Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal
Game 3 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets is tonight and I expect a terrific atmosphere in downtown Columbus. Blue Jackets fans are going to be revved up, but I have a feeling that there will be a good mix of rowdy Penguins fans in the building as well.
I was looking at some numbers from the first two playoff games this year and I stumbled upon an interesting trend from both Games 1 and 2. Dan Bylsma was no longer sheltering the third line; they were starting to get some tougher assignments.
Now it is important to keep in mind that two games is an incredibly small sample size when compared to an entire regular season slate of games, but you can see some drastic changes in deployment. Brandon Sutter’s deployment has gotten even tougher, 12.8% is an absurdly low OZ starting percentage. He has done OK so far, and sees 45.5% of the shot attempts when he is on the ice head towards the opposition’s net.
In the regular season it was 42.9%. His role has been made more difficult in the playoffs and he has seen a slight improvement in his possession.
It helps to have some competent linemates to facilitate this growth.
The wild card in the current deployment strategy will be the health of forward Brian Gibbons, without Gibbons things could change drastically because the Penguins forward depth is nonexistent. The third line will most certainly resort back to using a guy like Tanner Glass, a possession black hole.
Looking at the numbers in the chart there is no doubt Bylsma has been trying to ride his horses for even strength offense in the first two games of the series. So far he has been let down by the big dogs.
Look at some of these playoff trends courtesy of@MadChad412 at the Pens Initiative:
Last nine playoff games both Crosby and Malkin have zero goals combined. That is over 20 periods of hockey if you include overtime.Dating back to last postseason: Evgeni Malkin has just one point in even strength situations, nine playoff games. Eight out those nine games Malkin had zero points during five-on-five situations. Sidney Crosby only has one point in five-on-five situations in his last nine playoff games.
Seven of his last nine playoff games he been held without a point during five-on-five play.
Crosby has just three points in his last six playoff games, with zero goals, and is a -4.
Malkin has just two points in his last six playoff games, with zero goals, and is a -6.
If Coach Bylsma is going to start giving the Crosby and Malkin units extremely favorable offensive zone starts, they need to reward the coach with tangible production.
It is put up or shut up time for the Penguins big stars.
In a year where the salary cap was lowered, the Penguins were always going to have to lean heavily on 87 and 71 this year. This season more than any other season in their careers they have to answer the bell.
It isn’t just on the big 2 though, Chris Kunitz and James Neal need to provide support and they have not come close in that regard so far in these playoffs. Both Neal and Kunitz look incredibly ineffective through the 1st two games in the playoffs. They look like passengers and not the productive sidekicks that they normally are.
No matter how great Crosby and Malkin play, they can’t do it alone, hockey is not like basketball. When hockey superstars try to go solo you get the kind of turnovers you saw from Sidney Crosby on Saturday night.
One of Pittsburgh’s big advantages is their top 6 talent. A storyline to watch moving forward is if Dan Bylsma continues to give Crosby and Malkin advantageous situations to work with. If he does, the big two have to destroy it at even strength.
If they don’t, the Penguins are most likely in trouble.
****
Goaltender Marc Andre Fleury is tied with Boston's Tuukka Rask for the best even strength save percentage in the playoffs with .964%.
When I watch PK Subban play for the Canadiens I can't help but think that is how I want Kris Letang to play.
Jesse Marshall of the Faceoff-Factor has a nice breakdown of why the Penguins PK has had its struggles lately. You can find that here.
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal