It has been quite a few seasons since I gave out mid-term grades. Since I don’t like to be subjective and hand out grades based on who I like and I haven’t had time to really look at the objective facts, I opted to not hand out opinions. Fortunately/Unfortunately, this season I started to keep better track of the stats so I could easily report how our individual players are performing compared to their peers across the league.
Before any howling among the fans begins, let me say that our Pittsburgh Penguins as a whole have a Points Percentage (Pts%) of 0.585 while the average team in the league has a Pts% of 0.571. If we were in school this would come out to a 76.8% or a solid C for their team and Coaches performance. Therefore, if the team is only playing at a C in terms of winning games, there are not a whole lot of As being handed out, particularly to the players getting the most ice time.
For a full discussion of how I came up with my grades, look to the bottom of the article. I didn’t want to bore those readers that don’t care about the math behind my grades.
Some of our forwards are having really good individual seasons 5-on-5, compared to the league average. However, they seem to be doing it at the expense of team play, particularly in the defensive zone. Taking Sidney Crosby as an example, his personal PPts/60 and TGF/60 are well above the league averages, but in terms of team defense as represented by TGA/60 he has been on the ice for 3.00 TGA/60 while the league average is only 2.52.
Looking at Evgeni Malkin, he too has been having a really good individual season in terms of PPts/60 and TGF/60. Like his first line opposite Crosby, his TGA/60 dips a little, but no where as bad as Crosby’s TGA/60 drops. Malkin’s TGA/60 remains better than the league mean (2.28 vs 2.52). Perhaps Malkin’s defense numbers are better than Crosby’s due to the amount of time Crosby has played with Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel who are struggling mightily this season. Regardless of the reasons, the on ice results show that everyone’s perceptions that Malkin is defensively a liability, especially compared to Crosby are little off this this season.
Now looking at Jason Zucker, who I have been a critic over the years, has been playing better than most of the other forwards. If I was like many other fans who cling to their subjectivity, I would still blind myself to the results I found. However, I only care about results and I have to shout out to Zucker as he too is having a good season.
| 5on5 | PP | PK | |
| Archibald, Josh | C- | – | A+ |
| Blueger, Teddy | F | – | A+ |
| Carter, Jeff | D- | A | C- |
| Crosby, Sidney | B | C- | – |
| Guentzel, Jake | B | C | – |
| Heinen, Danton | D | C | – |
| Kapanen, Kasperi | C+ | A+ | A+ |
| Malkin, Evgeni | B+ | C- | – |
| McGinn, Brock | D- | – | A- |
| Poehling, Ryan | C | – | C+ |
| Rakell, Rickard | C | B | – |
| Rust Bryan | D+ | D- | A+ |
| Zucker, Jason | B | D+ | – |
There are some players that have earned some As on the PP. Unfortunately, none of the players earning As play on the 1st PP unit. At least in my mind it calls into question our Coaching staffs ability to utilize players properly and put them in positions to succeed. I would certainly have made changes to the PP. I would certainly have substituted Rickard Rakell, Kasperi Kapanen, and Jeff Carter, for Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust. I would want at least someone on the ice that could go to the net and take up some room.
Our PK has played pretty well and several of the PK artists have earned As. However, outside of Kapanen the best of the PK forwards don’t contribute much elsewhere. With the limited amount of time our Penguins play short-handed, I certainly would look for replacements for Teddy Blueger and Josh Archibald. If our Penguins get players contributing more at 5-on-5, since the team plays far more in this situation then they won’t need players posting As on the PK. The drop in PK could become irrelevant if the team has a large enough cushion from improved 5-on-5 play.
When compiling grades, it is often a good idea not to look at the name of a person until the actual score is known, to avoid bias. Like Zucker on Offense, I have been a frequent critic of Pierre-Olivier Joseph, mainly because of how skinny he is, but I must acknowledge his body of work. Despite his lack of an imposing frame, during the less physical regular season he is acquitting himself quite well. He is one of only 2 Defensemen who have earned a passing grade.
| 5on5 | PP | PK | |
| Dumoulin, Brian | F+ | – | C- |
| Joseph, Pierre-Olivier | B+ | C | – |
| Letang, Kris | D- | D- | A+ |
| Petry, Jeff | C- | D | A+ |
| Pettersson, Marcus | D | – | A+ |
| Ruhwedel, Chad | D- | – | A+ |
| Rutta, Jan | D | – | C- |
I read one particular Blogger bemoaning our 3rd line Center and suggesting that our GM Ron Hextall target a 3rd line Center before the trade deadline. First of all, the team has precious little in terms of assets to acquire a 3rd line Center. However, more importantly, the 3rd line Center position may be a bit of a problem but it is the Defense that is failing this team. Outside of Joseph and Jeff Petrie the team could trade out the rest of these Ruth Buzzi s and not materially affect the results of games in anyway but positive.
