Pittsburgh's dreadful 2015 ended on a positive note. They were able to muster up a 5-2 New Year's Eve victory over the Detroit Red Wings and pick up some desperately needed points in the standings.
It was like old times at Joe Louis Arena where the Penguins were led by Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Malkin finished with one goal and two assists while Crosby scored a highlight reel goal for the game winner.
Crosby goal pic.twitter.com/sQGaBTXqT8
— Stephanie (@myregularface) January 1, 2016
Maybe even more important than getting the big two going is keeping Kris Letang in the lineup. Letang is quietly putting up some great offensive numbers since November. Letang has 15 points in 17 games which is obviously great for a defenseman. Since November 13th Kris Letang's possession game has improved markedly from where it was earlier in the season. He has a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 53.3% since that date while it was only 47.9% before. What changed? He is no longer paired up with Ian Cole.
The power play isn't what I would consider a strength of Letang's but last night he scored a marvelous goal while on the man advantage.
Letang ties the game pic.twitter.com/tf06jyrFUu
— Stephanie (@myregularface) January 1, 2016
Letang finished with two goals and an assist against Detroit.
The Penguins are 17-8-3 with Letang in the lineup this year and only 1-7-1 without him. In a nutshell the Penguins are toast when he is unable to play.
Patric Hornqvist had a goal and two assists on the evening. Remarkably that accounts for 20% of his offense so far this year. Like every player he has started to improve away from Mike Johnston
Hornqvist's shot generation has seen quite a bump under Sullivan so far. pic.twitter.com/nBrgjbWxhe
— m g (@kikkerlaika) January 1, 2016
We will all probably look back at the 2015-16 season and marvel at how bad of a job Mike Johnston did.
2016 is not going to start off easy for the Penguins. Their first three games are the Islanders at home tomorrow and then on Tuesday/Wednesday it is a home and home with the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Thanks for reading!