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The Penguins return to action after their holiday break to take on Jordan Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes. The Penguins are coming off a pretty lackluster 5-0 drubbing from the Ottawa Senators and will be looking to get back to their December winning ways against the Canes.
Anytime the Penguins take on the Hurricanes it is natural for the Staal/Sutter comparisons to be made.
I see a lot of the Jordan Staal and Brandon Sutter comparisons and most of them focus on the amount of points and goals that each player has scored since the big trade. Here is a common example:
What is almost never brought up is how each player has been used by their specific teams. The assumption is that Jordan Staal “graduated” to a top 6 role with the Hurricanes in order to spread his offensive wings. The reality is that Staal is in the same exact role he played with for the Penguins but is now on a worse team. Jordan Staal is still responsible for the toughest minutes on his team; he is still a positive possession player, and believe it or not still scoring at the same exact rate that he did in Pittsburgh.
In 431 career games with Pittsburgh Staal had 248 points which was good for 0.58 points per game. In Carolina he has now played in 85 games and has 48 points which comes out to 0.56 points per game.
The problem for the Hurricanes is that Jordan Staal is not paid to score at the same rate as he did with the Penguins. But that is a Hurricanes problem not a Jordan Staal problem. If they want to get more offense from him, take him out of his shutdown role. It is Carolina’s fault for not putting Staal in a position to improve his offensive totals.
Here is the usage chart for both Staal and Sutter from this year:
The deep blue color by Jordan Staal represents a positive relative Corsi number of 14.6. The red color for Sutter represents a negative relative Corsi number of -14.4.
The larger bubble for Staal shows that he gets more ice time per game than Sutter, 14.3 min/game vs 11.5 min/game.
Both players receive similar offensive zone starts but the huge difference is the quality of competition (rel). Jordan Staal is facing way tougher matchups for the Hurricanes in relation to his teammates than Sutter is in Pittsburgh. It has been the Crosby line in Pittsburgh who has received the tougher line matchups this year for the Penguins.
Jordan Staal is in a shutdown role while Brandon Sutter’s role has been considered “less sheltered”.
In Sutter’s defense the reason for him not being in a shutdown role is because the Penguins do not currently have quality wingers to provide him. Dan Bylsma does not feel comfortable throwing Sutter to the wolves with such poor help on his wings. When the Penguins solidify the bottom 6, Sutter will more than likely start to take over the tougher responsibilities again.
Why do I bring all of this up? Do I think the Penguins made a mistake with the Staal trade? Am I down on Brandon Sutter?
I don’t think the Penguins did anything wrong at all with the trade. They received great value and it has been one of Ray Shero’s finest moves via trade. The reason I brought this up is because I think Jordan Staal is a terrific hockey player and the generic point/goal comparison used to try and prop Brandon Sutter up to Staal’s level is unfair to Jordan. Staal is and always will be the better player.
Jordan Staal and his new contract are going to be judged by his ability to create more offense with Carolina than he did as a Penguin. The problem as stated above is that the Hurricanes have not given him that opportunity to grow as an offensive player. The point of Staal moving on was to gain more offensive responsibility on his new team. That has not happened in Carolina.
I’m happy with the job that Brandon Sutter has done with the Penguins but I am pretty tired of both of these players being compared to one another. There is no comparison to be made.
Line Combos
Projected lineup for the Penguins:
Kunitz-Crosby-Vitale
Conner-Jokinen-Neal
Zolnierczyk-Sutter-Kobasew
Glass-Sill-Adams
Orpik-Engelland
Niskanen-Maatta
Bortuzzo-Despres
Scuderi-Dumoulin
Projected lineup for the Hurricanes:
Longtime Hurricane and part time Penguin Zach Boychuk has been recalled from the AHL to take Tlusty's spot.
Skinner-E. Staal-Ruutu
Gerbe-J.Staal-Semin
Bowman-Nash-Dwyer
Boychuk-Malhotra-Dvorak
Faulk-Sekera
Bellemore-Hainsey
Gleason-Murphy
Injuries
Pascal Dupuis will have ACL surgery in 2 weeks. That will effectively end his 2013-2014 NHL season. Losing Dupuis is a tough pill to swallow given the injuries to the Penguins already and their thin forward depth even when healthy.
The Dupuis injury will almost certainly lead to a trade at some point this season. The good news for the Penguins is that they still play in the worst division in the NHL and have a healthy 1st place lead. They will not have to panic right now. I will have a future blog that details my thoughts about what the Penguins should do moving forward.
Evgeni Malkin, Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, and Tanner Glass all skated in this morning with the team.
However, Evgeni Malkin and Rob Scuderi did not participate in the line rushes and will most likely remain out of the lineup.
Initial impressions are that Malkin looked fine at the skate and was moving around pretty good.
Tanner Glass and Brooks Orpik will make their returns this evening judging by the morning skate line rushes.
Jiri Tlusty is out after having an appendectomy.
Mike Komisarek has been taken off of IR. He had a “lower body injury”.
Anton Khubodin has been cleared to play but still remains on IR with an ankle injury. His return date is currently unknown.
Power Play
The Pittsburgh Penguins have ceded the #1 overall power play to the Washington Capitals. The Capitals have regained the #1 ranking they held earlier in the year and are now clicking at 25.9%. The Penguins are now the 2nd ranked power play at 24.8%.
Injuries and suspensions have contributed to the power play dropping out of the top ranking.
The Carolina Hurricanes are ranked 27th overall at 13.4%. The Hurricanes are tied for 6th overall with 134 power play opportunities. The Penguins are right on their heels as they are 8th overall with 133 opportunities.
Penalty Kill
The Penguins are now 2nd overall in the NHL on the PK with 87.3% but that number is in jeapordy of falling with the long term loss of Pascal Dupuis.
The Hurricanes are 23rd overall with 80.3%.
The Penguins are tied for 5th best in the league with only being shorthanded 118 times
The Hurricanes are tied for 18th overall with 127 times shorthanded.
Fenclose%
The Penguins are 5th overall at 54.0%
The Hurricanes are 26th overall at 46.4%
Even Strength Save %
The Penguins have fallen from 14th overall to 19th overall after the Senators game. The Penguins have an EVSV% of .918%. Marc Andre Fleury is sitting at a respectable .929%.
The Hurricanes are once again dealing with injury issues related to their #1 goaltender Cam Ward. The Canes also have been without their backup goalie Anton Khubodin. The Hurricanes are currently tied for 10th overall in EVSV% with .925%, pretty impressive given the injury bug to that position.
Cam Ward is back from injury but Justin Peters is still starting the majority of the games.
Justin Peters has been given the nod in net and his EVSV% this year has been .931%.
Trends
Penguins are 6-0 in their last 6 vs. Metropolitan
Hurricanes are 1-4 in their last 5 home games.
Hurricanes are 1-4 in their last 5 vs. Eastern Conference.
Penguins are 4-0 in the last 4 meetings
Home team is 9-3 in the last 12 meetings
Stats courtesy of covers.com
Thanks for reading!
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