Having never played hockey (or mastered skating) I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an X’s and O’s guy. Truth be told, I couldn’t tell a left-wing lock from a 2-3 forecheck.
However, I do know chaos when I see it. It’s something that seems to consume our Penguins a lot, especially when defending the house.
For the record, Oxford Languages defines chaos as “complete disorder and confusion.”
Yep. Sounds about right.
Even during our victory over Detroit the other night, welcome as it was, our d-zone coverage was chaotic at best. Particularly early on. If it weren’t for some huge saves by rookie Joel Blomqvist and some myopic shooting by the Red Wings, the outcome might have been much different.
Anyone who’s witnessed the hail of blown leads over the past couple of seasons knows this isn’t a new phenomenon, but rather one that’s plagued us with increasing frequency since our back-to-back Cups. Indeed, we often resemble an elementary school fire drill gone awry in our own end, with players scrambling every which way. Or a modern version of the Keystone Kops, whichever you prefer.
This wasn’t always the case. Those Cup teams I referred to were capable of playing solid ‘d.’ In terms of makeup, they featured a near perfect blend of puck movers like Kris Letang, Justin Schultz and Trevor Daley and defense-first types like Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Ron Hainsey, Ben Lovejoy and the fuzzy-cheeked Finn, Olli Määttä.
In fact, we won the second of those Cups due largely to our defense. In our second-round series with Washington, the Capitals washed over us in waves while ringing up something like a 63-37 percent advantage in 5v5 shot attempts. It was only our ability to (with)stand and defend, not to mention Marc-Andre Fleury’s superb goaltending, that got us through that series.
So what’s changed? Why does it seem like we’re no longer able to play stout defense?
Personnel, for one. With the exception of Letang, the aforementioned skaters have long since moved on to other pastures. Only Cole (Utah), Dumoulin (Anaheim) and Määttä (Detroit) are still active.
Still, the current mix would seem similar in makeup if not ability. A balance of offensive types (Letang and Erik Karlsson), transition guys (Ryan Graves, Matt Grzelyck) and stay-at-homers (Marcus Pettersson and Jack St. Ivany).
Okay, so what about Mike Sullivan’s system?
Ah, might be on to something there. Sullivan has always encouraged his defensemen to activate and join the rush, even if they’re not especially cut out for it. I recall a game against the Rangers a couple of years ago where Chad Ruhwedel blew a tire in the offensive zone, which led directly to the game-winning goal against.
I recall Mark Madden of the Tribune-Review raising the issue as to why the modestly talented Ruhwedel was pinching in the first place.
Letang, you send. But Ruhwedel?
A similar situation occurred in the opener against the Rangers when St. Ivany got trapped up ice. Do you really want a rookie who’s scored all of four goals in 133 pro games trying to push the offense?
Yet it appears to be an unquestioned tenet of our system. Defensemen join the rush. Period. Often, it seems, with little regard or awareness of game situations.
Perhaps part and parcel to that, the Pens were well above the league average (90th percentile) in total distance skated last season, and that was with by far the oldest team in the league.
Does the system demand our players to cover too much ground, in the process expending too much energy? Is that why we seem to struggle with positioning?
That goes for the forwards as well. Defense is a team function. The core of Sully’s system is an aggressive forecheck. Are our forwards simply unable to get back in a timely fashion to help the defense out, which forces them to scramble and abandon their gaps? Kind of like a bed that’s been short-sheeted. Cover one end, and the other end’s exposed.
I’ve long thought the Pens would benefit from a more structured system, especially as we age. One that might allow us to husband our energy, create opportunities on the counter attack and minimize risk in our own end while better insulating our goalies.
Once in a blue moon we play that way, and we look really good doing it.
Then again, maybe it’s simply a matter of the players learning each other and the system, and how to make the correct reads.
Here’s hoping we figure it out.
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Rant Continued
I do disagree with you when you suggest that Sullivan’s system worked during the Cup defense. I tell you now that the second Cup was not a product of the system but despite the system. It wasn’t the defensemen that saved the day, in the regular season or in the playoffs. The truth of the matter is that during the regular season our Penguins had the 7th worst CORSI against per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 (57.54). They were in the bottom 3rd of the league.
In the playoffs it got worse. When other teams tightened down, our Penguins loosened up (CA/60 5-on-5 was 58.63. Well not really, it was just a case of the team having to focus only on good teams and not stat pad against cellar dwellers. Their CF% was 2nd worst of that playoff year (46.13). It was superhuman Goaltending from MAF and Matt Murray that won that Cup despite Sullivan’s opposite world strategies.
My biggest fear is that Blomqvist just might be that good (MAF and Murray of yore). He could steal enough games to delude the mindless masses and worse management into thinking that Sullivan should keep his job.
Hey Rick,
I am not going to argue with you…at least not too much. Sullivan’s system is beyond chaotic. The worst part of the system is the “activating the defense”. I am sick to tears of seeing defenseman not named Karlsson or Letang ranging deep into the attacking zone, often hanging out in front of the opposing net, while the play goes back the other way. Pettersson, St. Ivany, Grelczyk, and Graves are ill equipped in the skill dept to play such an attack. As I have written, countless times before, season after season, this is not the Capitals of the early to mid-90s. Those teams had Iafrate, Hatcher, Cote, Gonchar, and Johansson.
I am also tired of opposing forwards getting between our Penguins Dfensemen and our Goalie. No one is protecting the Goalie. They are not getting that great of chance to see the puck. Even when they see the puck, they have to be almost perfect in their rebound control. With opposing players behind the defense, opposing forwards have no competition when trying to get to that rebound.
Even when there is a Penguin in position to get to the rebound or try and tie up an opponent’s stick so the Goalie could get to the puck, it is usually a Pens forward. Unfortunately, for Penguin Goalies, forwards are not as adept at helping to clear rebounds or tying up sticks. They have spent all their time growing up learning how to get their sticks free and tapping the puck in, so they are poor defenders at those critical junctures, leaving our Goalies to the mercy of the other team.
I do think that you have a good point. This team does end up skating too much ice. However, I don’t think Sullivan or any of the Coaches want them skating so much. The pressures for them to skate so much are unintended side effects of trying to drive the offense through the defense. Attacks often dissolve into one and done because Pettersson or the D-man du jour lacks the skill to be effective skating with a forward on the attack.
Sure, they occasionally score, score more than they would otherwise score if they were tasked with doing the job a defenseman was designed to do. But in the end they score far less than a forward would pot the puck if he was allowed to engage in those skills he was trained as a midget on up to perform.
Once the play dissolves, then all the players have to race back the other way adding milage onto their nights skating.
Also, when in their own end, it is the Defensemen who are tasked with chasing the puck around rather than the forwards with the Forwards asked to protect their Goal. Once again it becomes no big surprise (or at least shouldn’t) since Defensemen have been taught to bump the puck to their far more skilled skating forwards to take the puck out. In the end, opponents get serious zone time unless they are inept cellar dwellers.