Penguins Season a Tale of Two Teams

The Penguins have become a tale of two teams. Or rather, two distinct segments of the same team.

We have our top six forwards and Kris Letang. I’ll label that our core. Then we have the rest of the bunch…the great unwashed masses.

The core group is performing better than any sane person had a reasonable right to expect. Beyond our wildest dreams, really.

Leading the way, our 35-year-old captain Sidney Crosby. With 29 goals and 83 points in 68 games, Sid’s tied for twelfth in the league in scoring, only a handful of points shy of the top half-dozen. Simply put, he’s having a remarkable season.

So is Evgeni Malkin. One year Sid’s senior, Geno’s racked up 24 goals and 72 points in 68 games. He’s tied for 22^nd with Rangers stud Mika Zibanejad among other notables. Not bad company. Better still, the big Russian has been faster, more direct and forceful than at any time in recent memory.

Jake Guentzel notched his 30^th goal Thursday night…the third time he’s reached that lofty plateau. A unique combination of grit, cleverness and hands. To think he was a third-round pick!

Fresh off an incredible sustained hot streak, fire starter Jason Zucker’s banged home 24 goals…the second highest total of his career…while continually dragging us into the fight. Silky smooth Rickard Rakell’s notched 24 goals, too, and may be the team’s most complete forward aside from Sid.

Among the top six, only Bryan Rust is having what could be termed an off season. But Rusty’s got 15 goals and is still within shouting distance of 20.

Heck, it isn’t inconceivable that we could finish with five 30-goal scorers.

Kris Letang rounds out the silver seven. Since returning to the lineup on January 24 following a nightmarish first half marred by a stroke and the death of his father, he’s tallied eight goals and 18 points in 21 games. A remarkable clip for a defenseman. Check that…a 35-year-old defenseman.

Collectively, they’ve combined for 156 of the team’s 222 non-shootout goals. A staggering 70 percent of our output.

To put that in perspective, Boston’s top seven point-getters have produced 54 percent of their non-shootout goals, and that includes 46-goal man David Pastrnak. Carolina’s top seven, 57 percent. Surprising Seattle, barely 50 percent!

It speaks volumes of their balanced approach to roster construction versus our top-heavy makeup. Indeed, those teams have a lot more guys pulling the freight than we do. Which falls in line with the perception that GM Ron Hextall has fallen well short of the mark in his efforts to assemble a supporting cast worthy of our still elite core.

It got me to thinking…always a dangerous proposition. How do our top-seven scorers and supporting cast rank in comparison to other teams in terms of non-shootout goal production?

The following table lists the teams with the most goals from their top seven point getters.

Our core guys are presently tied with the Devils for the seventh-most goals in the league. Which underscores the fact that our big boys are pulling their weight…and then some.

It’s also interesting to note that of the 10 teams who have the most goals from their top performers, four (Buffalo, Ottawa, Florida and Vancouver) are presently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.

As for our supporting cast? The following table lists the teams with the fewest goals from players outside of the top seven point producers.

Yikes! Sandwiched between bottom-feeders Philadelphia, Anaheim and Columbus, the Pens have the fifth fewest goals from their supporting cast. Drawing a bullseye on the dramatic disparity between our haves and have nots.

Again, it speaks to the value of having a more balanced roster construction and proper depth.

To his credit, Hextall tried to upgrade our foot soldiers at the deadline. He parted ways with Teddy Blueger, Kasperi Kapanen and Brock McGinn, who were on the ice for a combined 45 goals for 5v5 and 72 against. New additions Nick Bonino, Dmitry Kulikov, Mikael Granlund and in-house promotion Alex Nylander have helped. They’ve been on the ice for a combined 11 5v5 goals for and only six against.

Unfortunately, Bonino and Kulikov are out with longer-term injuries. And Hextall was unable to address the team’s two greatest drags on performance, center Jeff Carter and defenseman Brian Dumoulin. Combined, they’ve been on the ice for 62 5v5 goals for and a shocking 97 against!

Aside from some in-house shuffling, there isn’t much we can do at this stage. I would anticipate a significant reconstruct this summer in an effort to bring our supporting cast up to par.

Until then, we’ll continue to be a tale of two teams.