19 Games In: Progress Report

After last night's 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Penguins are now officially nineteen forty-eighths of the way through the season, which makes this as good a time as any to step back and look at the team's progress thus far.  The Pens, it's safe to say, are where they want to be, sitting in the catbird seat at the top of their division and the top of the conference, but no one is above reproach, so let's get to nit-picking!

GOOD: Stars

At this point, we have a pretty good sense of what we can expect from our top guys.  Crosby continues to heat up, and he now sits one point behind Steven Stamkos on the leaderboard after the two went blow-for-blow last night.  The scary thing is, it seems like he still has another gear.  We've seen him pass up shots all season looking for the perfect pass, but with Malkin sidelined, he'll need to start calling his own number, like he did a minute the first period last night, when he froze Anders Lindback before depositing the puck above his right shoulder.

Before going down on Friday night, Malkin was likewise playing well, and he and Neal have become one of the most dangerous tandems in the lead, particularly on the power play, where both use the one-timer threat to keep the defense honest.  Neal is showing that last year was not a fluke, once again pacing the leauge in power play goals and near the top in total goals.

Chris Kunitz has earned the right to be counted among the Penguins' star players.  He's scoring more than a point a game, he's one of the best two or three forecheckers on the team, and he always seems to come up with timely goals from his spot in front of the net.

Letang continues to do things every game that stand out, whether with his stick, his skates, or his glove.  Last night, he chased down a puck at the blue line to keep alive a 5-on-3 power play, which seems like a standard enough play, but in person it was breathtaking.

 With the puck's momentum driving it out of the zone, and a Lightning penalty killer in close pursuit, the math (which I didn't do) is against Letang arriving in time to keep the puck in, much less doing anything with it.  But he crosses the ice in two strides and meets the puck just as it touches the blue.  He gathers the puck and, in one motion, turns away from the Lightning net and launches a blind cross-ice pass onto the tape of Crosby's stick, leading moments thereafter to Beau Bennett's first career (and game-winning) goal.  Watch the play in real time and name me three other defensemen who can make this play:



BAD: Injuries to the Stars

As mentioned above, Geno was injured in an ugly spill in Friday's game against the Panthers and was ruled out of yesterday's game, as well as this week's road trip.  We first were told that Malkin was suffering from severe headaches and concussion-like symptoms, then that he was not, and now that he did indeed suffer a concussion.  According to Bylsma:

"After the hit Evgeni suffered some short-term memory loss and therefore was diagnosed with a concussion...He’s had no other symptoms. He’s feeling fine and his memory is returning."

This is obviously terrible news for the team, but more terrible because Geno is a wonderful guy and I don't want him losing his short term memory.  I hope he'll recover soon and start making new memories.

News from the Penguins is that Geno has been placed on Injured Reserve retroactive to Feb. 22, when the injury occurred, which mean we won't see him again until March at the earliest.  Losing a player of Malkin's caliber is always a crushing blow, but even more so in a shortened season.  It will be crucial for Crosby nd co. to step up in Geno's absence if he misses a considerable amount of time (which this season means "any time at all").

GOOD: The New Guys

The newest additions to the roster have overcome some growing pains to fill their roles on the team.  Mr. Glass, after a slow start, has started to show his talent as a big hitter and a good penalty killer, as well as our default secondary enforcer.  He's shown good chemistry with Joe Vitale and Craig Adams on a defensive-minded, pesky fourth line.  Mr. Glass, as his name suggests does not have soft hands, and we're still waiting for his first point.  His closest call came last night on a redirection off a feed from Joe Vitale, which Garon was able to get in front of.  You keep at it, Mr. Glass!

Brandon Sutter has stepped up admirably in the void left by Jordan Staal.  Sutter also had a quiet start to his tenure here, but has come on strong of late, most notably with his spectacular tying goal in the final minutes of the Flyers game last Wednesday.  He's a good skater and stickhandler, and his game is deceptively laid-back; he doesn't waste a lot of energy skating all over the ice, but he tends to get to the right place in all three zones.

