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Penguins earn some capital in the standings

January 18, 2021, 11:59 AM ET [89 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Penguins are in the win column for the 2020-21 season. It took a shootout, but two points is two points when you’ve struggled to get them early in the year. Pittsburgh put in a good defensive effort to shut down the Capitals for the final two frames only allowing seven shots to Washington.

Before the game we were met with surprise news that Mike Matheson was not going to play. No explanation was given. The assumption was a healthy scratch because his first two games weren’t very good. It turns out he has an upper body injury and is expected to miss some time. The reality is the team did not miss him yesterday as Chad Ruhwedel found his way into the lineup and played a solid game. When you think about all the money the Penguins have invested in depth defensemen the past few years, all the time and resources wasted, did they really come out any better than if they just played Chad Ruhwedel on the bottom pair?

If you had Evan Rodrigues, Colton Sceviour, and Marcus Pettersson on your Penguins bets yesterday come and collect your five figure winnings. Once again the depth provided the offensive juice with Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust nowhere to be found. Right now the second line is a problem and I don’t have an explanation for it. Logically they are all very good players. By all accounts the best line in training camp. They haven’t done squat at 5v5 so far this year. I think Mike Sullivan needs to contemplate giving Guentzel to Malkin and moving Zucker up. Something has to give. The team needs Malkin if they want any semblance of long term success. Kasperi Kapanen will be back next game so Crosby won’t be left without Guentzel and a player completely out of their depth on the top line (hopefully). Here’s Kapanen at practice




Sullivan is not interested in my idea at the moment




Alexander Ovechkin scored his 707th goal of his career yesterday and it was a frustrating one. Not because Ovechkin scored a goal, you know that is already around the corner, but because it was gifted to him by John Marino. It isn’t often Marino does things that bother me. He has been very good. Him pulling up lame because he knew Tom Wilson was baring down on him directly led to the goal. You have to make the play there.

Casey DeSmith started his first NHL game since March 16 of 2019. He earned the win and played spectacular in the shootout. I would run him back against the Capitals tomorrow. However, it was the third game in a row the Penguins goaltender failed to have a 9 in front of their save percentage. DeSmith finished the game at .870. This has to turn around for Pittsburgh to start winning games in regulations, which is more important than ever this season with the divisional setup.



Here is a holistic look at the Penguins scoring versus expectations along with stopping pucks versus expectations



You don’t want to be near Chicago on any of these charts this year. Obviously, the goaltending has sunk them in to the left corner, but they are still left of the prime meridian offensively. I think the good news there is the depth players have propped it up and we’ve yet to see Malkin, Guentzel, or Rust contribute in any meaningful way.

Penguins went 0-5 on the power play yesterday. I said they’d be a top five power play. Time is running out for that to happen already. The thing I have noticed the most is they don’t seem to have any real plan of attack. To this point there is no evidence of them trying to create 2v1’s on a consistent basis. Until that happens the kind of power play you run is a moot point. One simple move would be to get Crosby as far away from the left half wall/point area as they can and get him down low on the right side. Having Sid play in an area that least takes advantage of his skill set remains baffling to me.

If you’re looking for Kapanen to get a look on the power play you will have to wait. He practiced with both groups as a penalty killer with the top power play unit staying the same.

Tomorrow the Penguins will look to make it two in a row. If some of their bigger named players show up and they can replicate their stinginess from the second and third periods they should be able to do so.

Thanks for reading!
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