If you look at the right hand column on the NHL standings page you will see one team that has a 9-1 record in their last ten games and that is the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 0-3 start that marred the beginning of the season has been remedied as the team still tries to find their way.
Last night the Penguins comfortably controlled the flow of the game
Here are the individual numbers
Nightly update: Crosby continues to defy washed up narrative. #Pens pic.twitter.com/QLgi74O5IK
— Sean Tierney (@SeanTierneyTSS) November 7, 2015
Before the game started there was some unfortunate news that Pascal Dupuis would be heading to the hospital as a precaution. Given his blood clot condition Dupuis and the team are going to be extra cautious as they should. After heading to the hospital Dupuis returned to the rink. His tests were negative. Dupuis will be held out of tonight’s game against Calgary and will have more tests run when the team returns to Pittsburgh. Better to be safe than sorry and good for Dupuis and the team for being proactive.
Daniel Sprong played in his ninth NHL game and scored a very nice goal from the slot to tie the game at one. The next NHL game that Sprong plays in will be his 10th which will trigger his entry level contract. All signs point to Sprong staying up with the big club and that is what should happen.
Sprong goal, tie game in Edmonton pic.twitter.com/zor1Rn91PF
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 7, 2015
The most common reservation I see from people regarding Sprong is that he shouldn’t stay up if he is receiving fourth line minutes. That would be an issue if he was on a Penguins team from the past few years when they lacked any semblance of forward depth. The Penguins currently have great forward depth and legitimately roll out four scoring lines. Playing fourth line minutes with Matt Cullen is superior to playing in the QMJHL. There is also the fact that he can move up and down the lineup as the coach sees fit. My overall point is that the floor of a 4th line winger on this Penguins team is better than the ceiling of junior hockey.
For Sprong to move up the lineup he needs to play with the smarts and poise he is capable of with the puck. He cannot blindly slap pucks off the wall in his own zone like he did last night. I would wager that over coaching leads to those kinds of decisions because Sprong certainly has the ability to make a better plays with time and space. When ultra talented players do things like that I can almost guarantee inside their head is the phrase "make the safe play". Hockey moves so incredibly fast that players have to be more instinctive to have a chance. Actively thinking about coaching points during game play never works out well. That is just my personal speculation.
Jeff Zatkoff let in a true dud to start off the second period but shook it off and gave the Penguins a very good start in net. Zatkoff's performance last night leap frogged the Penguins into 2nd overall in EVSV% in the NHL at a ridiculous .952.
While goaltending has driven the Penguins success so far this year there is a small trend forming as the Penguins have started to face easier competition.
Shot suppression has been a little bit better since facing Nashville, Washington, and Buffalo. This is good and something to watch as they move through their next stretch of games against Calgary, Montreal, Columbus, and New Jersey.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have a power play goal in four consecutive games and that includes scoring a power play goal last night after having one waved off on a correct coach's challenge for offsides. Sidney Crosby isn't always down low on the power play but he is a lot more often and that has helped. One thing Pittsburgh will eventually figure out is that Phil Kessel is not a one-timer guy. It just isn't his thing. The mini curl where Phil can step into his snap shot is when Kessel is at his best on the PP. It is off that curl where he lets the puck rip with his elite snap shot. As PK guys slide to block his shooting lane he may be able to find Malkin on an east/west pass or slickly slide the puck down low to Hornqvist. Slowly but surely the unit will get the kinks out.
Phil Kessel has five goals in 13 games and is on a 31 goal and 57 point pace so far this season. His production rate has a good chance of improving. Since leaving Crosby's line Kessel has played predominately with Malkin for six games. In those six games he has three goals and six points. An improvement on the two goals and three points he had with Crosby in seven games. The great thing about the Penguins is that they have two all world centers who play different styles so no matter who the top six winger is they have the potential to find the right fit. So far it appears Kessel and Malkin are the better fit.
Brian Dumoulin has been terrific this year and I would say he is probably their second best defenseman on the roster right now. High praise that I did not expect to be giving him early on in the season. He continues to make sound defensive plays while showing the ability to assert himself offensively. The forwards must love the fact that they can get the puck to him at the point and expect him to attempt a shot.
Equally surprising is Olli Maatta's terrible play. It is understood that coming back from the things he has would impact his play but I didn't think his floor level as a player had a basement.
@GunnerStaal Dumoulin basically playing how I thought Maatta would and Maatta playing like I thought Dumoulin would
— VBstone (@vinnybatts) November 7, 2015
Weird but true.
I spoke yesterday about how the Kris Letang/Ian Cole pairing wasn't working. Here is Letang's game by game possession stats for the year so far.
I mean good grief. Kris Letang is a guy who has a career possession rate of 53.0%. This has been a mess so far in 2015-16.
Beau Bennett is rocking a 55.0% Score-Adjusted Fenwick so far this year and has cycled the puck great with his linemates in recent games. Instead of Eric Fehr playing the LW spot on the Crosby line I would like to see a sample of Bennett in that role. I'm not completely sold on the idea that Bennett cannot play left wing yet. Much of his time at left wing was spent playing with god awful teammates. With Dupuis out this provides an opportunity to see what it looks like. Fehr can easily slide into the third line right wing role that Bennett would vacate.
Pittsburgh will go for their seventh consecutive win tonight against the Calgary Flames.
Thanks for reading!