Sadly, just as the Legend of Sutter was born with his goal against Philly, Vokoun put it back to bed by letting in a terrible goal - the sixth of the game - moments later, turning an inspiring comeback into an crappy crapfest.  As I left the CEC that night, I heard a fan proclaim, to no one in particular, "Vokoun is done.  He is DONE!"  Which is hard to argue with because, hey, Vokoun knew the deal when he signed here: NO BAD GAMES, or you are done.  Seriously, though, Vokoun has done everything we've asked of him, and I really believe he's helped keep Fleury as sharp as he's been. 

As for the rooks, congrats to Beau Bennett for scoring his first NHL goal last night, and also congratulations on being very adorable.  He and Despres and Bortuzzo are works in progress, so let's exercise some patience and let them grow up.

BAD: The Malkin-Neal Winger

 To date, Bylsma has experimented with, by my count, SEVEN different wingers to join Geno and Neal on the first/second line: Eric Tangradi (traded), Mr. Glass (haha), Dustin Jeffrey (couldn't stick), Tyler Kennedy (seems to be stuck in a Speed-meets-Sudden Death scenario where if his shot hits the net, the arena will explode), Zach Boychuk (remember him?), Matt Cooke (sigh), and Beau Bennett (no pressure, kid).  It's getting embarrassing.  There's no point in lingering on this, but I am already looking forward to April, by which time I can only assume Ray Shero will have traded for a legit top-6 winger (IGGY) or figured out a way to clone Kunitz.

GOOD: Special Teams

 The Pens power play ranks third in the league at an impressive 28 percent, and they've scored PP goals in eleven straight games, which is very good.  Although Bylsma continues to tinker with the first unit, it's clear that the top guys are clicking.  There's a lot of movement, generating a lot of good scoring chances.  With Malkin shelved, I imagine we're going to see Martin-Letang-Neal-Crosby-Kunitz out there every time, which is not so shabby.  I'd say I want to see the second unit create more goals, but they are basically never out there for more than 20 seconds.  Sorry, guys.

The penalty kill has slipped from years past, and the Pens sit at an ugly 17th, killing 82.2 percent of the penalties they take.  I considered putting this in the BAD section, but I think that the PK has looked pretty good so far.  Adams has been solid as a rock all year, and Matt Cooke is getting better with each game, while Dupuis, Sutter, Glass, and even Crosby are putting in good minutes on the kill.  I'm hopeful that their percentage will improve as the newcomers get more comfortable, and more importantly as the team starts showing more discipline.  The refs are calling absolutely everything this year, and the Pens have put themselves in a lot of holes by ignoring the tighter interpretation of the boarding and interference rules.

BAD: Home-Ice (Dis)Advantage

Have a look at the Pens' home/away splits so far this year: 5-4 at CEC, 8-2 on the road.  I'm not going to go on a screed about how Consol has priced out "real fans" and created an atmosphere more appropriate for a museum (or a mausoleum), because the team has been very good at home the past couple years.  But so far, the home-cooking doesn't seem to be doing much good; they've suffered some embarrassing losses, getting whupped by the Leafs and the Isles in their first two home stands, and given up a lot of leads (not that that's anything new).  Granted, it's early yet, and we just won two in a row at CEC, but the Pens will host 10(!) games in March alone, and they need to take advantage of those games.  Also, it's quiet in there.

GOOD: Paul effing MARTIN!!

