The Penguins are back at it again. Chris Kunitz and Jarome Iginla have switched lines. Sidney Crosby centered a line during Thursday's practice with Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis.
Evgeni Malkin skated with James Neal to his left and Iginla to his right.
Pittsburgh scored just one even-strength goal in Game 1 against Ottawa. Malkin tapped in a Kunitz pass with Neal picking up a secondary assist.
How important are these lines to the Pens’ success?
The team's power play has scored at a 36 percent clip, going 9-for-25 -- best in the playoffs.
Interestingly, Crosby (-2) and Iginla (-2) are two of four top-20 playoff scorers with negative plus-minus ratings – Logan Couture (-3) and James van Riemsdyk (-1) are the others.
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Ottawa has only two players with more than 16 registered hits, Chris Neil (34) and Marc Methot (21) – six games.
The Penguins, meanwhile, have four skaters with 16 or more hits, including Matt Cooke (30), Pascal Dupuis (22), Brenden Morrow (22), and Chris Kunitz (19) – through seven contests.
Expect those numbers – on both sides – to go up as temperatures escalate as the series becomes more heated.
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Brooks Orpik is re-discovering his Neanderthal instincts in the playoffs and I mean that in a good way.
During the regular season, Orpik underwent a metamorphosis in his game, blocking more shots while hitting less moving objects. In fact, he nearly blocked as many shots (114) as he had hits (119). In 2011-12, the defender totaled 139 blocked shots and 259 hits.
He’s going back to his roots in the postseason, with almost twice as many hits (13) as blocks (7). While the gross number of hits isn’t as high as say, Cooke or Dupuis, don’t tell Ottawa’s Eric Gryba that Orpik’s hits don’t hurt.
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A comparison of the top two faceoff men for Ottawa and Pittsburgh reveals that the Sens currently have the playoff edge over the Pens.
Ottawa centermen, Kyle Turris and Zack Smith, take 31.7 and 24.6 percent of their team’s faceoffs, respectively. Turris is winning in the circle at a 53.7 rate and Smith, 55.3
Sidney Crosby (35.9 percent) and Brandon Sutter (22.9) share most of the load for Pittsburgh. Crosby is winning at a 46.9 percent clip while Sutter is only slightly better at 48.4 percent.
Crosby has stated that his jaw shield doesn’t hinder him in the circle, but his numbers are significantly down from the regular season, when he won 54.3 percent of draws.
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Pens Inside Scoop @PensInsideScoop
So #Pens keep Kunitz on top PP with Iginla and Neal flipping. Iggy works point. When Neal takes over, Malkin moves to point -SK
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The Globe and Mail lauds the Penguins' work on advanced statistics before the team pulled off the James Neal trade of a couple years ago right
here.
I might be wrong, but I don't think advanced metrics were really needed in the James Neal for Alex Goligoski deal. I mean, c'mon. And then throw in Matt Niskanen?
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Pens Playoff Audio
Dan Bylsma
James Neal
Kris Letang
Tyler Kennedy
Brandon Sutter
Matt Niskanen
Joe Vitale
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Treasure Life!
JT
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