Penguins Week in Review
The Penguins’ first week in action after the All-Star break was full of promise, with the Pens riding a 7 game winning streak and Malkin and Neal both wielding a hot hand on the scoresheet. The week featured a home and home series with the then 9th place Toronto Maple Leafs (Leaves?), and Saturday and Sunday matinee contests against the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins and division rival New Jersey Devils. The week featured four inter conference games and one divisional game, and the Penguins needed to acquire points from these games to reassert themselves as Eastern conference contenders. Notes from the week:
• The Penguins looked more rusty than rested coming out of the break, falling behind 4-1 to the Leafs and being thoroughly dominated in stretches of the game before storming back to 4-3 with goals from Steve Sullivan and Joe Vitale, and having a puck bounce off of Evgeni Malkin’s arm with 6.1 seconds left in the game to tie it. It’s not often that a goalie is named as the difference in a game when he’s allowed 4 goals, but Marc-Andre Fleury played an outstanding game to allow the Penguins a chance for a comeback. The Penguins ended up getting 2 points out of a game that they had no business even finishing with a close score, let alone winning in a shootout.
• Secondary scoring continues to be a concern for the Penguins. The Toronto comeback victory was nice, but players not names Malkin, Neal, and Kunitz need to chip in goals from time to time if the Pens want to continue to be successful against Eastern Conference opponents. The star players have to continue to play like stars, but it doesn’t seem to be too much to ask for the other 9 forwards and 6 defensemen on the team to chip in a goal or two a game to help ease the burden on the top line.
• Fleury continues to be a shining star for the Penguins, as well as an enormous reason that they have continued to be relevant in the playoff chase despite the injuries they’ve suffered. His numbers may not always be spectacular, but real teams are concerned about winning hockey games, not fantasy leagues.
• The Penguins picked up Cal O’Reilly off re-entry waivers from the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday. O’Reilly, listed at 6’ 188 lbs, is a small but skilled center that can also play the wing. O’Reilly played with Steve Sullivan for a long stretch in Nashville before losing his year to a broken leg. In the game against Boston their chemistry was instantly palpable, with the two cycling well behind the net and connecting on several give and go’s. Since O’Reilly was claimed from re-entry waivers, the Pens will only be responsible for half of his remaining salary for the year. This looks to be a typical Ray Shero move, with low risk but moderate to high reward potential.
• Paul Martin is an excellent skater who provides consistently good breakout passes and is often seen helping create odd man rushes by jumping into the play and supporting the forwards. The problem with Paul Martin, however, is that he too often helps create odd man rushes against the Pens by getting beat with speedy and powerful forwards for the other teams. He has shown no interest in playing with any physicality, and the terror I get when I see opponents bearing down on him reminds me of when Ryan Whitney was playing for the Penguins. The two play fairly similar games, when they’re playing well they’re using their wheels and passing abilities to start the offense and keep play going the other way. When they’re playing bad, they’re getting outworked, outmuscled, and looking intimidated when forecheckers are bearing down on them. It could even be argued that Whitney even had more value than Martin, where Martin is probably better defensively, Whitney provided excellent play on the power play. Whitney’s game, however, wasn’t that of a Shero-style player, and it led to his trade to Anaheim in a deadline move that resulted in Chris Kunitz and Eric Tangradi. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Martin dealt either at the trade deadline or in the offseason.
• The Penguins were outplayed in every facet on Sunday afternoon against the Devils, who staked a 6-0 lead the day before against Philadelphia before holding on for a 6-4 win. The Devils were just sharper on Sunday, which happens sometimes over the course of an 82 game season.
• Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, and Simon Despres started skating with strength & conditioning coach Mike Kadar, working back from injuries in some on-ice workouts. Staal and Despres are predicted to return to practice either next week or soon thereafter. Staal will be a huge help to the Penguins, as there will finally be another line capable of putting consistent pressure on opposing teams to help Malkin’s line. Despres will probably be returned to Wilkes-Barre until he is needed again, due to his age/2 way contract and not his play. Crosby, as per the standard of the last year, has no timetable on his return. Ho hum.
The Week Ahead
The Penguins have three very winnable conference games ahead this week, with the Canadiens on Tuesday, the Winnipeg Jets in a 2 P.M. matinee on Saturday, and Tampa Bay on Sunday. Here’s a look at the standings after Sunday’s games:
The Penguins play the 14th, 12th, and 13th ranked teams in the conference this week, and should take advantage of the opportunity to bully the lesser teams. The NHL is coming into the stretch drive of the season, and teams need to acquire every point possible. Losing to lesser teams just isn’t acceptable at this time of year.
• Pens fans may remember former Hab Mike Cammalleri going on a scoring tear in the Pens’ seven game series loss to Montreal 2 seasons ago, but luckily for the Penguins he’s no longer a Canadien. He was traded after he made remarks to the media about his team having “a losing mentality”, which was already apparent to anyone who has paid attention to them. Montreal is a mess this year: they fired Jacques Martin in December, then threw unilingual coach Randy Cunneyworth to the media wolves who crucified him for having the nerve to accept a dream coaching position in a storied NHL city without being able to speak French. Pens fans have no sympathy for Canadien fans, as we suffered through Ivan Hlinka who was also unilingual, but the language was Czech rather than English.
• Not much has changed for the Atlanta Thrashers since moving to Winnipeg, they are still a team of young talented players without much direction. The team has the talent to win their share of games, but consistently fails to do so.
• Steven Stamkos leads the league with 34 goals so far in the season. He continues to lead the way for the Lightning, who have underachieved this season after losing in the conference finals to the eventual champion Boston Bruins last season.
• The Lightning’s Bond-villainesque coach Gu Boucher continues to employ the 1-3-1 trap, which slows neutral zone play to a crawl in an effort to create turnovers and offensive chances for his team. As evidenced by the Flyers last year, the system is extremely passive in nature, employing zero forecheckers and relying on the attacking team to make the first move into it. The Penguins, conversely, use an extremely aggressive style often employing two forecheckers to prevent D to D breakouts and physically punishing defenders to force them into mistakes. It’s an interesting contrast, and while the 1-3-1 trap can frustrate and stymie an opponent’s attack, the aggressive style of play has proven most successful in recent years in the NHL. The 1-3-1 isn’t built for comebacks, and the Penguins can force the Lightning to play out of their comfort zone if they can build an early lead and assert their physical presence behind the net.
The author can be reached for feedback or questions at: chriswhite@steelnationmagazine.com