This is getting to be a habit. A good one.
For the third time in the past six games, the new-look Penguins beat a playoff-bound team.
I say “new look” because the forward lines have been in an almost constant state of flux due to a near Biblical plague of injuries, especially the bottom six.
Last night it was the Devils’ turn to feel our sting. We even spotted them an early two-goal lead, including a first-shot goal just 15 seconds in on a partial breakaway by Erik Haula. But Tristan Jarry stiffened and our guys gradually began to reel our hosts in.
Digging like Mike Lange’s proverbial coal miner at the side of the cage, Evgeni Malkin somehow popped the biscuit through/around/over netminder Jake Allen’s skate even though it was wedged against the post. Although well-intentioned, Devils’ defenseman Luke Hughes unwittingly applied the finishing touch to poke it over the line at 16:10.
Next up, one of the newbies. Sixty-five seconds into the second period, Valtteri Puustinen deflected a Malkin blast past Allen for the game-tying goal. Okay, deflected is a bit of a misnomer, the puck hit Puusti at the lip of the crease and went in. But a goal is a goal, and credit the plucky Finn for going to the net.
The score remained deadlocked at 2-apiece well into the third period. Then our big guns stepped forward. Just past the 13-minute mark, Sidney Crosby deflected a slick backdoor feed from Bryan Rust past Allen for the go-head goal. The way Sid deadened his hands just so…well…there’s a deflection folks.
Sid and Rusty put the finishing touches on the proceedings with under two minutes to play, with more than a little help from Ville Koivunen. The rookie winger blocked a shot in the slot and, without delay, quickly moved it ahead to Crosby in the neutral zone. As if he had eyes in the back of his noggin (maybe he does), No. 87 deftly slipped a no-look, backhand pass to Rust in open space. Trusty Rusty buried his 29th goal, a new career-high, into the empty Devils net.
Puckpourri
So much to get to.
First off, the Pens and Devils honored Ray Shero by wearing helmet decals with “Ray” written in the middle, ringed by “father, husband, friend, legend.” Be sure to read Hooks Orpik’s touching tribute, Remembering Ray Shero, on Pensburgh.
Hats off to Geno for reaching 50 points. Yes, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers he produced in his prime, but consider this. The Rangers’ Vincent Trocheck, widely regarded as the best second-line center in hockey, has 55 points in 79 games. Geno, at age 38, got his 50 in 66 games. To say nothing of the dubious quality of his linemates (Cody Glass, et al.), only recently improved.
Matt Grzelcyk picked up two more helpers, giving him 38 points (1+37) for the season. While Ryan Graves has proven to be totally ill-suited for Mike Sullivan’s system, on the opposite end of the spectrum Grzelcyk has taken to it like the proverbial duck to water.
An A+ puck distributor, he’s a huge reason why our power play has gone from life support to converting at a 25.46 percent clip, well above the league average. Indeed, his 15 power-play assists (two more than Erik Karlsson) leads the team.
As they say, horses for courses. Look for the Pens to re-sign Gryz provided he’s not too pricey.
Okay, it’s a bit under the radar, but has anyone else noticed that our defense has tightened up a bit since Ryan Shea returned to the lineup? While I like a lot of elements in Vladislav Kolyachonok’s game (wheels, passing), Shea seems to be a stabilizing influence.
Occasional brain-cramp aside, like his bewildering pinch that led directly to the Devils’ first goal, I was going to say the same about Conor Timmins. We’re 9-4-2 since he joined the fold.
Although he yielded our 15th first-shot goal of the season, one shy of the league record, has Jarry puck-stopped his way back into the team’s good graces? After all, it’s not as if we’ll be challenging for a Stanley Cup any time soon, and the free-agent market will be threadbare at best.
Not-so-hidden stat: the Pens are 16-11-6 with Tristan between the pipes, 17-24-6 with Alex Nedeljkovic and rookie Joel Blomqvist.
Speaking of rookies, I was saving the best for last. Not only did Koivunen turn defense to offense in a flash on the empty-netter, he retrieved a loose puck along the wall and fed Grzelcyk to initiate the scoring sequence on Crosby’s goal.
The kid may not win any fastest skater competitions, but he gets from point A to point B just fine. He’s smart, alert, (and even scrappy) and anticipates well, and he pounces on loose pucks quickly.
Once the rubber is on his stick blade? Good things happen.
Like Sid, Ville seems to be a step (or two) ahead of the play.
