The score between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings may have given the illusion that it was a close game but this was definitely not the case. The Los Angeles Kings are shot suppression and shot generation experts as they are second best at the NHL in both. Pittsburgh is not on LA's level. This was the second straight game that saw Pittsburgh sink below 40% possession at even-strength.
The problem remains the same as it has been all season. Lack of skill on the back end. This was highlighted further by having Kris Letang miss his first hockey game of the season. Kris Letang has had a bad season by his standards but you can see just how bad things can get without him in the lineup. There is nobody that can skate like him or generate offensive chances like him. The Penguins gave up 58 shot attempts at even-strength against the Kings which puts them back in the bottom five in the league in CA/60. So that whole myth of being a defensive hockey club can stop at any time.
Derrick Pouliot has 14 points in 19 AHL games since being sent down. It is time for whatever punishment/message they are trying to send to stop. The fact is he has a skill set that can help the NHL club and the team is suffering mightily without it. Every time they play a decent team they get caved in from a possession standpoint.
"Derrick Pouliot needs to work on his defensive end"
The entire Penguins defense corp. has that same issue except most of them can't move the puck worth a damn outside of Kris Letang and a fully healthy Olli Maatta. The longer the team keeps sticking it to Derrick Pouliot the longer there will be struggles with generating offense from the back end (Los Angeles had three goals from defensemen yesterday).
It was fitting that Christian Ehrhoff scored on the Penguins while Pittsburgh's defensive unit struggled mightily all afternoon.
Truly changing the dynamic of the team begins and ends with changing the way the organization treats veteran players. Playing time needs to be earned and the player's skill sets have to make sense to what the team needs to accomplish. Rob Scuderi doesn't excel in the area he is supposed to excel in and he certainly doesn't do anything that contributes to tangible offense. He can't play every night. This is obvious and not realistic, but if there is going to be a change in how the team plays it has to start somewhere. That is where I would start.
The other veteran that needs to see a drastic change in playing time is Pascal Dupuis. He is not playing good enough to be in the lineup. It does appear that he was benched later in the game.
For those paying attention you can notice that Sidney Crosby is doing the things that have always made him great again. The problem is that he is on an island with linemates that can't assist him, namely Dupuis. A few weeks ago I wanted to get an extended look of Beau Bennett on Crosby's wing. They bailed on that after a game. Give him 5-7 games in a row to see if it can work. It looked good against the Kings but that sample isn't large enough to go on.
By giving Dupuis a few games off you could give Daniel Sprong a chance to return to the lineup. Start him in a fourth line right wing role while receiving second power play unit time.
There are options the team has that don't involve trades. They just have to be willing to use them.
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New Hockey Hurts Podcast goes into detail about what internal decisions the Pittsburgh Penguins could make in order to maximize their effectiveness. You can find that here
Thanks for reading!