Penguins Defense Not Built for Playoffs

I was reading some recent comments from long-time PenguinPoop reader Mike about the state of our defense. He questions whether they’d be able to withstand the rigors of playoff hockey.

To digress, Mike’s been involved in professional basketball at several levels, so he knows a thing or two about team sports. When he comments I tend to listen. Sometimes I’m inspired to write, too.

So Mike, this one’s for you.

Specifically, he cited two members of our defense, Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Ryan Shea, as physically deficient. I’m going to focus my response/article on the former.

In many ways POJ is the poster child for our Pens, both good and bad. In particular, the flawed approach to roster construction that’s dominated the Mike Sullivan era.

First, the good. POJ does bring some positives to the table. He’s an excellent skater and generally handles and passes the puck well. Even has a faint dash of spit in his game.

Following an absolutely miserable start to the season (three assists, a minus-11 in 34 games) he redeemed himself with a strong stretch run (two goals, eight points, plus-8 in his final 18 games) while skating next to Kris Letang on the second pairing. Providing a glimmer of hope that the former first-round pick (23^rd overall) and RFA-to-be may have finally turned the corner and established himself as a bona fide NHL defenseman.

Was the perceived improvement a case of smoke and mirrors?

Based on POJ’s underlying numbers…yes.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the rangy defender was underwater in nearly every key 5v5 metric, including Corsi (48.77), shots for percentage (47.77), goals for percentage (47.14) and expected goals for percentage (47.44).

How much of that is attributable to his poor start is hard to say. A third of a good season doesn’t erase two-thirds of a bad one. It should also be noted that POJ had excellent underlying numbers in 2022-23.

Which season is the outlier remains to be seen.

The real issue I have with POJ is defending. Perhaps due to his lanky physique and long stick, he consistently loses puck battles in and around the net. Unfortunately, a consistent theme among black-and-gold defenders. Indeed, Marcus Pettersson was the only Pens rearguard to have a high-danger goals for percentage above 50 percent. Everyone else, including POJ, was below the Mason-Dixon Line. Which again points to an underlying flaw with the way our defense is constructed…and instructed.

As a rule, Sullivan wants defensemen who can skate and move the puck, the better to support his attacking style. However, you’ve got to be able to defend the house as well.

Former PP reader and commenter 55 on Point attended numerous practice sessions several years ago and was struck by the fact that the defensemen never actually practiced d-zone play. On the contrary, all the emphasis was on moving the puck to the forwards.

It’s one of the biggest reasons why I want the Pens to part ways with Sullivan. The other is his penchant for weeding out guys who play with an edge. Which only serves to reinforce our plain vanilla feel as a team.

It’s been ages since we’ve had a genuine belter (Brooks Orpik) on the blue line. Sully’s a big part of the reason why.

I find it both interesting and revealing that the Rangers employ hard-nosed defenders like Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider, not to mention hulking all-arounder K’Andre Miller. What works for the Presidents’ Trophy winners apparently isn’t good enough for our Pens.

I’ll take it a step further. I don’t think Sullivan would welcome any of those guys, except maybe Miller.

Again, a fatal flaw in our approach to team building.

I mentioned a couple of articles back that teams that survive and thrive in the postseason play a hard, forceful game at both ends of the ice, and not just the attacking zone.

Fast and uber-aggressive, the Florida Panthers are built for playoff success. Ditto the Rangers.

I was watching ex-Pen and current Panther Dmitry Kulikov defend the other night and was struck by how physical he was, brusquely dispatching any Bruin who dared to set up camp around his net.

With few exceptions, you won’t see that type of behavior from a Pens defenseman as long as Sullivan’s our coach.

You won’t see a return to the playoffs, either. Not until we change our organizational philosophy to roster construction.