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Penguins Add More Grit With Asham Signing

 

The Pittsburgh Penguins added more bite to their bottom six on Friday by signing physical right wing role player Arron Asham to a one-year deal worth $700K.  The move signals the redefinition of what the Penguins’ 3rd/4th  lines will bring to the mix this coming season with Jordan Staal’s anticipated move to the top 6.  Specifically….grit, tenacity, energy, passion, and versatility.  Asham completes a bottom six pool that already includes Michael Rupp, Matt Cooke, Craig Adams, Max Talbot, Tyler Kennedy, and Eric Godard…..an already tenacious combination of role players that serve as the supporting cast to the Penguins’ existing top six.  Over the past couple of seasons the Penguins’ 3rd line has served as an extension of the first two, with the Cooke-Staal-Kennedy combination providing energy and responsible two-way play to establish a relentless third wave scoring threat.  With Staal’s anticipated move to the second line and the addition of Asham to the mix, that complexion changes.  The new look will concentrate the Penguins’ most potent offensive talent in the top two lines, making them a scary opponent to defend against.  This will be complemented by a high energy, versatile, grinding presence in the 3rd/4th lines fully equipped to wear down the opposition.  When coupled with the revamped defensive lineup that added Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek, The Penguins should be a very tough and competitive team to play against. 

Drafted in the 3rd round in 1996 (71st overall) by the Montreal Canadiens, the 32-year old Asham has played a total of 648 regular season and 52-post season games in the NHL.  After spending 4 seasons in Montreal, he was traded to the New York Islanders where he played another 4 seasons before playing a year in New Jersey and then two seasons in Philadelphia.  Known for his work ethic and ability to play strong along the boards, Asham can also crash the net and create scoring chances.  His most productive season was in 2002/03 while playing for the Islanders, when he scored a career high 34 points (15G, 19A) in 78-games.  He typically produces about 8-10 goals and 20-25 points a season.  His career post-season best occurred this past year with the Flyers when he scored 4-goals and 7-points in 23 games.  As a role player, he can be a very solid contributor to the team and comes at an affordable price. 

The interesting side story on the Asham signing will be how he fits in on a team that was his cross-state rival just a few months ago.  “My time in Philly was great but it’s in the past now,” Asham said Friday. “It is a great rivalry and fun to be a part of. I’m just switching sides. I’m still going out there and playing my hardest. I’m doing what it takes to win and playing good hockey. All friendships are put on hold until the game is over. It’s a great rivalry and I’m looking forward to it.”  Perhaps more intriguing is the relationship he will have with new teammate (and potential linemate) Matt Cooke, a player that Asham openly stated he had no respect for and called “gutless” just a few months ago.  Hockey smack talk, or genuine sentiment?  Likely a little of both.  Hopefully these two can bury the hatchet and find some common ground to rally upon together.  Like Cooke, Asham has high potential for becoming a player that is loved in Pittsburgh, and despised everywhere else.   

Asham’s $700K signing leaves about $1.5M in cap space for the Penguins, who stated that they will make a decision on veteran Bill Guerin in the coming week.  This assumes Tangradi and Lovejoy are on the roster come October, which is not yet a given.

New Year’s Retrospective

With the Olympics-altered 2009/10 season already half over, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back and see where the Penguins stand on this New Year’s Day as compared to last.  Just like the stock market, past performance is no gaurantee of future returns…but it still helps provide some context on how the team has performed so far when benchmarked against where they were at this point last season. 

