UPDATE 12:13 PM
Ehrhoff isn't progressing. Won't see him in a game anytime soon.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_Trib) April 20, 2015
Not good news at all. You can now likely add Christian Ehrfhoff to the list of Penguins defensemen who are out for the year. He joins Kris Letang and Olli Maatta.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins will play their first home game of the 2015 playoffs tonight against the New York Rangers.
The series is tied at one game apiece and Game 2 showed that while the Penguins may be the underdogs they are certainly not a severe underdog.
Being at home also comes with its advantages. The Penguins will have last change. One of the bigger criticisms of Dan Bylsma was that he did not pay close enough attention to the matchups in order to maximize his personnel’s success.
Mike Johnston was hired in part because that is something that he pays more attention to. Tonight gives him the last change and the ability to dictate his matchups.
I am interested to see how Johnston utilizes his top three centers and what defense pairings he chooses to attack for the Rangers.
Earlier in the week I broke down some potential matchups for the Penguins to look at, you can find that here
It is no secret that the Penguins are top heavy with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin driving most of Pittsburgh’s success. Mike Johnston can choose two different paths. Does he match strength vs strength and put Pittsburgh’s big dogs up against the Rangers better defensemen? Or does he try to expose the Rangers bottom pairing with Matt Hunwick and Keith Yandle?
I am leaning towards strength vs strength being advantageous to the Penguins. Why? Crosby and Malkin have been winning those matchups.
Here is how both Crosby and Malkin have matched up against the Rangers defensemen in the series at even-strength.
*Small sample size alert*
Sidney Crosby is winning the battle against the Rangers top pairing. Dan Girardi cannot handle either Crosby or Malkin. I liken Girardi’s usage in the Rangers lineup to that of Brooks Orpik in his last few years in Pittsburgh. Huge amounts of ice time against top competition that does not go well. This is a win for the Penguins and Mike Johnston should look to continue to expose Alain Vigneault’s faulty usage of Girardi.
The Penguins have been on the wrong end of that usage for years, it is nice to be on the other side of that coin.
Malkin has continued his past success against Marc Staal. Johnston should continue to take advantage of that mismatch.
Being on home ice gives Mike Johnston the means to fine tune the matchups he wants even more, but it appears he has already done a nice job on that front despite being on the road.
Lastly, Mike Darnay of Pensburgh had a string of tweets that I agree with and would like to share:
1. McDonagh is their only defensemen playing A hockey right now. Manage the matchups with last change
2. Marc Staal seems neutralized when he isn’t trying to chop Sidney Crosby’s head off
3. Dan Boyle looks awfully old and slow, and beating him down on every shift can only help that
4. Keith Yandle looked like he was hurting after Comeau hit him clean several times.
5. Dan Girardi just sucks as is.
6. Matt Hunwick is somehow worse than Dan Girardi
7. And if Kevin Klein plays, he is far from healthy.
The Rangers are far from dead in this series, but the Penguins are very much alive if the big two continue to beat up the Rangers defensemen in their head to head matchups.
Thanks for reading!
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