P-Mart has been written up all over the internet, but DAMN GINA! it is worth repeating.  Martin's been incredible on both ends of the ice - and even in those instances where he's been caught standing around in his own (and, make no mistake, there have been a few), he's made up for it with huge offense.  He's fourth in the league in D-man scoring, and his goal last night against the Lightning, where he led a 3-on-1 break, made a smart pass to Cooke, and then drove to the net to put in the rebound was something we've never seen before from him.  Hell, we wouldn't have even known how to process that play last season, he was so bad.  There's going to be some semi-serious discussion of Martin as a Norris trophy candidate, which is nice but not very likely, but I will say this: it's a damn shame that the lockout cancelled the All-Star Game this year, because Martin would have to be on the team, right?  We would have been happy with an average campaign from him, a Mark Eaton (welcome back, Eats!) type season, and we're getting All-Star level play.  Let's celebrate!

BAD: Tyler Kennedy

As you can see in the photo above, Kennedy's instinct is to close his eyes and whip the puck in the direction of the net, as far as he can guess.  TK's inability to hit the net has gone from a quaint shortcoming that he's bound to overcome to a congenital defect.  How he managed to score 21 goals two years ago is a mystery, and it's one that the organization paying for to the tune of $2 million a season.  And his crappiness is put into relief by the strong play of Joe Vitale, who is the same size as Kennedy and whose number (46) looks exactly like Kennedy's (48).  So every time I see Kennedy do something good, it turns out to be Joe Vitale, which makes sense, because Kennedy doesn't do much good.  Last night, Dustin Jeffrey fought in the corner against two Lightning, came out with the puck, and dished it to Kennedy, who was all alone in front of Lindback.  So excited to have the puck with no one in front of him (not that that would stop him), Kennedy immediately stepped into his hardest snap shot, which he aimed in the vicinity of the top shelf, but which of course was destined for 3-5 inches wide of the net.  Lindback got a blocker on it, so it looked like a good save, but it happened right in front of me, and there is no chance of that puck going in the net.  Such is the way of Tyler Kennedy.  Here's the play, which is hard to really see because CORNER CAM!



Of course, as soon as you criticize Kennedy, he scores some clutch goal to make you look stupid, like at the end of the Flyer game, when I wondered aloud, "Why is Kennedy out there on Crosby's line?" moments before he scored the goal that got us back in the game.  So...prove me wrong, Pig Boy.  Prove me wrong.

Pens Beat Sens: Cupid, Draw Back Your Bow

Last night's win over an injury-depleted Ottawa Senators team was one of the year's most complete efforts for the suddenly un-depleted Penguins.  While most of the attention after the game has focused on Matt Cooke's did-he-or-didn't-he-mean-to stomp on Erik Karlsson's ankle, a more interesting subplot was the Penguins' handling of Kris Letang's reintegration into a power play unit that had played well in his absence.  Paul Martin took over Letang's spot at the point during the three games that Letang sat due to injury, and filled in admirably, exhibiting composure in high pressure situations and contributing to a power play that went a healthy 5-for-13.

With Letang returning to the lineup, it was unclear whether Martin would be bumped back down to the second unit, or if Bylsma would pair the two.  As it turns out, Bylsma stuck with Martin as the sole defenseman at the beginning of the power play, then subbed in Letang for Kunitz about a minute in, resulting in a Letang-Martin-Neal-Crosby-Malkin look that was moving the puck, creating scoring chances, and capitalizing.

I've been arguing against playing forwards at the point for a while now, but even I have to admit that the thought of Martin quarterbacking our power play would have given me the shakes before the season began.  For all the credit that Martin has garnered for his improved defensive play, it was his offensive instincts that worried me most last season.  Though he could make a decent breakout pass, he showed a serious tone-deafness when it came to pinching, jumping into the action just as the puck was being turned over, or already heading in the other direction.

Last night, however, we saw a completely different story.  Let's start with the Pens' first (and, technically, only) power play goal, which knotted the game at 2-2.  As you can see here, the Penguins set up with three men (Martin, Letang, Malkin) up high, and Crosby and Neal down low.  Malkin makes a cross-ice pass to Martin, who prepares to set up Letang for a one-timer from the blue line.

