Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Forward Depth Driving Penguins Closer To Stanley Cup

June 2, 2016, 10:34 AM ET [347 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to the best start they could have hoped for in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. They have earned the all important two victories on home ice and you could argue that they have controlled the flow of gameplay for much of the series so far.

The Penguins have outshot their opponents in 11 straight games and it is now 16 out of 20 games in the playoffs. As we know shot volume has a fairly high correlation with shot quality and so far that is indeed the case in the Stanley Cup Final




The Sharks aren't dead in the water yet, but this is going to be an incredibly hard hole to climb out of. It isn't a common occurrence for teams to win the Stanley Cup after being down 0-2, but it has happened twice in the cap era. The first time was in 2009 when the Penguins came back to beat the mighty Detroit Red Wings and the second time was when the Bruins rode Tim Thomas out of their hole to come back and beat the Vancouver Canucks.

Last night was the fourth consecutive victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins against two really good teams. How are they doing it?

Their multiple scoring line approach is paying huge dividends, specifically the part where they have given players that might not be top six players on other teams a shot to play with Crosby and Malkin. That approach went dry against Tampa Bay for a while, but It is definitely working now.




That is super impressive. That is the kind of contribution from depth that is going to take you places. That was absent in many of the years since the 2009 championship season. That is also the kind of contribution which allows the HBK line to stay together.

Conor Sheary's goal was scored on a set faceoff play and that is about as close as you're going to get to hockey resembling basketball. It is so difficult to execute very specific plays in hockey because of the controlled chaos nature of the game, but the overtime goal was one of those few set plays that worked.





Here is how the simple little play went down


I have marked who each Shark is responsible for on this play. Right now this looks like a basic faceoff. Crosby won the draw clean which is the first step in any set faceoff play and why mostly all faceoff plays are dead upon arrival.

Here is where things turned south for the Sharks. The red dot shows the player responsible for Sheary. It is Justin Braun.



He is caught up in traffic. Sheary continues to float towards his final destination. The two Sharks wingers continue their pursuit of their point men. Notice how wide Dumoulin is. This won't allow the weak side winger to be near Sheary and eliminates a desperation poke check coming from that player. The Sharks right winger will pay no mind to Sheary. His responsibility is getting in Letang's shooting lane. Hornqvist is on his way to screen the front.

Here is the payoff.



The pocket is created. Justin Braun is about to find out the consequence for taking a bad path to his mark. Notice how far away he is from Sheary. The only way Sheary was going to be covered on this play is if Braun came all the way up to the high slot. That is a weird uncomfortable position for a defenseman to be up that high. You can tell because Braun's initial reaction off the draw wasn't to follow Sheary up high, but it was to wait for Sheary to come back to him because most times that is what happens. Sheary never did that and the bad path Braun took caused him to get unintentionally picked on the play. He was never able to recover. Kris Letang heeded Crosby's instructions to not shoot and look for Sheary in that pocket.

The pass from Letang to Sheary was no sure thing, but in the NHL you have to make do with the small amount of space you have. This is about as much space as you're going to get on a set play and the Penguins made the most of it.

There was nothing fancy about this setup. The Penguins had an idea in mind and executed on it. They got fortunate one of the Sharks players lost his assignment and now we have a 2-0 series. The margin for error can be incredibly small in this sport. As Sidney Crosby said after the game he did call the right play on the game winning goal but he also called out faceoff plays on all the other offensive zone draws that didn't pan out. Running set plays in hockey is incredibly difficult. So many things have to go right.

During Dan Bylsma's tenure with the team the Penguins did a lot of creative faceoff plays that involved shooters getting into that pocket for open looks. It was nice to see something along those lines return at such an important moment.

The HBK line scored yet another playoff goal. It was a goal that highlighted the different skill sets of each individual on the line and why it meshes the way it does..




Carl Hagelin displayed his puck seeking tenacity in picking the pocket of the Sharks defender. Nick Bonino continues to show off his hockey IQ and passing ability in tight areas. Phil Kessel continues to score goals because that is what Phil Kessel does. It was Phil Kessel's tenth goal of the playoffs and he is probably the front runner for the Conn Smythe on the Penguins side of things.

The goal was great but the line did not drive play as much as they did in Game 1. San Jose's top two lines pushed back against HBK.




On the surface that isn't great and you of course don't want to see a line of that caliber hemmed in their zone, but Mike Sullivan is clearly throwing that line to the wolves to open up things for the other two skilled lines. Six of the top nine possession players in the game are from the forwards on the Crosby and Malkin line. The strategy is working for Pittsburgh and it has to be salt in the wound for the Sharks that the line who wasn't driving play for Pittsburgh also scored.

If you recall back to the 2009 Stanley Cup Final Dan Bylsma intentionally fed the Crosby line to the wolves (Zetterberg/Lidstrom) and hedged his bets that the other lines would pick up the slack. Pittsburgh hasn't had the ability to execute this game plan since Jordan Staal left the team in 2012. They can use that strategy now and they are. The Penguins are back to being a matchup nightmare for the opposition.

One of the keys in this series was going to be if Pittsburgh's forward depth could still find success against the best defense corp. they have faced. They are winning that battle and it is why they are up 2-0 in the series.

Matt Murray has turned in four quality starts in a row. In the last four games he has stopped 89 out of 96 shots for a .937 save percentage. Pittsburgh is only giving up 24 shots per game on average the last four games which would be enough to frustrate the opposition. Murray being at a .937 level on top of that is a great recipe for victory and it has been.

That isn't to say there weren't some very fortunate bounces for the Penguins. The Sharks hit at least four posts in the game and on a different night we are probably having a different conversation about how things played out. That's how it goes sometimes. Luck is part of winning a championship.

Martin Jones has played great so far in this series. If not for his .930 save percentage things would be even worse for the Sharks. The reality of the situation is that San Jose has had a good look at winning both games despite not having the better of the play. It has taken Pittsburgh two very late goals to earn victories in this series and that is because of the play of Martin Jones.

The series will now shift over to the west coast and we will start to see more days off in-between games. For some reason this Stanley Cup Final has ten off days for a seven game series.

The Sharks will be looking to save their season on Saturday night.

The Penguins will be looking for more happy times like this




More to come in the days to follow.

Thanks for reading!
Join the Discussion: » 347 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Ryan Wilson
» Penguins earn victory on Jake night
» A salute to Jake Guentzel
» Sid puts on show as Avs dig out of hole
» A dud in Dallas
» My thoughts on Dubas' thoughts