Pittsburgh headed into the break with a two game losing streak. That streak was snapped last night with a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.
One of the main storylines from the game was Patric Hornqvist scoring twice against his former team. Lately Hornqvist has returned to his goal scoring ways and that has been a nice development for the team. He has four goals in his last four games. His five goals in the month of January was a season high for a calendar month. His four goal December was the second highest. His two goals last night were his first multi-goal game of the season.
He is finally regressing back to normal shooting percentages after a real blah period.
His goals were exactly where you think they’d be. Right at the goal mouth. The first one was on a wraparound and the second one was a clever play on a scramble in front of the net where he lifted the Nashville defenders stick in order to get his on it.
He was also reunited with Sidney Crosby and Conor Sheary. This was the top line on the way to the Stanley Cup. Patric Hornvist is never going to excel at making controlled entries, but if he’s with two players that are capable of that skill he can slot in nicely on the wing. With Crosby and Sheary he has that and it allows him to focus on what he’s good at, chaos.
With the emergence of Jake Guentzel Pittsburgh Head Coach Mike Sullivan has some line combo options to play around with. Here are the results of some of the line combinations from 2016-17
The lowest of the bunch is Sheary-Crosby-Rust and if it were up to me, I would put this line on the side burner for now in favor of a Sheary-Crosby-Hornqvist line.
The recently put together line of Guentzel-Malkin-Hornqvist has been very good. The idea that Hornqvist cannot play with Malkin is a fallacy.
The Hagelin-Crosby-Sheary line was short lived, but had very impressive numbers. Sheary’s ability to play the right side creates a lot of potential options for Mike Sullivan.
With a fully healthy lineup Mike Sullivan could do the following:
Sheary-Crosby-Hornqvist Guentzel-Malkin-Kessel Hagelin-Bonino-Rust Kunitz-Cullen-Wilson
Or
Hagelin-Crosby-Sheary Guentzel-Malkin-Hornqvist Wilson-Bonino-Kessel Kunitz-Cullen-Rust
Those aren’t the only two options, but just an example of what you can do with Sheary being able to play on either side of Sidney Crosby.
Another takeaway from the victory last night was Matt Murray making his seventh consecutive start. He stopped 37 of 39 shots and will more than likely make his eighth consecutive start against the Blue Jackets on Friday night.
During his seven game streak he has an all-situations save percentage of .916. This includes the Washington game where he allowed seven goals. In his last six games he is at .939. Plenty good enough to merit the playing time he has received.
The NHL trade deadline is now a month away (March 1). Keep an eye on the goalie market. Fleury is a main variable in how things play out around the league.
Scott Wilson and Chris Kunitz picked up some more points in their fourth line role. Kunitz scored on a nice wrist shot from the slot and Scott Wilson picked up two helpers. They are not only producing at a top six level at 5v5, but right at the cusp of first line level. Wilson is at 2.01 5v5 points per 60 and Kunitz is at 1.97. For context Cam Atkinson who is having a great season is at 1.98. Last year’s Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane is at 1.93. Tough to compete with the Penguins forward depth.
Kris Letang made his return and he did so with the ‘A’ on his jersey. I may be wrong, but I can’t remember another time he was given that honor. Last night may have been the first time that has happened. Letang’s presence was felt right away. The amount of controlled plays he creates is so obvious and helps the forwards so much. The guys that stepped in during his absence did fine, but there is no substitute for one of the best defenseman in the league.
Pittsburgh won’t play until Friday. Until then we’ll have to wait and see how both Evgeni Malkin and Matt Cullen progress from their injuries.
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— Hockey Hurts (@Hockey_Hurts) February 1, 2017
Reference article:https://t.co/dB0hZn2ZOZ
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