Martin's man hustles to cut off the pass between Martin and Letang, but overplays it, opening up a ton of room around the right faceoff circle, like so:

Martin recognizes the situation and pushes the puck past his man, skating hard toward the net before finding Crosby behind the goal line.  At the same time, James Neal drifts in the opposite direction, crossing from the left post to the right circle, and sits there waiting for the puck.

Rather than fading back to his point, Martin continues toward the net, eventually ending up behind the goaltender.  He crosses in front of Sergei Gonchar, who is fronting Crosby, causing just enough of a distraction to clear a passing lane for Sid.  Crosby finds Neal, who is just about automatic from the hash marks, especially with such a clear path in front of him.

Martin's aggressiveness sets the tone here; his pinch is well timed, catching the Sens out of position, creating space and - hey! - encouraging some much-needed movement on the power play. 

Perhaps emboldened by this success, Martin is even more aggressive on the Pens' fourth goal, which comes moments after a Sens penalty expires.  Malkin has the puck at the half boards, and three of the four Senators on the ice shade toward the right side of the ice.

Malkin and Crosby criss-cross in the corner and Martin, noticing that the left side of the ice has been effectively evacuated, drives to the net.  With Chris Phillips about to step out of the penalty box, Martin's pinch is something of a risk, but it's a calculated one:  all four penalty killers are down low, Letang is back to defend the pass up ice to Phillips, and, of course, Malkin is extremely hard to knock off the puck.

Malkin stops behind the net, and Martin and Neal both open up at opposite sides of the goal.  As you can see below, both Senators forwards are caught in no-man's-land, defending nobody in particular, and the front of the net is wide open:  

Malkin passes across the grain to Neal, who one-touches it across an empty crease to Martin, who redirects the puck right back to the crease, where Crosby has taken up position for an easy goal.  Compare the image below with the one above and one thing stands out: the Pens are moving around, and the Sens are standing in the exact same place.

In real time, it's a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, and it doesn't happen without Paul Martin putting pressure on the defense:

It's worth noting that if Letang wasn't on the ice here, Neal would likely be covering the right point, and Martin would be much less likely to pinch.  Letang's presence serves as a security blanket for Martin, who can take an offensive posture here with Letang's speed and sound defensive play as insurance.

I think, and I hope, that we'll get to see Martin and Letang together on the power play moving forward; according to Bylsma, the plan currently is for Letang to take the first player off the ice from the first power play unit, most likely Kunitz.  Bylsma might be stubbornly clinging to his dream of a four-forward power play unit to the detriment of the team, but I can see his reasoning: with such a drop off between our first and second power play teams, it makes sense to stagger the line changes.  Crosby and Malkin tend to stay on ice for a minute and a half anyway, so switching out a tired Kunitz for a fresh Letang breathes life into our most potent lineup, takes advantage of a potentially gassed penalty kill, and puts us in a good position to recover defensively in the event of a turnover.

If Paul Martin can keep up this level of play, he has the potential (as we saw last night) to make our power play that much more versatile, and to help fill the void left by Gonchar, which is what he was brought in to do in the first place.

Game 9: Mr. Pens Go To Washington

It's Super Sunday over here at BOSC.  We call it Super Sunday because that's when they play the Super Bowl.  Thank God for us that the Pens are playing the Caps at 12:30 to spare us at least a few hours of inane pregame football chatter.  While our chili simmers on the stovetop, tempers on the ice will be bubbling over between these fierce rivals.  Timely metaphor, right guys?

To be honest, the Pens-Caps rivalry feels less relevant now than it has since the pre-Ovechkin/Crosby years.    The Capitals, who were always thisclose to being a championship team, have been in a backslide since last season, and their identity as the Southeast team with the dominant scorers that no one wants to play looks to have been usurped by the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Of course, no one has been more emblematic of the Caps' regression to the pack than Ovie, who has had one of the most inexplicable falls from grace that I've seen from an NHL superstar.  Once clearly a top two player in the league, he is now dangerously close to "enigmatic Russian scorer" territory, and there's no clear reason why.  The Caps are on their third coach in as many years, and Adam Oates has led them to a disappointing 2-5-1 record thus far, maybe because he's instructed his players to pass the puck at every chance, and only to shoot if there is absolutely no other option.  (***ADAM OATES HUMOR***)

From Right to Left: Adam Oates, DAN LACOUTURE, Jaromir Jagr.

