As our Penguins prepare to take on the Bruins and Flames on back-to-back nights, I decided to stitch together some random thoughts.
Sully Giveth…
I thought Mike Sullivan made a good choice the other night by sitting Ryan Graves in favor of Jack St. Ivany. The Ryan Shea-St. Ivany pairing, which played well down the stretch last season, was one of the bright spots in the victory over the Canucks.
Apparently Sully planned to sit Matt Grzelcyk as well, but the embattled ex-Bruin was granted a reprieve due to rookie Owen Pickering’s illness. Hopefully he follows through with the switcheroo when Pickering is well enough to play.
…and Sully Taketh Away
For every good move our coach makes, he seems to serve up a clunker. The incredibly short-lived Drew O’Connor–Sam Poulin–Jesse Puljujärvi line was one of our most effective units in terms of possession (57.01 Corsi) and driving play (61.61 xGF%). It was on the ice for two 5v5 goals for (both by Puljujärvi) and one against in five games. Yet it was placed in the shredder.
It serves to reinforce my opinion that Sullivan is too quick to juggle lines as a tactic…and too quick to pull the plug on kids like Poulin.
His handling of Puljujärvi is especially mystifying. Despite the fact that the hulking Finn recently scored in back-to-back games, he was a healthy scratch on Wednesday night.
Skating in his place? Vanilla veteran Matt Nieto, who has no points to go with an unhealthy minus-4 in six games. One goal in 28 games during his season-and-change with the black-and-gold.
In stark contrast to Puljujärvi, virtually all of Nieto’s advanced stats are underwater.
Gee, I can really understand why Nieto needs to be in the lineup (not). For that matter, Noel Acciari (22.73 GF%) ain’t exactly slaying dragons for us, either. Yet the veterans play on while Puljujärvi sits.
The Puck Stops Here (Sometimes)
Not to cast an unduly harsh spotlight on our goalies, who don’t receive a lot of help. However, a stat on Hockey Reference grabbed my attention. Tristan Jarry has a quality starts percentage of .143 (one for seven), well below the Mendoza Line. Alex Nedeljkovic’s is only slightly better at .300 (three for 10).
Yikes.
Our goalie with the best quality starts percentage? If you said rookie Joel Blomqvist (.571), currently toiling for the Baby Pens, you guessed right.
A Grave(s) Situation
Of all of POHO/GM Kyle Dubas’s free-agent flops, the aforementioned Graves is perhaps the floppiest. The rangy rearguard, under contract for three more seasons after this one with a cap hit of $4.5 million, has taken to Sully’s system like a duck to quick-drying cement, in the process becoming virtually unplayable.
Perhaps untradeable, too.
While I hate to suggest it, we’ll likely need to attach a significant asset and/or retain salary to have another team take him off our hands.
