Lineup Changes For Both Teams Heading Into Game 6 (Justin Schultz)

Justin Schultz

Lineup Changes For Both Teams Heading Into Game 6

By Ryan Wilson

May 9, 2016 • 4:30 pm

0comment-bubble

On Monday teams had an extra day to prepare for Tuesday night's contest and there were some changes to both lineups. Let's start with Pittsburgh

The change here is that Rust was taken from the Malkin line and put back with Cullen and Kuhnhackl. Eric Fehr returns to the Malkin line.

Here are some Score-Adjusted 5v5 playoff figures with some of the line combos

You can see why Mike Sullivan would entertain this change. Rust brings more speed to the fourth line and if they are going to get buried with zone starts and competition it makes sense to give that line some more skating ability.

It is tough to say what the impact of the Fehr-Rust swap will have on Evgeni Malkin because the sample sizes for each player with Malkin were both under ten minutes during the regular season.

There were moments in the last game where Malkin wasn't at his best IE: tripping penalty. But the reason he is a superstar is because during an "off night" he was still 77% possession guy at even-strength (CF 23 CA 7). After putting up nine points in his first six playoff games Malkin has gone pointless in the last three games. Chris Kunitz isn't what he was and the Rust/Fehr duo aren't typical top six wingers. I have to beat the dead horse again. Sullivan needs to mix in some shifts where Malkin gets to play with some of the Penguins better players at even-strength. Washington has a sizable advantage in high danger scoring chances. Pittsburgh has one of the most dangerous players in the game but they are leaving him on an island most of the time.

On the defensive side of things there looks to be a major change for Game 6.

Olli Maatta was not only practicing in a top four role but he was getting second power play minutes as well.

This appears to shift Justin Schultz back out of the lineup which is an interesting move. Schultz was a 77.2% possession player in Game 5 for the Penguins which led all defensemen. If Ian Cole was being held to the same standard Derrick Pouliot is he would find himself out of the lineup for his performance in Game 5.

On the goaltender front Mike Sullivan made the only decision there was to make

The Fleury/Murray conversation the past few days was the Seinfeld version of a debate: A debate about nothing.

On the Washington side of things they too will get a defenseman back in the lineup

Brooks Orpik seems as though he will return to game action the same day that Olli Maatta will. It appears he will be playing in a top pairing role with John Carlson. Carlson was the worst possession player in Game 5 for either team (CF 8 CA 24). Not sure how much Orpik is going to help in that department.

The Capitals will continue to separate Ovechkin and Backstrom opting for the Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie top line. In one of the bigger surprises to me so far in these playoffs Evgeny Kuznetsov only has two points in 11 playoff games. This guy had a 5v5 points/60 of 2.54 this year which was fourth best in the league. Penguins have been fortunate that he has been dormant to this point.

****

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin continue to find themselves in fine company as far as their playoff track record goes

Thanks for reading!

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
0
Show comments for this article