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Turn the Page

Nearly halfway into the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have managed to do what has historically been difficult for a team coming off from a Stanley Cup win…turn the page.  With the summer parade and hometown Cup celebrations with friends, families, and mentors behind them, the Penguins have quickly regrouped to start the new season focused on one thing…winning again.  So far, it has paid off.  With 38 games behind them, the Penguins find themselves just 1 point out of the league lead despite experiencing a challenging rash of early season injuries to much of their offensive and most of their defensive lines.

Credit the young coach/hockey veteran, Dan Bylsma, and his staff for getting the young minds back on the right page from day one and managing through the early adversity of this season’s injuries.  Credit the seemingly veteran Captain, Sidney Crosby, for his burning and infectious desire to “do it again”, and not be content with accomplishments of the past.  Credit the Penguins’ young players and veterans alike for sharing their Captain’s desire, for not forgetting what it takes to win, and for not letting the glory of last season’s Cup win spill over into an attitude of entitlement this season.  And lastly, credit the depth of the organization and the AHL players for their energy, skills, and ability to step up into the big league and fit seamlessly into the Penguins’ system.  The Penguins have indeed assembled a winning organization from top to bottom, and despite the commercial cheesiness of the “Defy Ordinary” marketing campaign, the tagline has very aptly and succinctly defined the identity that the Penguins players themselves seem to have embraced.  This is no ordinary hockey organization. 

Quickly dispelling the thoughts of a Cup hangover in Pittsburgh, the Penguins jumped out to an impressive 11-3-0 record in October, outscoring their opponents 48-31-0.  That included 4 overtime shootout wins, putting an exclamation point on their ability to find ways to win games and showcasing Marc-Andre Fleury’s and Brent Johnson’s ability to close the door.  November brought a cascade of injuries that slowed the Penguins down, as they fought through a 4-game losing streak and finished the month 8-6-0, being outscored 46-44.  During the month, the Penguins saw no less than 65 man-games lost due to injury, including 5 of their 6 regular defensive starters.  The maelstrom of injuries included Alex Goligoski (missed 7-games), Sergei Gonchar (missed 7-games), Tyler Kennedy (missed 11-games), Chris Kunitz (missed 9-games), Kris Letang (missed 9-games), Evgeni Malkin (missed 5-games), Jay McKee (missed 6-games), Brooks Orpik (missed 4-games), and Max Talbot (missed 7-games).  So far during the month of December, the Penguins have managed to return to health and have recorded a 7-2-1 record by outscoring their opponents 32-19 as they head into tonight’s game against the Maple Leafs. 

Despite their winning record and success at overcoming injuries in the first half of the season, the Penguins are noticeably lacking in one area of their game, proving that not quite everything has “defied ordinary”.  In fact the Penguins’ powerplay, the least effective in the league at just 15%,  has downright defied belief.  There are few explanations to account for this utter lack of performance coming from a team that possesses the firepower of the Penguins.  However, one might recall that the Penguins struggled on the powerplay in the first half of last season as well, and recovered quite nicely down the stretch.  At least during the first half of last season they had a viable excuse with Sergei Gonchar, the team’s most effective powerplay Quarterback, out of the lineup.  There has been no such easy excuse this season.  Recent changes by the coaching staff on the Penguins’ powerplay seem to offer a glimpse of hope as they move forward, however.  Most noticeable is the move of Crosby and Malkin to opposite sides of the ice.  This combination has opened up the ice, provided more options and less predictability, and seems to be yielding some results.  Now if they can just get some consistent traffic in front of the net, they might just become the powerplay juggernaut that they have the potential to be. 

It appears that the Penguins’ biggest foes in the Eastern Conference as we near the halfway point are the uber defensively minded New Jersey Devils and the offensively laden Washington Capitals.  The defensively stingey Buffalo Sabres also bear watching, as do the Boston Bruins (if the Bruins can ever find a way to regain their offensive punch).  What remains to be seen is how all of these teams (including the Penguins) will perform in the second half of the season, especially given the upcoming Olympic break.  Will the Olympics prove to be too big of a distraction to maintain the momentum of the league’s current leaders?  What about injuries, and how will that affect the road ahead?  Can the Penguins maintain the pace they have been on given their two consecutive back-to-back short off-seasons?  How will the trade deadline change the landscape of the current challengers? 

The only thing certain at this point is that the Penguins have effectively turned the page from last season’s triumph and have successfully avoided the pitfalls of a Stanley Cup hangover.  The rest lies in the hands of the Hockey Gods. 

Penguins Lackluster in Loss to Coyotes

The Pittsburgh Penguins looked like a team that failed to prepare for what the Phoenix Coyotes threw at them on Wednesday night. The Coyotes put on a clinic and bogged down the Penguins in the offensive and neutral zones, preventing Pittsburgh from gaining any momentum. In fact, the only momentum that the Penguins could generate was tilting the ice towards backup netminder Brent Johnson who, despite giving up 2 goals (the 3rd tally was an empty netter), performed exceptionally with a couple of highlight reel saves. In the end, the Penguins were dealt a 3-0 shutout and their first loss of the season at the hands of the Coyotes. It was a lackluster performance, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the waning days under Michel Therrien.

