As we head towards the playoffs which start on April 11th you want to be trending in the right direction as a team. I believe that the Penguins on March 19th are in much better shape than they were earlier in the year. There was never any doubt that Jim Rutherford was going to make some roster moves to improve the roster. It was a matter of who and how would they fit. The third line center position received a lot of attention, deservedly so. However, today I want to focus on the back end which has found some nice chemistry.

First things first, the Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin pairing is one of the best in the NHL. They play against the best of the best and post some of the best numbers among any other NHL duo. This is a great asset to have when trying to structure your other pairs. This pairing has been a steady go to for Mike Sullivan over the years when both players have been healthy it’s the other pairings that have been suspect at times. For example, last year the Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley pairing would bleed shots. Brian Dumoulin absent Kris Letang was submarined by Ron Hainsey. Justin Schultz and Ian Cole had some ups and downs as a pairing. This year the Cole-Schultz pairing wasn’t very good.

I was originally under the belief that Letang and Dumoulin should stay together and that Schultz and Maatta should also be locked in as the second pairing. This was while Ian Cole and Matt Hunwick were still regulars in the lineup. The addition of Jamie Oleksiak and Chad Ruhwedel and who they have played with has transformed the back end. Let’s take a look at some of the results.



As I said the top pairing has great numbers considering the kinds of minutes they had. What I found interesting was how good the most recent second and third pairs have done. Some of these samples aren’t the biggest, but that’s what we have to work with right now. The Maatta-Schultz pairing that I was originally in favor of isn’t nearly as good as the Maatta-Ruhwedel one. Justin Schultz has seen his best work with Jamie Oleksiak this year and not with Olli Maatta or his long time defensive partner Ian Cole.

You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned Matt Hunwick and that is because the results haven’t been good and quite frankly he shouldn’t see the lineup again. The only time Hunwick was putting up any kind of respectable numbers was when he was with Olli Maatta. I’m not breaking up the Maatta-Ruhwedel pairing and their 63.91 xGF% just so Matt Hunwick can get some playing time.

The early returns on the current pairings have looked the best they have all season even with the departure of Ian Cole. When you take the first 25 games of the season the Penguins had a Score-Adjusted Corsi of 49.75 which was 18th in the league. When you take the Penguins most recent 25 game sample that number jumps to 52.62% and they are fifth among NHL teams. I believe Mike Sullivan’s defensive pairing choices have been a positive contribution to this change in possession.

I don’t want to disregard the forwards and especially the newfound center depth, but I do think the improvement on the back end can only mean things get easier for some talented players on the front end.

Last year the Penguins PDO’d their way to a second consecutive Stanley Cup. This regular season has shown how volatile team shooting and save percentage can be. By being a better possession team the Penguins are better equipped to sustain success. The defense will be a big part of that.

Thanks for reading!

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