Pittsburgh Penguins Losing at Their Own Game
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a team built on pure skill. They’re a team built on the premise that the best defense is an unrelenting offense. They boast the best playmaker in the world, a top-five scorer over the last five years and arguably the most dynamic offensive force to come out Russia in the last two decades other than the high-scoring Alexander Ovechkin. But, they have one goal in two games to start the 2015-16 season. What gives?
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I’ve already discussed Mike Johnston’s poor personnel decisions in detail. It’s perplexing that this team continues to deploy Rob Scuderi on a nightly basis after spending an offseason getting “younger and faster”, according to General Manager Jim Rutherford. If you need to see the impact that Scuderi has on this offense, check out this piece at TheHockeyWriters.Com for a perfect explanation. I won’t spend too much time on this again but if this team doesn’t completely buy into their new philosophy of speed and skill, they’ll fail trying to deploy this hybrid lineup that they have so far.
Outside of simply observing the obvious issues in lineup choices and pairings, the Penguins are also getting beat at their own game statistically, which is puck possession. In fact, puck possession is exactly what Johnston preaches. It’s his forte, right?
Pittsburgh Penguins – Alarming Results So Far
A quick dive into some underlying numbers offers an interesting story on how the Pens have fared so far. The numbers also reinforce the negative impact that the defense is having on their overall result. How bad has it been through the first two games?
Lets consider their corsi numbers so far, or in other words, shot attempts. Through two games the Pens are sitting near the middle of the pack at 11th in the league with a 58.1 corsi-for per 60-minutes, or as I said, shot-attempts per 60-minutes of play. They’ve attempted 82 shots in that span, which isn’t a bad number by any means but it’s only good for 17th in the league. Clearly, Mike Johnston would like to see that number increase.
When you’re an average team in regards to producing shots, you want to ensure that they’re quality shots and you’re capitalizing on those chances. Again, another area of concern for this team thus far. Out of the 82 shot-attempts for the Pens through two games, only 35.7 percent of them have been high-danger attempts. They’re 28th in the league in that category as well. The result of that is a horrid on-ice shooting percentage of 2.3.
What about defense? An area where the Pens are clearly struggling, right?
The Penguins are currently 28th in the league for corsi-against per 60-minutes of play with a whopping 69.4. So, on top of their inability to create quality offensive chances, they’re also forfeiting a ton of shot-attempts against. What’s even more alarming is that they’re giving up 19.1 high-danger chances per 60-minutes of play. So, in simple terms, they’re the worst team in the league when it comes to how many opportunities they’ve allowed opponents from high-scoring areas. Though, I’m not sure many will be surprised by that.
Righting the Ship
Many will say, “it’s only two games”. And, while they’re obviously right about that, does it mean that there’s no validity to these struggles? Absolutely not.
Now is the time to find your areas of weakness. The Pittsburgh Penguins can learn from where they’ve struggled so far and begin righting the ship before things spiral too far downward and they find themselves in an unmanageable hole. And, all of that is easy to say but how exactly do they fix it?
First, don’t assume that things will work themselves out because of the potency of this offense. For example, the rate stats that I quoted above are on a team level, so they can be pretty telling despite how early it is. But, individual rate stats can be highly impacted by one shift, whether positive or negative, so it’s tough to look at individual performances using those numbers after only two games.
Real-time stats, however, tell us that Sidney Crosby has yet to record a shot on goal. Real-time stats tell us that the second line consisting of Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and a combination of Sergei Plotnikov and David Perron has yet to record a point. Real-time stats are reflective of what we just talked about at the team level using a few underlying numbers and those real-time stats tell us that things aren’t simply working themselves out.
The Penguins need to start with the basics. Stop separating Malkin and Crosby on the power play. Utilize Daniel Sprong more often, considering his knack for offense and the inability to score thus far. And, dress your best group of skaters, whether that means putting a $3.375 million veteran on the shelf or not. Right now, the Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff wants to play an aggressive, uptempo style but they’re leaving guys like Adam Clendening in the press box.
They also need to simplify things. Pucks to the net, traffic in front and cause disruption when facing goaltenders that are locked in like they have in both contests so far. Chris Kunitz, Patric Hornqvist and Sergei Plotnikov should own real estate around the opponents’ crease. And, maybe more importantly, stop expecting players like Scuderi to join the rush and contribute in any fashion.
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