup? In the 20 games against the bottom third of the league only scored 1 Goal (G) and 3 Assists (A) and has taken stupid penalties at critical times.

When I wrote my preseason predictions, I wrote, “when Evan Rodrigues plays Center and in a top 6 role he will excel, when Malkin comes back and he slides down the line up, to a bottom 6 role, particularly on the Wing instead of Center he will disappear”. What is Sullivan doing? He has taken to playing E-Rod on Wing and bottom 6.

When Sullivan has had Radim Zohorna, Malkin, and Jeff Carter together they have a CORSI% 70.00%, and they controlled the puck with an 80% Offensive Zone Face Off Percentage (OZFO%). They got the puck into the O-Zone and kept it there. So, what has Sullivan done? Avoided putting that line back together. But then again what should I expect? Jake Guentzel’s With-or-Without you (WoW) numbers have always been higher with Malkin than Sidney Crosby, but you only see Guentzel with Malkin in games Sid is hurt.

If Sullivan really wants to maximize this team’s chances of winning, he should try putting the Zohorna-Malkin-Carter line back together and keep it together for more than the 6 minutes and change that you have doled out to it. He should move E-Rod to 3^rd line Center with Kasperi Kapanen; they worked really well together early in the season. However, our Coach had to break up that Combo too.

In fact, Jason Zucker actually look his best (relative term) when skating with E-Rod and Kapanen – when Zucker gets healthy again, put him back out there with E-ROd and Kappy. 

And for love of hockey, waive Simon and send him to Wheeling; skip Wilkes Barre – Scranton (WBS), send him to Wheeling. Or loan him to the French or English leagues, those are the teams he plays best against (See the World Tournament from a couple of years ago).

There are at least 7 players either in WBS of on the Taxi squad I would rather see in the lineup than that oxygen thief.

Wrap Up

NO! Malkin isn’t to blame. The stats show that the common Malkin complaints are way, way off base. Furthermore, at the moment, the team is only at a speed bump after the last three games, not a full-blown downward spiral. Just as I cautioned that the 18-2 game streak didn’t mean get your Finals’ tickets, this current slump isn’t stirring any false hope in me at getting a chance to draft Shane Wright.

If there is a problem here (and you know I think, yes) it is the Coach. He puts players in a position to fail  not succeed. Zohorna-Malkin-Carter worked well together – put them back together. Zucker-E-Rod-Kapanen worked well together – put them back together and you probably won’t have to ask where is this player of that player.

Odds and Sods

Getting back to my opening statement about excuses and the blame game; I still don’t like the trade, but two games back Mike Matheson impressed me. During an interview between periods, even though I didn’t think he was playing all that bad, he took the blame for the Goal Against (GA) scored during the previous period.