Penguins Final Report Cards

To borrow from an old Alice Cooper classic, School’s Out for our Penguins. No more sticks. No more pucks. No more referees dirty looks.

It’s time for report cards to be passed out and grades to be assigned. In the past, I’ve written brief narratives for each player. However, with my mind already in summer vacation mode I thought I’d try a simpler approach (yes, less writing!) and just do a summary for each grade.

While I’ve loosely tied my grades to 5v5 goals for and goals against, there’s still a large degree of subjectivity involved.

Here goes:

Grade A
Skater	Grade	GP	GF	GA	GF%	Diff.
Sidney Crosby	A	82	67	51	56.78	16
Rickard Rakell	A	82	61	54	53.04	7
Evgeni Malkin	A-	82	53	50	51.46	3
Jason Zucker	A-	78	54	56	49.09	-2

As a whole, this quartet exceeded all expectations. Notching a team-high 93 points, I thought Sidney Crosby had an amazing season at age 35. Then again, nothing No. 87 does surprises me. A consistent producer from the opening drop of the puck, Rickard Rakell tallied 60 points and blended exceptionally well with Sid and Evgeni Malkin. One year Sid’s senior and not far removed from major knee surgery, a remarkably hale and dynamic Geno played in all 82 games and racked up 83 points. Likewise, Jason Zucker bounced back from two injury-plagued seasons to tally 27 goals. Plain and simple, he was our heart and soul…our fighting spirit.

Grade B
Skater	Grade	GP	GF	GA	GF%	Diff.
Jake Guentzel	B+	78	59	49	54.63	10
Ty Smith	B	9	6	3	66.67	3
Marcus Pettersson	B	68	56	56	50.00	0
Bryan Rust	B-	81	51	42	54.84	9
Kris Letang	B-	64	52	54	49.06	-2

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on Jake Guentzel, who potted a team-best 36 goals (including seven empty-netters). Although it isn’t reflected in his 5v5 numbers, I thought Jake’s defensive play was lax at times. Kris Letang endured a season packed with trial and tribulation but performed both admirably and courageously. Bryan Rust had a bit of a down year, but still managed 20 goals and while playing with his trademark hustle. Marcus Pettersson was solid. Ty Smith impressed in his brief cameo.

Grade C
Skater	Grade	GP	GF	GA	GF%	Diff.
Pierre-Olivier Joseph	C+	75	53	41	56.38	12
Josh Archibald	C+	62	21	16	56.76	5
Jeff Petry	C+	61	51	49	51.00	2
Mark Friedman	C+	23	12	10	54.55	2
Alex Nylander	C+	9	5	4	55.56	1
Drew O’Connor	C+	46	15	18	45.45	-3
Jan Rutta	C	56	28	32	46.67	-4
Danton Heinen	C	65	25	29	46.30	-4
Ryan Poehling	C	53	15	19	44.12	-4
Chad Ruhwedel	C-	47	21	26	44.68	-5
Brian Dumoulin	C-	82	52	70	42.62	-18

Being a thoroughly pedestrian team by almost every statistical measure, it’s no great surprise most of our players earned Cs. Jeff Petry wasn’t bad, but didn’t have the overall impact I’d hoped for or expected. Ditto fellow newcomer Jan Rutta. Pierre-Olivier Joseph put up strong 5v5 numbers and flashed some offensive skill and excellent mobility, but his play in the defense zone was checkered at best and shaky at worst. Possibly due to off-season knee surgery, Brian Dumoulin was a train wreck early. To my eye, Dumo improved dramatically in the final weeks to pull his grade out of the tank.

Grade D
Skater	Grade	GP	GF	GA	GF%	Diff.
Mikael Granlund	D+	21	9	8	52.94	1
Kasperi Kapanen	D+	43	16	24	40.00	-8
Brock McGinn	D+	60	18	27	40.00	-9
Teddy Blueger	D	45	11	21	34.38	-10
Jeff Carter	D-	79	24	41	36.92	-17

As witnessed by his 5v5 numbers, Mikael Granlund didn’t play badly following his arrival. But with five measly points in 21 games, he simply didn’t produce. Having the misfortune of skating on a ‘donut’ line with a badly diminished Jeff Carter, I considered giving Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn each a C- but neither did much to distinguish themselves. Penalty-killing aside, Teddy Blueger’s overall game deteriorated badly. Perhaps as a by-product of advanced age and attrition, Carter was an albatross from Thanksgiving on and sank the third line for much of the season. If not for his remarkable faceoff prowess and the fact that he was repeatedly (and inexplicably) put in a position to fail by Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff, Jeff would’ve been given an F.

Grade Incomplete
Skater	Grade	GP	GF	GA	GF%	Diff.
Nick Bonino	Inc.	3	1	0	100.00	1
Taylor Fedun	Inc.	4	2	2	50.00	0
Drake Caggiula	Inc.	4	1	2	33.33	-1
Dmitry Kulikov	Inc.	6	1	3	25.00	-2
Sam Poulin	Inc.	3	0	3	0.00	-3
Jonathan Gruden	Inc.	3	0	0	—	0
Filip Hallander	Inc.	2	0	0	—	0

This bunch didn’t play enough to merit a grade. In particular, I would like to have seen what kind of impact Nick Bonino might have had. We could’ve used his smarts, grit and leadership down the stretch. Not to mention his presence on the penalty kill.

Goalies	Grade	GP	GA	SH	GAA	SV%
Casey DeSmith	B-	33	109	0	3.17	.905
Tristan Jarry	C+	47	128	2	2.90	.909

I chose not to be too harsh on our goalies. Fueled in part by a system that didn’t fit the talent on hand, our team defense, to be kind, left a lot to be desired. Casey DeSmith filled an expanded 1A role to the best of his abilities and improved as the season went on, posting a .910 save percentage in 16 appearances following the All-Star break despite facing down a ton of high-danger rubber. Better protected, Tristan Jarry performed well enough until injuries kiboshed his second half.

Front Office and Coaching

I’ll throw in one last set of grades. The front office gets a D and so does Sullivan and his staff. The Pens were poorly constructed and poorly coached.