Daniel Carcillo May Be The Missing Piece In Pittsburgh’s Search For Success
It is no secret that the Pittsburgh Penguins remain one of the NHL’s most lethal offensive juggernauts, and the case could easily be made that they are in fact the league’s best in that regard. Suiting up generational talents like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, both of whom have multiple scoring titles under their belts, as well as one of the most offensively gifted defensive corps in the league, including respected scorers Kris Letang, Paul Martin and the newly acquired Christian Ehrhoff, allows the Penguins the luxury of rarely fretting about putting pucks in the net.
Despite this undeniable offensive prowess, the team has spent the last handful of years on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff success. Their dire need for a more physically intimidating presence in their lineup was exposed most blatantly this past postseason, and while it was aptly addressed through the offseason additions of Patric Hornqvist and Steve Downie, some have still questioned the team’s moves, wondering why GM Jim Rutherford did not swing for a young, gifted winger to play alongside Pittsburgh’s talented centres. With the Penguins recently offering a tryout contract to former Philadelphia Flyer, and longtime Penguin-agitator, Daniel Carcillo, fans have begun to wonder if the team’s priorities are out of line, with some even accusing the Penguins’ head office of hypocrisy.
The truth, however, is that while the team’s need for more physical play has been well-documented, the problem runs much deeper than it appears to, and the lack of players like Downie or Carcillo has been one of the central reasons Pittsburgh has had playoff glory slip through their fingers time and time again over the past half-decade.
Compared to their championship roster of 2008-09, the Penguins of the present have been a far less physical team and, simply put, a team that is much less difficult to line up against. A number of different statistical trends reveal this to be the case, showing that the loss of key forwards Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke drastically altered the team’s identity in terms of this style of play.
The Penguins who lifted Stanley’s silver Cup in 2009 included the well-known pest Cooke as well as the menacing Eric Godard, both of whom racked up over 100 penalty minutes that season. The team’s previous championship rosters of 1991 and 1992 boasted even more aggressiveness, with at least four players reaching triple digits in penalty minutes in both seasons, as players like Kevin Stevens, Ulf Samuelsson, and Bob Errey ensured visiting teams left Pittsburgh with a fair few bumps and bruises, and a healthy dose of respect for the black and gold.
Feb 13, 2013; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Matt Cooke (24) reacts as he is being escorted off the ice after being assessed a game misconduct penalty against the Ottawa Senators during the third period at the CONSOL Energy Center. The Pittsburgh Penguins won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
It has now been over three years, however, since the Penguins have had a single player come close to such numbers, with the last to do so being Cooke, who packed up and took his rough-and-tumble ways to Minnesota. While no team prefers to spend time shorthanded and have their entire roster racking up endless penalty minutes, for those that do have heightened totals in this category, the number represents something larger – a specifically aggressive, gritty, in-your-face brand of hockey. One that often goes over the line and temporarily leaves its team disadvantaged, but also raises them up over the long run through the balanced identity it grants a highly skilled team such as the Penguins.
It isn’t simply time in the penalty box that has decreased over the years in Pittsburgh, however. Once a team that dropped the gloves often to defend its elite talent, the Pens have done so much more rarely over the past few seasons, and barely ever in their last three years’ worth of postseason appearances, when it was arguably needed most. Even the most basic metric of a team’s physicality, the number of hits its players dole out to their opponents, tells a similar story of declining physicality when compared to the Penguins’ previous championship roster. The last time Pittsburgh finished atop the league’s highest and most challenging mountain, their best bruisers were some of their most important leaders on and off the ice. Brooks Orpik led the way with over 300 hits during the regular season, followed by Matt Cooke and Jordan Staal. Their most physical players were not those who took the ice for only a few minutes a game, or those who contributed rarely but provided a little muscle here and there. Rather, they were led by one of their most veteran defensemen and two of their most important penalty-killers, whose contribution as two thirds of “the best third line in hockey” was crucial to the team’s championship run.
This past season, however, two of their top three leaders in this category were Tanner Glass and Craig Adams – two forwards who played sparingly throughout the postseason, and had little impact when they did – with the third being the now-departed Orpik.
The Penguins’ front office simply seems to have lost focus over the last several years when it comes to providing adequate balance for their roster. For a team whose central pieces are incredibly gifted forwards, it has become second nature to view the team only in terms of this quality – only in terms of their rising totals and their unending highlight reel plays, resulting in a lack of true appreciation for players who serve a different purpose, who are unable to post such numbers or show flashes of clever stick handling. It is precisely this shift towards more and more offense that has left the Penguins off-balance. What they truly require most to reach hockey’s highest pinnacle once again is the return of this intimidating presence to offset their well-established offensive wizardry.
Thus, while the addition of a player like Daniel Carcillo, who thrives off of physical confrontation and is no stranger to controversy, seems to run counter to the Penguins’ identity, that is precisely the point. The identity needs to change. It may seem more glamorous to suit up four lines of players who could light up shootouts all year long, but come playoff time, when the hits get harder and the grind gets tougher, it’s players like Carcillo, like Downie, like Cooke, who pave the way for the offensive stars to do what they do best. Teams like Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago understand this. They’ve either built around physical dominance (see: “Chara, Zdeno” or “Brown, Dustin”) or have surrounded their offensive stars with plenty of muscle and missing teeth, allowing them to retain that consistent balance and stay afloat among the league’s best.
The Penguins do not need more offense. They have Crosby, and Malkin, and Letang, and more and more and more. What they need is balance. What they need is physicality. And throwing a player like Carcillo into the mix, a player who may cause opponents to curse under their breath when they see his jagged grin beaming at them from across the rink, may be just what they need to re-establish themselves among the league’s emerging dynasties.