Tonight the Pittsburgh Penguins will get their second opportunity to eliminate the Washington Capitals from the playoffs. This time it will come from the comfy confines of the PPG Paints Arena.
Washington will come into this game not looking to change much from last game. The various changes Barry Trotz made to the forward lines and defensive pairings were successful and Braden Holtby played a great game. Unless things drastically change on the Penguins end I don't see why Washington can't do what they did in Game 5 and repeat it in Game 6.
It does appear the Penguins will be making some line changes for tonight and I think that needed to happen. Here is what they look like
#Pens lines:
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 8, 2017
Sheary-Crosby-Hornqvist
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel
Kunitz-Cullen-Kuhnhackl
-MC
I think the logic behind these lines is good. What they were doing wasn't working. Crosby has the same linemates he did during last year's Stanley Cup run. Evgeni Malkin now has Jake Guentzel on his left wing in place of Chris Kunitz who was his left winger last year. The HBK line will be given another look and that is something I had wanted to take a chance on for a few games. The fourth line is much better for having Chris Kunitz on it instead of Eric Fehr from a year ago, although I would use Scott Wilson over Tom Kuhnhackl. That said, the forwards are the strength of this team and this is a good/better look than they've had recently.
Defensively... Well, without Letang this was never going to look great anyways.
Penguins defense:
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) May 8, 2017
Streit-Hainsey
Maatta-Ruhwedel
Cole-Schultz
#Pens 1st PP unit: Schultz, Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Hornqvist. 2nd unit: Ruhwedel, Maatta, Bonino, Sheary, Guentzel -MC
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) May 8, 2017
It looks as though Chad Ruhwedel will get the nod with Daley out considering he is taking reps on the second power play.
Here is a snap shot of how Trevor Daley, Chad Ruhwedel, and Mark Streit looked during the regular season this year. Keep in mind that Streit's numbers are predominately from Philadelphia.
I would put Mark Streit in the lineup. He compares more favorably than the other two. I added the relative stats in order to provide context compared to their teammates. Streit is positive on all fronts while Ruhwedel and Daley are negatives. I added on-ice save percentage because that can really skew a person's view of a player and it is something the player has little to do with. Nothing about Ruhwedel's sample size is better than Streit's other than the fact he was the beneficiary of top end goaltending when he was on the ice.
As far as offense generated at even-strength both Ruhwedel and Daley have identical 0.85 points per 60 while Streit is at 0.59. I'm willing to take the hit on point generation with Streit because I would rather have a player who is more successful at getting the puck to the talented forward grouping than players who are comfortably below the 50% threshold and negative relative to their teammates.
Brian Dumoulin was given a maintenance day according to Coach Sullivan and it looks like Streit was just a placeholder in the morning skate.
The only thing left to do is to see how things play out tonight. Expect another quality Washington performance.
Thanks for reading!