With a mish-mash of newsworthy items to report, I thought I’d post a quicky This ‘n’ ‘at.
For the fifth season in a row, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was voted the league’s most complete player by his peers. Sid received nearly 40 percent of the votes, well ahead of Panthers runner-up Aleksander Barkov.
In my mind, it opens up the age-old can of worms regarding the Hart Trophy, the NHL’s MVP award. It’s intended to be given “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”
If that were truly the case, I think Sid would have five or six of ‘em stashed in his personal trophy case instead of two. For the record, he’s been the Hart runner-up on four separate occasions, the last time in 2019.
At age 36, he’s playing some of the best hockey of his career, as his 40 goals will attest. He’s literally dragged the Pens into the playoff chase, at times almost single-handed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player, especially at his age, play with such intensity, detail and consistency game in and game out.
Just a remarkable athlete and player.
By all accounts, a pretty special person, too.
Big Z Rides Again
With Lars Eller ill and absent from yesterday’s practice, the Pens recalled Radim Zohorna from their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club. In a corresponding move, Sam Poulin was returned to the Baby Pens.
Hot of late, “Big Z” has tallied nine goals and 25 points in 29 games in Northeastern PA, including a hat trick and four-point effort against Cleveland on March 18. Since Valentine’s Day, he’s been positively on fire with eight goals and 21 points in 18 games!
Personally, I don’t mind the move. Although the Czechia native tends to flatten out over time, as he did during an extended 31-game run with the Pens this season, he has a history of producing immediately following a recall.
Let’s hope that trend continues.
Saving Sully’s Bacon?
Our recent 6-0-3 heater has thrust us back into the thick of the playoff fight. Perhaps it’s saved Mike Sullivan’s job in the process.
Prior to our recent run, Sully was taking heat from all sides, including some sites that have traditionally been supportive of our coach. One only needs to look at our power play and 3-on-3 overtime woes to find areas where he’s been less than effective this season, to say nothing of our penchant for blowing leads.
However, Sully also deserves his full share of the credit for keeping the team focused and on task when it would’ve been much easier to throw in the towel. Not to mention his gutsy decision to ride Alex Nedeljkovic in goal. One that’s paid off in spades.
For better or worse, I’d say Sully’s a lock to be back behind the black-and-gold bench next season.
Last One In’s a Rotten Egg…
The chase for the second and final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference appears to have narrowed to a four-horse race between the Pens, Capitals, Red Wings and Flyers.
Although not totally out of range, the Islanders (87 points) occupy third place in the Metro by virtue of a 7-2 run and have opened up a bit of a cushion. The Devils and Sabres (79 points each) have officially been eliminated.
The Caps (85 points) currently occupy the second wild-card spot by a single point over our Pens and Wings. Losers of eight straight (0-6-2), Philly is two points out.
Here are the remaining schedules for each team, including the Islanders.
— Penguins (DET, BOS, NSH, @NYI)
— Capitals (@BUF, TBL, BOS, @PHI)
— Red Wings (@PIT, @TOR, MTL, @MTL)
— Flyers (@NYR, NJD, WSH)
— Islanders (MTL, @NYR, @NJD, PIT)
Gazing into my admittedly cracked crystal ball, I think the Caps and Wings will each go 2-2. Which means we’ll need to win three of four to get in.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if it all came down to our last game of the season against the Isles, our bogey foe when it comes to crucial games?
Oh, and beware the Preds.
GO PENZ!
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Hey Rick,,
1) You don't home much it greaves me to say this, but I could see FSG offer Sullivan a contract extension even if he lost every game from now until the end of his contract. The have shown zero hockey sense.
2) There is an old axiom, "pretty words are seldom true and true words are seldom pretty". In the category of True words not being pretty, I know this will tick people off, but the league average for Team Goals Against TGA per 60 minutes during 5-on-5 hockey for forwards whose playing time is within a standard deviation of the mean is 2.51 this season. Crosby's TGA/60 5-on-5 is well above the mean at 3.42, almost a full GA/60 worse than the mean. In a popularity contest Sid won the All Around er award, but objectively the Captain has stunk defensively. He and his line mates cede Goals almost as fast as the score them. Whn Sid is on the ice he and his line are only +0.25 G/60 5-on-5.
Conversely, the often maligned for poor defense, Evgeni Malkin is below the league mean in terms of TGA/60 5-on-5 (2.47) and Geno's line mates are a +0.51 when they skate with the big Russian.
3) also, from the pages of true words not being pretty, for our Penguins to have a better record than last season, they have to win all 4 of their remaining games (and then they only beat it by 1 Point). If the team loses 1 Game in regulation or 2 games in OT, they will finish with a worse record. Even if the black and gold makes the playoffs, the incompetence of their Coach in telling Dubas that the GM couldn't find a better Goalie so sign him at any price and then to obstinately play the bum for far too many games could still cost the team the season and has put it in the predicament to need to win out to eek out a better record.
All of the excitement that I might get from the thought of Blomqvist, Yager and Koivunen coming to help the team next season evaporates in the reality of a Coach that has absolutely no eye for talent and/or how to get the mot out of that talent.
Hey Other Rick,
Regarding Sid and goals against at 5v5 play, it's hard to dispute those numbers. Still, I think there's a bit of a danger at looking at stats in a vacuum rather than as part of a larger picture.
Again, the numbers are what they are. But for quite some time, this team was really struggling to score goals. I wonder if Sid's been given a mandate (or taken it upon himself) to push the offense.
Too, I'd be interested to know the quality of opposition. Is Sid consistently facing our foes' top scoring lines? If so, that's liable to inflate his goals against. Do we see a similar dynamic among other teams' top offensive players?
I will agree with you that Malkin by comparison probably gets a bad rap. Where Sid is so consistent, Geno's intensity and compete level tends to fluctuate, and I think that works against him. However, I've been watching him during our hot streak and have been incredibly impressed. Geno's really been working hard at both ends of the ice and he's been doing a lot of the dirty work in the trenches as well. He's also made some passes and plays that are simply brilliant.
I say we're lucky to have 'em both.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I am not going to argue that if a person doesn't know how to read statistics they can go far afield of the truth. However, consider this, I listed the league average for TGA/60 5-on-5 and Crosby is almost a ful Goal above that number. Across the league there are other Centers who are always facing the other teams' top players. While Sid's most common opponents (most TOI against) were Aho, and Teravainen, Among JT Miller's most common opponents are McDavid and McKinnon but Miller's GA/60 is only 2.04, about 1/2 a G below the average while Sid's is almost a full Goal above.
Last night, in the 15:51 of 5-on-5 TOI Sid played, Detroit scored 4 Goals and Detroit certainly isn't loaded with a bunch of McKInnon's and McDavid's.
Like you I appreciate both Crosby and Malkin, and am glad they both played here in Pgh. Furthermore, I would never put either McDavid nor McKinnon in the same breath as either Penguin's Centers when they were in their prime, However, I am not deluding myself, giving Sid that award was a popularity contest not an objective award.
Who would've thought a month ago this season would come down to the final week for the Pens? Speaking of OT struggles, that is one area I miss from the HC Disco Dan days. I remember the monthly shoot out challenge, with the losing player being dubbed Mustache Boy. I can only guess Sully doesn't practice OT/shoot outs because he prefers to win in regulation, but how many points have we missed out on this year alone? I hope he reconsiders and puts more emphasis on those aspects in practice in the future.