Regardless of their place in the standings, we fully expect the Caps to bring their best to the table tonight.  We expect Ovechkin to land a big hit at some point, and to spend every power play skating around the top of the left circle with his stick half-cocked, waiting for a one-timer feed to hammer past Fleury.  We expect Mike Green to make a couple nice offsenive plays and more than a couple embarrassing defensive lapses.  We expect the ghost of Mike Knuble to tip in some ugly, tide-turning goal.  

The Penguins enter the game riding high off of consecutive division wins against the Rangers and Devils in which we outscored our opponents by a combined score of 8-1.  Here are some trends to keep track of this afternoon and moving on:

• Crosby showed up yesterday against New Jersey in a huge way.  His snipe job on a 2-on-1 with Dupuis was incredible, but I preferred his assist on the Pens' final goal, where he muscled Krys Barch (cool name spelling, bro) of the puck behind the net and sent a perfect no-look pass to the point for Robert Bortuzzo's first NHL goal.  Sid loves playing against the Caps, and here's hoping he's locked in and ready to start climbing the league leaders board

• The platoon situation is paying early dividends.  After a rough showing from Fleury against the Islanders, Vokoun righted the shift with a near-flawless performance against the Rangers.  He was a black hole, sucking in every puck sent his way and giving up no rebounds.  Fleury was strong yesterday when he needed to be (which wasn't often), and the only goal he gave up was the result of his defense (in the person of, for some reason, Malkin) leaving him out to dry.  Vokoun will be between the pipes against his old team, and let's all agree to put the goaltending controversy to bed for a while and just enjoy the wonderful sensation of having an elite backup.

• The defense has been in flux, but seems to be taking form.  The entire corps looked great yesterday, allowing only 16 shots on net and blocking 14 in all.  By now, we know what we're getting from our top guys, especially Orpik (who has been blocking everything in sight) and Letang (who continues to outskate everyone on the ice), but it looks like it's going to be impossible to stem the youth movement encroaching on the sixth d-man spot, with Despres and Bortuzzo making strong claims to what was once (it seems so long ago now) Ben Lovejoy's spot in the lineup.  Both are huge (they're listed as an identical 6'4" and 215 pounds) and strong with the puck, and have made enough good plays to compensate for their to-be-expected rookie miscues.  More importantly, both seem to be at that point in their development where they need exposure at the NHL level more than anything else.  If one or both of them are going to be regular contributors to the Pens this year, it's out-of-the-pan-into-the-fire time.  If there's a silver lining to the Niskanen injury, it's that it has forced Bylsma's hand, pressing the young fellas into extended duty earlier than perhaps expected.

• Hey, speaking of, I wonder if either of these young fellas could man the point on the power play.  After Malkin's non-effort on the Devils' short-handed goal yesterday, I think the need for two defensemen at the point is unavoidable.  Bortuzzo's slapshot looked pretty healthy, or at least healthy enough to get through Marty Brodeur, and let's not discount.  The most glaring hole on the team - yes, more glaring than the need for a couple of top-six forwards - is the lack of a guy who can put a hard slapshot on the net.  This is kind of a useful thing to have on the power play, especially when you've got Kunitz screening the goalie, and Crosby and Neal fishing for rebounds.  If we can add this weapon to our arsenal simply by promoting one of our rookies into a quarterback role, the team will become much more dangerous.  It's certainly worth kicking the tires.  If not, something tells me we could talk the Isles into dumping Lubomir Visnosky on us.  Lu-bo-mir!  Lu-bo-mir!