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Back On Track

April 20, 2016, 11:36 AM ET [397 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the New York Rangers by a score of 3-1 in Game 3 and looked more like the team that was winning almost every game to close out the regular season.

Pittsburgh returned to controlling the flow of the game at even-strength for the first time in the series.




Here are the individual performances on the possession front




This is a vast improvement over Games 1 and 2.

What was even more impressive is how Pittsburgh played after taking the lead. Instead of packing it in and tasking Matt Murray to hold the lead the Penguins kept their foot on the pedal and pushed play. The result was spectacular




Here is the shot chart after they took the lead. There's nothing there




That is how you close a game out.

One of the big stories from the game was the return of Pittsburgh's blue chip goaltending prospect Matt Murray. He played excellent just like the team in front of him. The only goal to beat Murray was Rick Nash's amazing shot on his shorthanded break. He stopped 16 out of the 17 shots. You read that correctly the Rangers only had 17 shots.




Even with the possession advantage in Game 3 we are reminded just how big of a factor Henrik Lundqvist is. Even with Pittsburgh outshooting New York 30-17 they only scored twice on the King. Lundqvist remains a huge x factor in the series and will keep his team in games that maybe they don't deserve to be in. It took a really special play for Pittsburgh to get on the board.




Nobody is better around the net front than Sidney Crosby and he continues to show why with plays like that. Not too many players can pull off that redirection. Crosby hasn't had many playoff seasons in recent memory where he's been healthy (concussion, jaw, wrist) so people may forget just how good he's been at scoring goals in the playoffs




Crosby has played in 103 playoff games with 45 goals for a .44 goals per game average. Danny Briere has played 124 games with 53 goals (.43). Henrik Zetterberg has played in 136 games with 57 goals (.42). Patrick Kane has played in 120 games with 48 goals (.40).

Phil Kessel, the man who assisted on the Crosby goal, continues to quietly go about his business with little fanfare. He now has a point in every game this series and he continues to average a point per game in his playoff career.




Kessel led the game last night with 8 individual shot attempts which raises his series total to 33, a team high. He also was a 70% possession player. Kessel has done everything the Penguins have needed him to so far in the playoffs.

Matt Cullen took advantage of a Rangers mishap and scored the game winning goal



Cullen's performance this season goes to show if you do your homework you can sign cheap super effective depth in the offseason. Instead of wasting draft picks at the deadline fill your depth in the summer. Cullen is not showing any signs of slowing down and the Penguins are better for it.

Evgeni Malkin only played 13 minutes and not all of them were good but he did finish the game with an assist and turned Eric Fehr into a 73% possession player which hasn't been commonplace this year. His pinch on the Rick Nash goal was not good but if you rewind that sequence I have more of an issue with Kris Letang's choice. Crosby wins a clean draw and Letang skates himself into trouble down the half wall which created the initial turnover.

That wasn't Letang's only mishap. He also slashed a Ranger in the face. He should definitely have a hearing about that, but he won't






If Philadelphia's Bellemare only got one game for what he did it is pretty much open season out there barring catastrophic injury. What a league.

Pittsburgh is fortunate they won't be losing Letang. It should come as no surprise that Letang leads all Penguins defenders in the playoffs with a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 58.4%.

Conor Sheary continues to impress. If Carl Hagelin is going to continue playing with Nick Bonino then Sheary should be permanently planted next to either Malkin or Crosby and that seems to be the case right now. I would try Sheary with Crosby to get that line going at even-strength. Kunitz isn't providing Crosby the proper support he needs lately and Hornqvist isn't the type of player known for making a lot of controlled plays. Sheary would be that guy for Sid in Kunitz's place. Kunitz can drop down to the Malkin line if Geno is only going to get 13 minutes of game action.

Lastly, I remain underwhelmed by the choice to dress both Ian Cole and Ben Lovejoy. Neither player's skill set lines up with what the team is trying to be. I can't help but watch the Tampa Bay series and see that Jonathan Drouin is doing great things now that they are forced to play him and think about Derrick Pouliot. In three playoff games Ian Cole has a SAF of 34.7% which is abysmal. He does nothing that benefits the team's transition game. Pouliot is no more a liability than he is. If the argument is that Ian Cole "defends better" it falls on deaf ears. I don't want a guy that is always defending (Cole had highest CA/60 among defensive regulars this year)

We already know that Pouliot led the Penguins defensemen in CF/60, CA/60, and points/60 in his limited role this year. There is another thing he does extremely well which the Penguins could use more of




Andrew has access to the SPORTLOGiQ database which tracks that kind of thing. It isn't lost on me that the Penguins won't actually do this but it doesn't change the logic or analysis of this situation and it deserves to be mentioned. At the very least Justin Schultz should find his way back into the lineup.

There will not be a two day break in-between Games 3 and 4 this time around. Pittsburgh and New York will meet again at MSG on Thursday evening. The Rangers need to win three out of four games now to stay alive this season. Pittsburgh looked very good in Game 3. If they continue to play that way it will be solely on Lundqvist to keep the Rangers afloat.

Thanks for reading!
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