In watching the game, I couldn’t help but think that the Penguins underestimated just how well the Coyotes would play. Perhaps they were too focused on tonight’s game against the division rival Philadelphia Flyers, and were looking beyond the Coyotes. Whatever the case, their play suffered from a lack of focus and inability to establish any presence in the offensive zone and was further hampered by a rash of penalties, nine of them to be exact. To their credit, the Coyotes capitalized on 2 of the 9 power-play attempts, including a beauty of a goal from Petr Prucha while he was on his back in the crease. Evgeni Malkin took a double minor in the first period for an inadvertent high stick that drew blood. The ensuing Coyote power play also drew blood, as veteran Ed Jovanoski found the back of the net to put them up 1-0. In the 2nd period, the Penguins’ frustration and penalty troubles mounted as Sidney Crosby took 2 separate penalties for slashing, Matt Cooke took two seperate penalties for interference and roughing, and Brooks Orpik took a hooking call. Cooke’s interference call negated the only goal that the Penguins might have gotten as the call was made before the puck went into the net. Orpik’s penalty resulted in the Prucha powerplay goal. The Penguins went on to take 2 more penalties in the 3rd period, and despite getting a total of 5 powerplay opportunities themselves in the game they were unable to convert. Despite only being outshot 25-24, the Penguins were clearly out-hustled and out-played through most of the game.

Sidney Crosby had a night that he would probably just as soon forget. In addition to taking 2 frustration-fueled slashing penalties in the 2nd, he was a dismal 5 for 17 (29%) in the faceoff circle. He also had 4 giveaways. When your star center and team Captain plays like that, you can’t expect much else to go your way. Let’s hope whatever was affecting his play last night is out of his system, and that he returns to form against the Flyers this evening.

If there were a few bright spots to take away from the game, it would have to be the play of Brent Johnson and Jordan Staal. Brent Johnson turned aside 22 of 24 shots, including a spectacular glove save on Shane Doan. One of the two goals he gave up came through a screen and he never had a chance to see it. The other goal came at the end of a scramble in the crease where the defense failed to clear the puck and Johnson lost track of it. Jordan Staal had a monstrous night in the faceoff circle winning 12 of 13 for a 92% faceoff percentage. Whatever he has done to improve his faceoff performance, he now needs to apply to his shooting accuracy. Jordan Staal has already proven his immense defensive prowess and now needs to tap into his enormous offensive potential.

It will be interesting to see how Coach Bylsma responds to just his 2nd regulation loss in the regular season since taking over as head coach in Feb 2009. There will be little time for him to make a teachable moment out of last night’s performance. He needs to quickly get his team re-focused for tonight’s battle against the Philadelphia Flyers, who have been shot out of a cannon this season. The Flyers are 3-0 so far this season with a qhopping 13 goals for and just 7 goals against. The Penguins will need to mount a big turnaround from last night’s game if they want to come out of Philadelphia with a win.

TK on Malkin’s Wing for Day 1 of Practice

On-ice practice began this morning at Mellon Arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins 2009/10 Training Camp.  The most notable news from today is that Tyler Kennedy was the first player to be paired up with Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko.  I am sure that this is just one of many pairings that will be evaluated on that line over the next few weeks after the departure of Petr Sykora/Miroslav Satan and the absence of Max Talbot while he is recovering from off-season surgery.  Coach Dan Bylsma noted that he is looking for a tenacious player that can add a “forechecking and puck-pursuit presence” to the Malkin line.  Based on what we saw from Tyler Kennedy last season, he would seem to be a natural fit.  He certainly brought those skills to the Staal line last season, where his development was quite noteworthy.  Pascal Dupuis back-filled Kennedy’s normal spot on the Staal line.

New acquisition Mike Rupp played on a potential fourth line with Craig Adams and Eric Godard.  Eric Tangradi played on a line with Wyatt Smith and Chris Connor, while Luca Caputi was on a line with Mark Letestu and Nick Johnson.  Free Agent Left Wing Ryan Bayda (formerly of the Carolina Hurricanes) was invited to camp/practice as a tryout.  Also at camp on a tryout is former UND goaltender Jordan Parise, Zach Parise’s older brother.   

As far as top defensive pairings, it was Mark Eaton – Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik – Sergei Gonchar, and Jay McKee – Alex Goligoski.  Ben Lovejoy was paired with Brian Strait.

Here are the full training camp team lineups as reported by Sam Kasan on the 2009 Training Camp Blog (click name for player profile):

TEAM A
Forwards:
Ruslan Fedotenko – Evgeni Malkin – Tyler Kennedy
Mike Rupp – Craig Adams – Eric Godard
Joey Haddad – Casey Pierro-Zabotel – Nick Petersen
Ryan Bayda – Zach Sill

Defensemen:
Mark Eaton – Kris Letang
Chris Lee - Deryk Engelland
Jonathan D’Aversa

Goaltenders:
Brent Johnson
Jordan Parise

TEAM B
Forwards:
Matt Cooke – Jordan Staal – Pascal Dupuis
Eric Tangradi – Wyatt Smith – Chris Connor
Wade Brookbank – Joe Vitale – Keven Veilleux
Nathan Moon

Defensemen:
Brooks Orpik – Sergei Gonchar
Brian Strait – Ben Lovejoy
Simon Despres – Robert Bortuzzo

Goaltenders:
Marc-Andre Fleury
Brad Thiessen

TEAM C
Forwards:
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Bill Guerin
Luca Caputi – Mark Letestu – Nick Johnson
Paul Bissonnette – Dustin Jeffrey – Tim Wallace
Aaron Boogard

Defensemen:
Jay McKee – Alex Goligoski
Lane Caffaro – Nathan Guenin
Jamie Hunt – Alex Grant

Goaltenders:
John Curry

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