Wow, what a hockey game last night. That was fun to watch. You would be hard pressed to find anybody who didn’t enjoy the action that was on display at the Consol Energy Center last night. Great offensive skill was on display, quality defensive efforts were on display, and excellent goaltending by both teams was on display.
Wait there was only one goal in the game? Shouldn’t that mean it wasn’t a good game? Don’t we need to make the nets bigger and disrupt hockey’s infrastructure to accommodate that change?
Oh yeah that’s right, fans don’t need goals, they need scoring chances. A great save is just as exciting as a great goal.
Next time somebody brings up the silly bigger nets idea, just show them games like last night. As far as entertainment value goes scoring chances > goals.
The Penguins played great last night, Calvin Pickard was almost better. Pickard made 47 out of a possible 48 stops, 24 of those stops in the 3rd period and overtime. The 48 shots were a season high for the Penguins.
You can see why the Avalanche have struggled to find the win column this year. They need other worldly goaltending to make up for the lack of ability their defense corp. has. In 13 games this season they have given up more than 35 shots (48, 40, 36, 36, 51, 40, 37, 38, 46, 45, 36, 42, 48). Not going to cut it even if you have some really great dynamic forwards.
Marc-Andre Fleury keeps rolling along. Dare I say early candidate for the Vezina? He has played above expectation to this point. Will it continue? Sure, I suppose it could. He’s playing on one of the best teams in the NHL and he isn’t flopping all over the place. This would be the first time in 8 (!) years he has played at this level. Even the biggest MAF supporters did not envision a start like this, if they say they did they are lying.
Thomas Greiss is #2 in the NHL with an EVSV% of .952% so if Fleury runs into a cold stretch or gets hurt the Penguins won’t miss a beat.
The great thing about Mike Bales, if in fact he is the reason for Fleury’s emergence, is that he works with all Penguins goalies not just Fleury. Nice asset to have in the organization.
Simon Despres was great again last night. He is no doubt one of the most mismanaged players from the last regime. Other than the fact that Shero drafted him they didn’t really do anything right with him. Just think about how many unskilled “defensive defensemen… that played over him and made similar mistakes but without the puck skill, hockey IQ, and useful physicality. He just needed an opportunity, just like most players do. He has taken his opportunity under the new regime and sprinted with it. Very nice to see.
Sidney Crosby returned and he looked like Sidney Crosby. He was good. Points will come if he continues to play that way.
Geno is terrific, as always.
I’ve written about Blake Comeau recently and what a nice job he has done. Rich Miller also wrote about him yesterday morning, great timing!
I picked a good day to write good things about Blake Comeau http://t.co/LThxAqdYKm
— Rich Miller (@pensbender) December 19, 2014
Blake Comeau is the type of guy you try and fill out your team depth with.
If the Penguins ultimately head to the playoffs with Brandon Sutter as a third line center that line of Klinkhammer-Goc-Downie would be a hell of a fourth line.
Bryan Rust shows just how bad the Penguins fourth line has been the past few years. He has done a really nice job. Also flashing some signs that he may be able to jump up in a pinch like Brian Gibbons used to do if there was a mid-game injury.
Bobby Farnham is fast and has a great work ethic. If he can make more skilled plays like the one where he kicked the puck from his skate to his stick while barely missing getting a shot on net that would be good. He is not totally void of skill. I understand he wants to be an agitator, but he can dial back a touch in that department and focus more on driving play. I think he can find a balance between the two.
Steve Downie is great along the boards. He makes a lot of nice plays that keep possession going. It will never happen but much like Farnham he could dial it back. That elbow penalty was very unnecessary and he was inches from a major penalty that could have changed the course of the game in a bad way.
Penguins got lucky with Kris Letang and Patric Hornqvist avoiding injury after being pelted with shots, they were not as fortunate with Christian Ehrhoff. He left after the first period and did not return. There should be an update on his status later today I would imagine.
Scott Harrington did a nice job in his first game. Some people want to classify him as a defensive defenseman but I think he has the ability to chip in on the offensive end as well. Most importantly his skating is good enough to get that extra step and when combined with his puck skills that will increase the likelihood of a controlled breakout which helps spring the forwards for a controlled zone entry. Depending on Christian Ehrhoff we may see a lineup with Despres, Dumoulin, and Harrington in it tomorrow. I don’t think the Penguins will miss a beat if that is indeed the case.
I would wager that Chris Kunitz will be back next game and Beau Bennett should be back in the lineup for either the Capitals game or the Devils game right after Christmas. Bad news for the rest of the East, the Penguins are only going to be tougher to beat with more healthy forward bodies.
I keep wrestling with how I would tweak the forward lineup when the team actually has some healthy bodies. I think pre-top six trade it would look something like the following:
14-87-72 71-16-17 19-57-23 20-13-36
Top line has proven success.
Maximize Sutter’s value on the potential trade front. If his value goes up great. If the Penguins keep him and bump him back to 3C with good wingers, great. Win win.
Goc with respectable NHL talent will have the same effect that it did with Sutter. He will look like he can make plays again. You are getting glimpses of it, just not consistency. But much like Ehrhoff said two weeks ago, he needs to remember how play with better players. His pre-Penguins track record shows that is up to the task. His time with the Penguin so far sees him with a career low QoT. Usage matters, look at Comeau and Sutter.
There are only two red bubbles on that chart. One was the first year after the lockout(!). And the other one is this year. What exactly should one expect from a player when he is buried with such low QoT? Once again, usage matters.
Spaling hasn’t done anything this year, a majority of the year he has played wing. Let’s see him in a center role and look to see if that helps at all. If it doesn’t I would aggressively try to dump that 2.2M of dead weight. I’ll never understand the desire to acquire him in the Neal trade.
Rob Klinkhammer is probably a third line talent but if you have him on the fourth line all the better. Rust has earned a chance to continue playing in my book.
Craig Adams doesn’t do anything these other guys can’t do, sorry, not sorry.
To be honest that is a pretty respectable lineup pre-trade. Combine this roster with Johnston’s approach to the game, defense depth, the great goaltending play, and we have ourselves a Penguins team that is best equipped to make a run at a Stanley Cup than they have in a while.
The great Elliotte Friedman had a few Penguins nuggets in today’s 30 thoughts :
9. The Oilers will continue to look for centres, defencemen and a goalie, and I asked around to see who might be a fit should they decide to try something significant. There were a lot of votes for Pittsburgh, with a plethora of young defenders. One exec said if he was Edmonton, he would target Brandon Sutter, although he added he thinks the Penguins hold on to Sutter until the salary cap makes it impossible for them to do so.24. Don’t know the exact moment Sidney Crosby got the mumps diagnosis, but do know this: after his photo started making the rounds last Friday, Francois Beauchemin immediately reached out to warn Crosby that’s indeed what he had. Beauchemin is a highly respected guy. Undoubtedly, “The Kid… listened.
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