I confess, I didn’t watch last night’s preseason matchup between the Penguins’ kids and the Blue Jackets regulars, which resulted in a 4-0 whitewashing for our boys at the hands of the CBJ.
Instead, I opted to listen in on radio.
Aside from peppery forward Avery Hayes and goalie Sergei Murashov, radio color man Phil Bourque didn’t seem to think much of our collective effort. However, Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now had a different take, pointing out some bright spots.
Caught in-betwixt and between, I decided to look at the underlying numbers on Natural Stat Trick to see if I could get a read. Statistically, there were some clear-cut standouts (and some not-so-hots).
Any way you slice it, the line of Connor Dewar, Filip Hållander and Elmer Söderblom enjoyed a strong game. The trio registered a 66.67 Corsi and a 70.96 expected goals for percentage (xGF%). The unit didn’t yield any goals. A good thing, since this may very well be our fourth line to begin the season.
Likewise, the Hayes, David Gustafsson and Atley Calvert troika wasn’t scored upon and had similarly solid metrics (63.64 Corsi and 66.42 xGF%).
Our top line of Tristan Broz centering for Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen had middling numbers and was on the ice for two goals against, one with Murashov pulled for an extra attacker.
By far the worst forward group? The Bill Zonnon, Tanner Howe, Mikhail Ilyin unit, also on the ice for two goals against. They registered a 30.77 Corsi and a dreadful 3.99 xGFA%.
On the blue line, the tandem of Jake Livanavage and Illya Solovyov was a mixed bag. The duo had great possession numbers, but were on the ice for three goals against.
On the flip-side of the coin? The “Picknicke” pairing of Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke had comparatively poor metrics, but didn’t yield a goal. Caleb Jones and Ryan Graves were roughly break-even, possession-wise, but leaked for a crucial goal late in the second period. Graves led the team with four hits.
It should be noted that all our defensemen, save for Brunicke, were left shots. So guys were playing on their opposite hand.
In goal, Murashov’s .813 save percentage (13 saves on 16 shots) wasn’t anything to write home about, but he played better than the numbers suggest.
A final observation. Last season the Pens won their final five preseason games, in the process gathering valuable momentum that carried over into the regular season. This fall we seem to be stuck in reverse.
More Cuts
Forwards Brayden Edwards, Max Graham, Jack Horbach, Hugh McGing, Mark Senden, Tiernan Shoudy and David Russell, and defensemen Finn Harding and Daniel Laatsch have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Goalie Taylor Gauthier as well.
Forward Melvin Fernstrom and goalie Gabriel D’Aigle were designated as injured, non-roster players and were also assigned to the Baby Pens.
Defenseman Phil Kemp was placed on waivers. If he clears, he’ll likewise be assigned to the Baby Pens.
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I saw part of the first 2 periods. Boring game all around, but some crazy dumb things happening, like a defender throwing a pass to his buddy through the crease....that was intercepted and forced Murashev to make a high danger save lol.
Murashev impressed me with his quickness. The first goal he was very screened, and I didn't see any of the other goals, but I think he is fine.
Some other, perhaps more interesting stats for me were these Bill Zonnon was only given 1-Offensive Zone Start and 1-Neutral Zone start, all of his other starts were on the fly, yet he managed to be on the ice for 4-Offensive Zone FO and only 1-Defensive Zone FO. He had to be winning the Ice Battle, tying the puck up in CBJ's Zone. His CF%, FF%, and SA% were all south of the 50% mark, so a little more investigation needs to be done. When I look at the with-or-without you numbers I see that the Defensive pairing Zonnon was saddle with most was Graves and Jones, with Graves and Jones his CORSI numbers were 2-7 (CF-CA). When I looked at his CORSI when he got the chance to skate with Pickering and Brunicke his numbers were 4-2 (CF-CA). These numbers do seem to reflect my eye test that Graves and Jones were a liability, unable to sustain play in the O-Zone for Zonnon and hi line. Howe, and Ilyin showed similar with-or-without you numbers as expected (since they skated with each other for most of the time).
Bottom line it was just a preseason game with a Penguin lineup of all prospects or reclamation projects against a fairly close to regular season lineup of Jackets. In that game, the prospects did play fairly well, but not well enough to pick up and carry the veteran reclamation projects that Dubas seems so fond of.