Oh, and speaking of Sid, he’s one point shy of another 90-point season. Amazing doesn’t begin to describe him.
The Pens (33-35-12, 78 points) host the crumbling Bruins Sunday afternoon, then wrap up the season Thursday night against the Caps. We need to win both to reach hockey .500 for a 19th straight season.
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View Comments
Rick
As you know, I'm not a fan of Shea, and in my opinion, the third pairing of Graves with Shea has really struggled. Shea often hesitates to move the puck, which leads to extended offensive zone time for the opposition. Meanwhile, Graves frequently turns the puck over with poor decisions and displays a below-average hockey IQ.
Physically, Shea struggles as well. Much like Letang, he tends to plant himself in the crease and ends up screening his own goaltender instead of clearing out opposing players—definitely a recipe for trouble. I think Sully is showing some
favoritism playing Shea over Kolyachonok’s - Shea is already 28, and the young Russian is 23 and should be gaining
valuable playing experience - he has upside while Shea has reached his ceiling. Shea should be our new Ruhwedel.
Hey Mike,
Sorry to be way late in responding. I hear ya about Shea and the state of our defense. There's no question a massive upgrade is required. Hopefully it starts with Pickering and Brunicke. I haven't given up on St. Ivany, either (although it appears the team has).
Also agree that if you're ever going to give a kid like Kolyachonok a bit of a runway, now's the time. Unfortunately, we've seen this before with Sullivan. He appears to make up his mind pretty quickly when it comes to young players, and if he doesn't think a kid has it...see Poulin, Sam, and a host of others.
Rick
PS--I'm not saying Sully's necessarily wrong in his judgment. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a kid he passed on who developed elsewhere. Maybe Daniel Sprong, who came with a bunch of red flags. But like you, I'd like to see him be a bit more patient with the kids.
Rick,
Before you give Sully a pass on his prospect judgement,
First, let's talk abut Nathan Legare; Sully pigeon holed him as a bottom six despite his shot. For four years this kid wasted away, laboring under Sullivan's "Judgement". Finally this season, (Actially, halfway through the season) the Utica coach questioned Sully's eye - he elevated the kid to a top 6 role. The kid has exploded; he jumped from 4 G s to 17 G s.
Now let's look deeply at the Pens Organization; since Sullivan has taken over as HC; of the 48 or so players drafted while Teflon Mike has been at the helm, only 2 players have played over 100 Games (Gustavsson and Addison) and they did not play any of their NHL games in PGH. Next in line in terms of NHL games is Puustenin with 65. if the number of draftees wasn't a hair under 50 I could almost buy the excuse that the team was drafting so late, but when the number of failures reaches these epic proportions, the problem has to be systemic. Combined the ridiculous number of failure with the Legare debacle (hopefully it isn't too late for him like it was for Zohorna) logic would seem to suggest that the failures come from Sullivan's inability to assess talent and assigning the kids to roles that they were ill suited, therefore they fail.
If Sullivan told me water was wet and fire was hot, I would not trust his advice.
Hey Other Rick,
I, too, was intrigued by Zohorna. So were other NHL teams. The Flames and Leafs (under Dubas) both took flyers on him.
And Big Z mostly certainly got a shot…33 games with the Pens last season. In the end, he proved to be too much of a perimeter player to take full advantage of his good size and overall skill set.
As for Légaré? I’ll agree that it didn’t make sense to bury a player with his finishing skills in the bottom six. But to tie that directly to Sullivan seems like a reach. There are others, coach J.D. Forest and even Pens GM Ron Hextall, who would’ve had input into his usage as well.
And the Pens weren’t the only ones who overlooked his skills and/or were reluctant to play Légaré in the top-six. His hometown Canadiens gave up on him after half a season, and the Devils' organization didn’t come around to giving him an elevated role until a month or so ago.
I just don’t see either of these cases as a direct failure on Sullivan’s part.
Having said that, do I want Sully overseeing a team that’s going to need to place an emphasis on playing kids and developing prospects going forward? Right or wrong, I view him as a win-now coach who by his competitive nature will place an emphasis on winning the next game, which generally means going with players he’s more comfortable with. Which, as you’ve pointed out on many occasions, generally means veterans over kids.
