The Pittsburgh Penguins remain one of the hottest teams in the NHL. The team is 8-2 in their last ten games a mark that only the St. Louis Blues can match presently.
Pittsburgh defeated the New York Rangers by a score of 3-2 last night in overtime. While going to overtime hurts the Penguins chances of catching the Rangers for second overall in the division it still continues to put a divide between them and the other teams trying to catch them (NYI, PHI, DET).
Phil Kessel continues to ride a hot streak as he was able to generate another two points with his goal and assist performance on Easter Sunday. He registered seven points in the two games this weekend.
Since Pittsburgh's coaching change, not including tonight, Phil Kessel's got 2.3 P/60 at 5v5. Maybe he's still kind of good.
— Draglikepull (@draglikepull) March 28, 2016
The combination of Phil Kessel with Carl Hagelin continues to be too much speed for the opposition to reign in. Nick Bonino has played a nice role of facilitating the puck between the two speed demons.
*Gif courtesy of DK On Pittsburgh Sports
Here is how the Penguins current top six line combinations have fared so far this year
That is a good way to overcome Evgeni Malkin's absence.
Kris Letang is the engine that has been driving the Penguins most nights. Sunday's tilt against the Rangers was no exception. He creates offense, creates again, and then creates some more. Last night he was on the ice for 43 shot attempts for and only 23 against. He also earned the primary assist on the game winning goal in overtime. Letang referenced how he knew he wasn't doing to score from that far out on Henrik Lundqvist so he made eye contact with Crosby and fed the puck into his general area to let Crosby do his thing. Chalk another goal up to #SidDownLow
Kris Letang is putting up Erik Karlsson numbers on the offensive front
Letang has 44 pts in 40 GP under Sullivan since returning from injury Dec. 26. Only Crosby, Kopitar & Thornton have more points in that span
— Ðrpon Basu (@ArponBasu) March 28, 2016
Letang played 3:56 of the 4:30 overtime.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) March 28, 2016
What is amazing about that total is that Letang was caught on a super long shift that extended well past the power play. Pittsburgh got hemmed in their own zone towards the tail end of that shift and Letang was still engaging guys in the corner with force. It really speaks to his outrageous fitness level because we've all seen guys on a two minute shift hunched over and passive. Letang still had gas in the tank to take people on.
[guy standing behind brick wall thing]
— Adam Gretz (@AGretz) March 28, 2016
Kris Letang's having a better year than Drew Doughty
[/guy standing behind brick wall thing]
Mike Sullivan deserves a ton of credit for his in game strategy at the end of overtime. He did something very simple but very effective. He called timeout to let his big dogs rest. You can't keep timeouts and store them for the next game so why not use it in overtime? He was able to get Letang some rest and allowed him to play another shift. It led to the game winning goal.
Coach Sullivan on OT timeout: We were trying to get (stars) on ice 1 more time. They give us best chance to win. Gave them breather -SK
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 28, 2016
The afformentioned Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal in overtime but there was a sequence in the extra session that might have been even more impressive.
This shift by Sid has to be one of the better ones I've ever seen from him. The effort after the lost faceoff...wow. pic.twitter.com/7ymnqqLRi7
— Allie C (@Allie874) March 28, 2016
Some more Hart Trophy evidence on display.
Matt Cullen scored his 13th goal of the year last night and has been a great signing for the Penguins this year. There is really no debating that. However, his recent stretch of play may be starting to show some signs of slowing down. His ability to drive play has taken a hit especially post Evgeni Malkin injury.
You can see the recent sample has a growing number of games in the negative. I'm not really sure what the team can do about it other than giving him a few shifts on the wing with Fehr taking over center duties. This may be the first tangible evidence of Malkin's absence negatively impacting the team. You can see that Cullen's ability to drive play under Mike Sullivan has been solid up until recently. He is 39 years old and an increased role at the end of the year may be asking for too much.
Speaking of that Matt Cullen goal last night who was that defenseman that had his head up looking for a tip play? Get that guy some more ice time.
News item from Edmonton has the Oilers former #1 overall pick Nail Yakupov requesting a trade from the team. How does this pertain to the Penguins? It doesn't. Yakupov is a right winger and the Penguins have plenty of right wing depth now and moving into the future. These players include Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Beau Bennett, Daniel Sprong, Bryan Rust and even Eric Fehr. It just isn't a position of need. Pittsburgh is in need of some left wing help moving forward as they will need to transition away from Chris Kunitz.
Speaking of Chris Kunitz he has put his detractors on notice
"Kunitz sucks" needs to stop. since Jan 1, he leads all Pens in ES primary points/60 (1.39) and CF/60 (70.59). not just along for the ride.
— ck (@404ResponseCode) March 28, 2016
He's not what he was a few years ago, but what he is is still productive enough.
Lastly:
Dupuis is more than deserving of the Masterton Trophy. Story: https://t.co/AbHxf8TN45 pic.twitter.com/NaaSundSjS
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 28, 2016
Don't hold your breath on Dupuis winning the award. If you recall Kris Letang coming back from a stroke did not trump a goaltender who stunk for a bit and then played good for a stretch again for last year's award.
Pittsburgh gets Dan Bylsma and the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. Thanks for reading!