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Victory falls between the quacks

December 18, 2018, 9:01 AM ET [205 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Pittsburgh Penguins had previously found a great deal of success against the Pacific Division this year. Heading into Monday’s game against Anaheim the team was 6-0-1 against Pacific teams with the Western Canada swing considered one of the bright spots so far this season. Last night they picked up their first regulation loss and it was against the lowly Anaheim Ducks. This loss ranks up there with the Chicago one earlier in the week. Anaheim is a pretty bad team being propped up by John Gibson. They are the 31st ranked xGF% team at 43.68. To be that low is no accident. Not a good loss for the Penguins.

Here's a snapshot of Anaheim’s season so far



This was Daniel Sprong’s first trip to Pittsburgh as a member of a visiting team. He found his way on the scoresheet via shot on goal on the power play. He fed Adam Henrique in front for a high danger chance that was thwarted by Casey DeSmith. He also entered the zone against three Penguins and rang the post from distance with his shot. It wasn’t a great game for him, but you could see how his shot is a real weapon when he has time and space to get it off.

On the other side Marcus Pettersson had a good game. His pairing with Jack Johnson fared the best when looking at the volume of shot attempts. Pettersson led the Penguins with seven individual shot attempts. He did a nice job of getting pucks towards the goal front. The Ducks leader in individual shot attempts was Daniel Sprong, also with seven.

Pittsburgh was in full control of this game leading 2-0 in the first period. Evgeni Malkin found the back of the net (finally) on the power play. Bryan Rust continued his torrid pace by sneaking a puck between Gibson’s skate and the post on a Sidney Crosby feed/shot. When it rains it pours in hockey.

Craig Custance of the The Athletic recently wrote a piece about how busy NHL general managers are and it may come as a little bit of a surprise that Jim Rutherford was in the middle of the pack. Here’s the passage about Jim Rutherford.






13. Jim Rutherford, Pittsburgh Penguins

Trades/month: 0.54
Hockey trade: 48 percent
Buying: 28 percent
Selling: 17 percent
Other: 7 percent

If we were to rate trades made on a significance scale, Rutherford would be high. He likes to address concerns earlier in the season rather than later in order to give new players a chance to fit in. There’s been a payoff with guys like Carl Hagelin and Trevor Daley becoming a big part of success.


I imagine the addressing of concerns earlier than later is going to play a role. The team as it currently stands doesn’t look like a contender which is the goal.

Thanks for reading!
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