The Pittsburgh Penguins enter tonight's matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 1-0 series lead after Marc-Andre Fleury backstopped the team to a 3-1 victory on Wednesday night.
The Penguins will never be at full strength this postseason given that Kris Letang is out 4-6 months after successful neck surgery the other day. In order for the team to make a deep run in the playoffs they are going to need to maximize what they get out of their defensemen. Last year the forwards carried the team to a Stanley Cup and the defensemen played a decent supporting role outside of Letang who was a standout.
The Penguins have had struggles on the back end over the course of the year and none more than the Maatta-Daley pairing. Both players missed extended time to close out the year and are now healthy enough to play. Since being injured other players have stepped up and have taken over the top four defense slots. The current version of the Maatta-Daley pairing will likely be the "third pairing". However, that is probably in name only. It is likely that Mike Sullivan spreads the defense minutes out like he did in Game 1.
That is a very tight grouping. This approach is fine because none of these players are bonafide top pairing guys that need significantly more minutes. What Pittsburgh will need to think about is getting the best six guys in the lineup and right now they are not.
Trevor Daley played the best hockey of his career after coming over to Pittsburgh. The timing was perfect and it helped the Penguins ultimately win the Stanley Cup. That was last year. This year Daley has significantly regressed back into the player he has shown to be over his career sample. He has been a drain on possession and while he still contributes offense at the same level it isn't high enough to offset the possession stuff. Olli Maatta is not immune from criticism, but I find it a difficult task to evaluate him when he has spent so much time with Daley who hasn't been good.
The Penguins should look to supplant Daley in the lineup with Mark Streit. The forwards are the ones that are going to carry this team as far as they are going to go. Those forwards will need defensemen who have the kinds of skills that will facilitate that. Accurate passing will spring the forwards up the ice with controlled exits. The speed earned in the neutral zone will lead to controlled entries. The controlled entries will lead to scoring chances. Streit is better than Daley at facilitating this based on the information available.
Daley does some things really well (shot volume, dangerous shot contributions) and that shouldn't be dismissed, but I'm looking for a different skill set at this time. Mark Streit doesn't do those things well, but he does add more value on the passing front via total passing, primary shot assists, transition play (entries/entries assists), and influence (total shot contributions).
Streit has been on par or a better possession than Daley outside of Daley's 2015-16 outlier season.
*The gap in Streit's line is because he did not play in the NHL during 2010-11*
Daley has had a negative impact on nearly every player he has been with this year. That hasn't been the case with Streit
In 473 5v5 minutes Olli Maatta is a 45.9% possession player with Daley this year and in 369 minutes away from Daley Maatta comes in at 54.1%. That eight percent gap isn't something that should be ignored.
The Penguins don't have a lot of wiggle room for error this postseason with how they allocate their defense minutes. Nearly every player will be asked to play above the role that they should probably be in. Something like Trevor Daley playing over Mark Streit may seem like a minor thing, but these things matter over time and if the team wants to keep playing they need all personnel choices to be on point.
Trevor Daley played a positive role in 2015-16. It's a different year. Use the evidence available.
Thanks for reading!