Having been a hockey fan since the early 1970s, I’ve seen my share of bad defense. Particularly back in the pre-Mario “Boys of Winter” era and again in the pre-Sid early 2000s. However, I think our blueline corps established new lows during the Pens’ 4-1 loss to Seattle on Saturday.
The tandem of Erik Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk (minus-2 each) had a particularly rough night. On the third Kraken goal, the duo converged on puck carrier Shane Wright with “help” from forward Michael Bunting. While both Bunting and Karlsson rather lazily tracked Wright’s pass to Jared McCann in the corner, Grzelcyk chased Wright behind our net, leaving not one but two Kraken (Jamie Oleksiak and goal scorer Eeli Tolvanen) all alone in the slot.
What’s a goalie to do?
The next goal (aka final nail in the coffin) was even worse. Karlsson picked up a loose puck in the corner, spun away from Matt Beniers and exited our zone.
So far so good.
He then proceeded to fling a backhand pass into the middle of ice that was promptly picked off by Kaapo Kakko. While Karlsson fell down trying to recover, Kakko lugged the puck to the left circle with Beniers in tow. Giving ground, Grzelcyk had his stick in the passing lane…sort of. A split second before Kakko fed Beniers, he removed his stick from the passing lane, either a miss-timed swipe at the puck or an attempt to help cover the short side.
The net effect?
The puck was in our net.
It should be noted they received barely a wisp of support from our forwards. But they weren’t exactly putting on a clinic on how to play defense, either.
The drum beat continued during our 2-1 loss to San Jose last night, as blatant giveaways by Ryan Shea and Marcus Pettersson led directly to the Sharks’ goals.
It’s pretty much been that way all season. We’ve allowed the second-most goals in the NHL, only five fewer than the lowly Sharks.
If you look at our defense on paper, it really shouldn’t be this bad. Karlsson is a three-time Norris Trophy winner and only two seasons removed from a 25-goal, 101-point season. Kris Letang has been an All-Star level performer throughout his career.
I know plus-minus isn’t the be-all-end-all in terms of evaluating player performance. But Ryan Graves led the NHL with a plus-40 his first full season in the NHL in 2019-20. Three seasons later he was a plus-34 for the Devils.
Second only to teammate Hampus Lindholm, Grzelyck nearly led the NHL two seasons ago with a plus-46. Speaking of, the aforementioned Pettersson, generally regarded as one of the steadier blueliners in the league, was plus-28 last season.
Heck since we’re on the plus/minus train, Shea was a plus-37 for the AHL Texas Stars in ’22-23.
These guys had to be doing something right.
Rounding out the current crop, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, while enigmatic, is a former first-round pick. So is recently demoted rookie Owen Pickering.
How could a group that seems to have it’s share of redeeming qualities individually be so bad collectively?
I have my ideas.
For one, the Pens have too many guys whose game is predicated on moving the puck. Too many oh-ffensemen and not enough dee-fensemen.
Indeed, the only regular we have who can legitimately be categorized as defense-first is Pettersson, and even that seems to be in question. To the eye test, he’s joining the attack and pinching more, perhaps at coach Mike Sullivan’s behest.
Take a look at our back-to-back Cup winners. Yes, we had mobile puck-movers like Letang, Justin Schultz and Trevor Daley. But we also had a host of guys who played an honest, stay-at-home game like Ian Cole, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Määttä, Ben Lovejoy and Ron Hainsey. In fact, if not for our ability to stand and defend, we wouldn’t have survived our second-round series with the Capitals in ’17.
It’s somewhat instructive that Cole, who Sullivan pretty much ran out of town, is exactly the kind of grinding, shot-blocking presence we lack.
Our ’09 Cup winners were even more skewed to the defensive side of the ledger, boasting the likes of Brooks Orpik, Mark Eaton and the shutdown duo of Rob Scuderi and mammoth Hal Gill.
Yes, the game has changed, with greater emphasis placed on attacking and moving the puck. But you can’t ignore the need to defend.
Last season’s Cup champions, the Panthers, featured an optimal blend of all-arounders Gustav Forsling, Brandon Montour, Aaron Ekblad and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and physical stay-at-homers Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola.
The 2023 champion Golden Knights boasted four rock-rib defensive types, Brayden McNabb, Nicolas Hague, Alec Martinez and Zach Whitecloud.
The only player the Pens have who even remotely resembles those guys? Jack St. Ivany, demoted to the Baby Pens following some early season struggles.
Then there’s Sullivan’s system, or “philosophy” as he prefers. He wants to play with speed and attack foes with an aggressive forecheck. Part and parcel to that is having defensemen who can effectively transition from defense to offense.
I’ll go one further. Sully likely doesn’t want his defensemen getting tangled up in physical confrontations in their own end. Hence, stick-on-puck defense.
It goes without saying there’s a glaring lack of body-on-body play among our defenders.
Again, none of this precludes the need to play sound defense. Or for that matter, employing players that can.
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After this latest trade debacle, when is Du(m)bass going to be fired as President/GM. His incompetence is only surpassed by Sullivan who should have been fired months ago. His 1st round draft choice was traded for a bust in Wilkes. And we are going to trust this clown with picking future 1st round and middle round talent??? The Jake trade was horrendous. Bunning and what? Where are those prospects??? It did provide cap space so we could overpay our Superdud Offensively defenseless D-man Karlsson. There is a very good reason why the Leafs parted ways with this so called budding GM superstar. Everyrhing he has touched has turned to tin. Instead of waiting and trading Petterrson and O ' Connor near the trade deadline he got bambuzzled by Rutherford. Dubas is amateur league. But he still has Sully. Yeah!
Hey Rick,
Many great points. My only contention is that Pickering should never have been a 1st round pick. He was rated as a 3rd round pick until the last couple of weeks before the draft when a clever agent made a video showing the same lucky stretch pass from every angle possible and lazy Penguins scouts ignored the game footage showing his lack of physicality, slow turns, lazy zone entries, and his penchant for lingering in front of the opponents goal even while the play goes the other way.
I do think Pickering is starting to develop but he would be way down the depth charts on any other team than a Sullivan Coached team. He may not look that bad on this NHL roster because of how bad he the rest are, but Belliveau has shown more promise than Pickering, but Belliveau is being destroyed in the black hole that is the Penguins player development system.