With the offensive firepower that the Penguins boast, there's no reason that the POWERBALL POWERPLAY shouldn't have a repeat of last year's performance. With 87 injured for much of the season, James Neal emerged as a sniper on the PP, leading the league in powerplay goals, and with a healthy Crosby in tow, we've got something of an embarrassment of riches. It looks this season like Bylsma plans on going with a first unit of Kunitz-Crosby-Malkin, with Kris Letang and James Neal manning the points. The second unit then would be Dupuis-Sutter-Kennedy-Martin-Niskanen, which, I mean, honestly. I'll get back to this.
Some of these decisions are no-brainers. First of all, you put Crosby down at the goal line and Malkin at the right faceoff circle. These are maybe the two strongest puckhandlers along the boards, not to mention the two most talented and creative scorers in the league. Crosby has the option of playing catch with Geno on the right side until a shot or a cross-ice pass opens up, or he can swing it around the net and stretch the PK unit, so that they have to respect 87 at the left post while constantly being wary of the Geno Shot (TM).
Kunitz earned his spot in front of the net last season, where he finally became the Holmstromian pest that the Pens have lacked for years. The disallowed goals come with the territory, and as long as he's getting in the goalie's way and generally causing havoc in the crease, Pens fans will forgive them.
Letang clearly belongs at the point, as our de facto quarterback. His slapshot isn't striking fear in the hearts of opponents, but he's great at keeping pucks in at the blue line and he's gotten very good at playing angles, bouncing pucks off the end boards when there isn't a clear path to the net and little things like that.
It's Neal at the other point that makes me nervous. Bylsma has shown a propensity for playing forwards at the point on the powerplay, having slotted Alexei Kovalev, Malkin, and Steve Sullivan there in recent years. The reasoning makes sense; it's basically what I used to do when I played NHL 94 on Sega. I put all my best offensive players on the ice together regardless of position and turn off line changes, because that way you can score 7 goals every game as Mario. Those 5 guys on the Pens power play are pretty terrifying, but how comfortable is Neal going to be playing the point, especially with such a short camp to prepare. What made putting forwards like Kovy and Sullivan and (to a lesser extent) Malkin at the point work was that they are all superior puckhandlers and passers who seldom turned the puck over, and are all outstanding skaters who could get back when there was a turnover. Neal is a great scorer with a deadly snapshot, but he's not known as a distributor nor is he the fastest guy on the ice. It seems to me like a misuse of his talent to put him at the point; he likes to surprise goalies with his quick release, and standing 60 feet from the goalie mitigiates that element of surprise. Would the power play really suffer if we replaced Neal with, say, Nisky, and let Neal lead the second unit, because...
Because holy hell is that an ugly second unit. Look at it again: Dupuis-Sutter-Kennedy-Martin-Niskanen. LOOK AT IT! Put Neal on Sutter's wing opposite Dupes (maybe with Despres taking Nisky's old spot?) and you might actually put a puck in the net, otherwise you're basically telling the other team that if they can hold off your first unit for 80 or 90 seconds, you're all good. With the long shifts that Letang, Crosby, and especially Malkin play with the man advantage, there's an opportunity to overlap, to take Kuny off at the minute mark and throw a fresh Neal onto the ice for the remainder of the penalty. Which I would prefer to watching him trail behind penalty killers breaking in on Fleury.
I had planned a long screed here about the Pens' penalty kill, which has been strong thanks to the team's seemingly endless supply of basically interchangeable, high-energy, defensive-minded forwards in the Craig Adams/Matt Cooke/Pascale Dupuis mold. Apparently, however, Bylsma is thinking what I was thinking, because as I was writing this post, this tweet came across the wire (or whatever tweets come across):
Bylsma says Crosby is "definitely in the mix" among top 6 penalty killers, and site of draw helps determine when he'll go on ice. #PenguinsAll I can say in this case is "Hear, hear!" which I'm not sure why that's a saying. But I have been waiting for Bylsma to set Crosby loose on the penalty kill. Putting scorers on the PK adds a dimension to the team that we've been lacking (with all due respect to Jordy Staal); it forces the other team to be aware of that threat, and in doing so adds a little unease to the opposing power play unit. The Red Wings seems to have always done it: Stevie Y and Sergei Fedorov were great penalty killers, as are Zetterberg and Datsyuk. Ditto Sakic and Forsberg in Colorado. Hell, Mario is fourth all-time in short-handed goals. And Claude Giroux was terrifying killing penalties with Max Talbot in the playoffs.
— Shelly Anderson (@pgshelly) January 18, 2013
Crosby is exactly the kind of player you want on the ice for the last 40 seconds or so of a kill: he's always been underrated defensively, he wins faceoffs, he's smart as hell and knows where to be at all times. He's extremely strong on the puck, and will be able to sense when to clear the puck down the ice, when to play keep-away, and when to take chances. The Pens can roll out two PK units of Sutter-Cooke and Vitale-Glass (or whoever), to lay some hits, chip the puck out, and tire out the other team, then throw Crosby and Dupuis at them - with Dupes' speed he should have unlimited breakaways. Add to that the spectre of the player in the box coming out at the end of the penalty...Mario was so good at recognizing the situation and hitting that man with a breakout pass as soon as he hit the ice. No reason Crosby can't do it too. Really hoping Bylsma follows through on this.
Love the banner.
ReplyDeleteOld school Pens.