After a rocky start to the season the Penguins have taken care of business. They did what they needed to do over the weekend by sweeping the New York Rangers and taking all four points. By doing so the Penguins are now in second place in the division and have a little more breathing room at the moment for their back to back series against the Bruins.
Pittsburgh has made a habit of falling behind in games and coming back. Long term it will be a problem if it persists, but short term it really doesn’t matter because those points are in the bank and can’t be taken away.
The Penguins are shaking up their lines in an attempt to get some players going. Bryan Rust has joined the top line and immediately produced a 5v5 goal. This line should be good and it will have to be. Sidney Crosby now has the team’s best two wingers and will likely play a majority of time with the Dumoulin-Letang pairing. In the past I would roll my eyes at this because Sid should be able to spread the wealth a little bit with his QoT, but at the moment there is a serious Evgeni Malkin problem. Malkin has been terrible this year. He only has two points and has the second worst xGF% on the Penguins at 41.72, only Mark Jankowski’s 38.70 is worse per Natural Stat Trick. Giving Malkin the best wingers seems like a wasted effort in the current moment. It isn’t like he will be left with nothing. He will have Jason Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen. Both players have a jump in their step which is something Malkin has lacked to this point in 2020-21. I honestly don’t have an answer for Makin’s bad start. Sure, aging curves yada yada yada, but I don’t know if an aging curve is going to be this severe considering Malkin had 74 points in only 55 games last year. If this is age related it would be a hell of a fall from grace and quite frankly I’m not there with using it as an explanation. Regardless, the Penguins need Malkin to improve because the team is structured for him and Crosby to be high end centers.
A player that started the season slow who has improved is Tristan Jarry. After going .912 against the Rangers on Friday he upped it to .923 on Sunday evening. It is the first time a goalie this year on the Penguins allowed two goals or less. This is a nice development because if Jarry had another bad start he might have gotten inside his own head. It was a good weekend and he’ll have to be sharp against the Bruins to build off of it.
John Marino, like Malkin, has been very bad this season. His 42.08 xGF% is the worst on the team among defensemen. It is only a six game sample so I don’t want to throw out the overused “sophomore slump” term. What I will say is that I don’t anticipate his play turning around anytime soon. He is playing the left side with Cody Ceci. Mike Sullivan has not put him in a position to succeed at the moment. Through two games Pierre-Olivier Joseph has looked the part and I think I would rather throw him in the fire with Marino than to keep forcing Marino to play his off side with a bad partner. Let Ruhwedel and Ceci handle the bottom pairing and shelter them. Let’s see what Joseph can do. Why not? It can’t be worse than the Marino-Ceci experiment. I bet Joseph’s skill set could help Malkin more than Ceci and that is the line they will likely play with.
Drew O’Connor may be making his NHL debut tonight. The choice boils down to Sam Lafferty or O’Connor and with Sceviour taking up the fourth line right wing spot the team might be more inclined to go with the lefty for the last spot on the left side. I’m not bullish on Sam Lafferty as a player so I’m all for trying this out. Evan Rodrigues is out long term which is why there is a spot open. Jankowski would likely center the fourth line as he has been demoted in favor of Teddy Blueger. I have no objections here because it is a merit based decision as far as I can tell. Jankowski hasn’t been good since his strong debut on opening night.
As for the Penguins opponent…
Heading into the season the Bruins were still considered one of the top teams in the league and there has been nothing to suggest it has changed. The Bruins are 3-1-1 and a victory tonight would see them leap the Penguins in this early season. Working in the Penguins favor is that Boston’s best goal scorer is still recovering from a hip surgery from September. David Pastrnak is scheduled to begin taking contact this week, but will not be ready for the back to back against the Penguins.
Even without him the team is decent
Like the Flyers, Capitals, and Rangers we have a few players who aren’t in the system (Jack Studnicka, Trent Frederic, Jakub Zbroril, and Kevan Miller).
So far this season the Bruins have done a nice job this year they have a 57.07 xGF% and are fourth overall in the league. The Penguins are literally right in the middle at 49.98 which ranks 15th overall.
Goaltending has and continues to be a strength for the Bruins. The Penguins habit of falling behind in games this year is not a good idea when you have to battle against sound netminding. Even if you control the play after trailing the goaltender can just say, nope. It is what happened against the Flyers and Carter Hart.
A win tonight could potentially put the Penguins in first place depending on what the depleted Capitals can do against the Islanders.
Thanks for reading!
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