Like our Defensemen, our Goalies have been an area of concern. To a lesser extent, their inconsistent play has contributed an average season. I have never been one to be so afraid of losing that I prevented myself from winning. I felt Filip Lindberg was the best Goalie in training camp and would have seriously considered using him as my starting Goalie. At worst I would have sent him down and to be the starting Goalie in Wilkes Barre Scranton (WBS) and rotated him back and forth to the big club when I could get him NHL experience like the back end of back-to-back series. Casey DeSmith would have only gotten playing time when I would have pulled Tristan Jarry or in games when I couldn’t get Lindberg to the arena.
Had I inserted Lindberg as starter at least in WBS, perhaps he would not be injured right now.
When looking at the numbers, it appears that the team insulates Jarry far more than DeSmith. When you control for degree of danger of shots, Jarry really is nothing more than a C, while DeSmith tends to pick his game up in PP and PK situations.
| 5on5 | PP | PK | |
| DeSmith, Casey | C+ | B+ | B+ |
| Jarry, Tristan | C | C | C+ |
For Skaters, I looked at their individual performances in terms of Primary Points (Pts) per 60 minutes, where PPts equaled Goals (G) and Primary Assists (A’), Team Goals For per 60 minutes (TGF/60) and Team Goals Against per 60 minutes (TGA/60) at 5-on-5 and during the Power Play (PP). For the Penalty Kill (PK), since Short Handed Goals (SHG) are more of a random chance issue, I limited this to just TGA/60.
I then determined the Mean for Time on the Ice (TOI) for both the Forwards and Defense Separately and eliminated all players below 1 Standard Deviation of the Mean. I then determined the mean for all players across the league in each category and set that as 75% or a solid C. Finally I scaled the players graded by comparing their stats per 60 minutes with the league mean.
For Goalies I tried to eliminate the effect of poor defensive play in front of them averaging the Goalies Save Percentages (Sv%) at the 3 different shot types: High Danger (HD), Medium Danger (MD), and Low Danger (LD) at 5on5, and during the PP and PK. Then
| 5on5 | IPPts | TGF | TGA | PP | IPPts | TGF | TGA | |
| Archibald, Josh | 5on5 | F | D- | A+ | PP | – | – | – |
| Blueger, Teddy | 5on5 | F | F | D | PP | – | – | – |
| Carter, Jeff | 5on5 | F | D | D | PP | A | A+ | A+ |
| Crosby, Sidney | 5on5 | A+ | A | D | PP | D | D- | A |
| Guentzel, Jake | 5on5 | A+ | A | D | PP | D | D | B+ |
| Heinen, Danton | 5on5 | C | F+ | D+ | PP | D | D | A+ |
| Kapanen, Kasperi | 5on5 | A+ | B- | F+ | PP | A+ | A+ | A+ |
| Malkin, Evgeni | 5on5 | A+ | B | B | PP | B | D+ | D+ |
| McGinn, Brock | 5on5 | D | F+ | D+ | PP | – | – | – |
| Poehling, Ryan | 5on5 | C | F+ | A+ | PP | – | – | – |
| Rakell, Rickard | 5on5 | D- | A | C | PP | B | C | A+ |
| Rust Bryan | 5on5 | D- | B- | F+ | PP | D | D+ | F |
| Zucker, Jason | 5on5 | A | B | C | PP | F | B+ | D+ |
| 5on5 | IPPts | TGF | TGA | PP | IPPts | TGF | TGA | |
| Dumoulin, Brian | 5on5 | F | D | F | PP | – | – | – |
| Joseph, Pierre-Olivier | 5on5 | B | A+ | A- | PP | B | A+ | F |
| Letang, Kris | 5on5 | F | D | D | PP | F | C | F |
| Petry, Jeff | 5on5 | F | B | C | PP | F | F | A+ |
| Pettersson, Marcus | 5on5 | F | C | D+ | PP | – | – | – |
| Ruhwedel, Chad | 5on5 | F | F+ | D- | PP | – | – | – |
| Rutta, Jan | 5on5 | F | C- | C- | PP | – | – | – |
| HDSv% | MDSv% | LDSv% | HDSv% | MDSv% | LDSv% | HDSv% | MDSv% | LDSv% | ||||
| DeSmith, Casey | 5on5 | D+ | A- | C | PP | A | A- | B | PK | B | B | B- |
| Jarry, Tristan | 5on5 | C | C+ | C | PP | C | C | C | PK | B | C+ | C |
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