Rick
Rick,
Olivier rely doesn't quite qualify as an outlier yet; prime for a forward includes 26 or 27, so he still represents the extreme edge of prime. Also, Olivier had the highest Off Zone Start% of his career this year, that may have contributed heavily to his bump in scoring; greater opportunity. Columbus' resurrection from hockey obscurity, in the basement this season no doubt affected that Jackets' rise in scoring. Conversely, Radim Zohorna had his lowest Off Zone Start% of his career in his last season in Pgh 29.63% and our Penguins were already falling like lead balloon in the standings.
Speaking of outliers, how about Mathieu Olivier of the CBJ, who at age 27 emerged as not only the league's heavyweight champion but an 18-goal scorer to boot (previous career-high of five).
Not so much trying to make a point as I am expressing my envy. Would love to have a guy like Olivier.
Rick
Also Rick,
Consider the last 48 or so, Sullivan rips the team's commitment to team defense and then he or someone in the Organization summons the player with the worst +/- on the Baby Penguins roster; talent assessment is far from this Coaching staff's forte.
Rick,
You noted 2 examples out of thousands perhaps tens of thousands of players. Statistically, they are called outliers. And yes as the saying goes, even a blind squirrel can find a nut, outliers exist. However, when we are dealing with a near complete dearth of prospects making it to through the Penguins Organization and their 46 prospects that have come up through their ranks (2 were traded before being exposed to Sullivan and his "judgement"), the outliers have little room for mention; their 0.000% chance comes out 0.
As for Big Z, In 2023 he was 27. The most likely cause of his "needle getting ripped off of the phonograph" was most likely caused by the fact that he had aged out. At 27, with less than 82 NHL to his name at the time questions as to why he should put his body through that with little to nothing to show will start showing up in one's mind. If you will remember that he had already mentioned in that preceding off-season that he was considering returning to Europe. The kid was questioning his life in NA.
Hey Other Rick,
I ran out of replies, so I replied to my own.
I certainly won’t argue with you from a physiological standpoint about a player’s prime. Or that a tipping point in their development likely occurs during the range you specified.
I’m not going to claim the Pens and as an extension, Sullivan, have done an A+ job of developing talent. As I clearly stated in my initial comment, I do think he could be more patient when it comes to giving kids a longer look. (The flip side is, there has to be talent to develop.)
Having said, there are players who develop beyond the age window you mention. I can think of two off the top of my head, Bobby McMann of the Leafs and Stefan Noesen of the Devils. McMann emerged as a regular last season at age 27 and reached 20 goals this season.
Noesen spent most of his “prime” years toiling in the minors before establishing himself as a bona fide NHLer at age 30. He’s had his three best seasons since, including a 21-goal season with the Devils this year.
Intangibles such as a player’s heart, passion, determination and perseverance factor into the equation a great deal, perhaps every bit if not more than if they were afforded a certain opportunity at a certain age.
IMHO, Zohorna didn’t make it largely because he lacked those intangibles. In fact, I can pinpoint precisely when things began to sour. He had a great camp with us in 2023 and got off to a decent start, with three goals and an assist in his first seven games.
Then, in a game against the Kings on November 9, Big Z cut into the middle of the ice and got absolutely crushed by Andreas Englund.
It was like someone ripped the needle off the phonograph record. Zohorna abruptly stopped going to the traffic areas and he stopped scoring, too (only one more goal over his last 26 games). And it wasn’t because Sullivan immediately cut his ice time. He continued to see as much, if not more, ice over his next seven games…with negligible results.
Rick
For forwards, their prime years are from 22 -26 or 27. He was given an 8 game try out with the Pens when he was 24 and showed some soft hands and poise in front of the net during that cameo but that was all. The next season, at 25, he was a +12 with 6 points in 17 games toiling in the bottom 6. Then at 26 - closing in on the end of his prime, pigeon holed (like Legare) he was given 8 games in Cgy and 2 games in Tor, still buried in a bottom 6 role to prove himself. Then he was brought back to Pgh at 27, the extreme edge of his prime, having been afford precious little ice time for 4 years, accelerating the erosion of his talents on the bench and in roles ill befitting him, is it really a surprise that he failed? Be honest.
As for the Canadiens and Legare, once again, the idiocy of Sullivan killed the kid. Mtl was lazy and didn't question Sullivan's ability to judge talent and just accepted that he was a bottom 6. Effectively you made my point for me. It was because of Sullivan and his inability to judge talent levels that Legare has wasted 4 years of his career. And I reiterate, I just hope it isn't too late for him at 24 to get some real NHL time. I just hope for his sake that his career does not get ruined because of Sullivan and his blind eye.