Last season, you will recall that the Penguins started out under a different coach and began the season with their top two defensemen out of the lineup (Sergei Gonchar for shoulder surgery and Ryan Whitney for foot surgery).  In their stead, the Penguins had to depend on some very young, NHL-inexperienced defensemen in Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski to step up and help hold the blueline.  They also started the season in Stockholm Sweden, and had to deal with the challenges of international travel during the outset of the regular season.  This made for a tumultuous month of October in which they went 5-4-2.  They recovered quite nicely in November, posting an impressive 9-2-1 record, before slipping to 5-8-1 in December.  By New Year’s Eve last season, the Penguins had compiled the following stats:

New Year’s Eve 2008:

• Games Played:  37
• Record:  19-4-4
• Points:  42 (57% points efficiency)
• Goals For:  118 (3.2 per game)
• Goals Against:  110 (2.98 per game)

This season, the Penguins started the season with a healthy roster, and seemed to pick up right where they left off in June.  The Penguins jumped out to a blistering pace in October, going 11-3-0 for the month and outscoring their opponents 48-31.  Then came November, and the Penguins started to drop like flies to injury, with the Penguins’ defense taking the biggest hit.   In November, the Penguins lost 65 man-games due to injury, including 5 of their 6 regular defensive starters and one player from each forward line.  November man-games lost to 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).  Despite this incredible challenge, the Penguins still managed an 8-6-0 record in November, but were outscored 46-44 as their defensive lines at one point consisted of over 80% call-ups from their AHL affiliate.  To their credit, the call-ups performed admirably under the ciircumstances, and 4 of the 6 games lost were early in the month at the outset of the injury maelstrom.  Once the Penguins started to get healthy again, they went on to post an 7-5-1 record in December, outscoring their opponents again 38-29.  Sidney Crosby has been having a very good season so far, and is on pace to score 46-goals, while Jordan Staal is right on pace for another 22-goal season.  As of New Year’s Eve this season, the Penguins have posted the following stats:

New Year’s Eve 2009:

• Games Played:  41
• Record:  26-14-1
• Points:  53 (63.1% points efficiency)
• Goals For:  130 (3.17 per game)
• Goals Against:  106 (2.59 per game)

Observations:  The Penguins have arguably posted better results at this point over last season, even with the short off-season, condensed game schedules, and rash of injuries dealt to them in November.  The Penguins have accumulated more wins and points over last season, and while their offensive production has been on-par with last season (even with Evgeni Malkin missing a couple of weeks), their defensive game has noticeably improved.  This is notable given that while the Penguins played last season without their top-2 defensemen, this season they played most of the month of November with just one of their starting defensemen in the lineup.  The Penguins have also benefitted from a sharper Marc-Andre Fleury and a very solid backup netminder in Brent Johnson.  In season’s past, Marc-Andre Fleury has had slower starts and strong finishes.  This season, while he has had a few disappointing outings, he started the season much stronger in net and is second in the league in wins behind Martin Brodeur.   

The Way Forward:  Last season the Penguins slumped over the holidays losing all 5 games from December 27th through Jan 5th.  This season, the Penguins have so far lost 3 games since December 27th with two games coming up this weekend.  Last season the Penguins would go on to win just 5 games in January, losing 9-games that month (1 in OT), with troubles continuing into mid-February before Coach Therrien was released in favor of Bylsma.  Over the past couple of seasons, the Penguins’ big points drive has come down the stretch as they have headed towards the playoffs.  Last season, for example, they went on an 18-3-4 tear under Coach Bylsma after mid-February.  The season prior, they went 15-6-3 in that same timeframe under Coach Therrien. 

While it is impossible to know what this season holds in store, fans can hope that the Penguins will follow suit from the past 2 seasons and have another strong finish.  However, there are a couple of things that could make this season’s stretch drive quite challenging for the Penguins.  First, coming off from back-to-back extended seasons, there is a real question as to whether the fatigue and/or injury factor will set in for the Penguins.  Perhaps they got over that hump in November, but there still remains a genuinely increasing risk that this could become a factor as the season wears on.  Second, what effect will the Olympic break have on the Penguins (and their opponents, for that matter).  For the stars who have been selected to repesent their countries, the Olympics present a distraction and another risk for fatigue and injury that could impact their performance on return to the NHL.  For those not participating, the break could provide a welcome rest, but at the risk of accumulating a little rust in their games.  The Olympic break also runs the risk of affecting team momentum and chemistry.  The Olympians will have to adjust to playing with new linemates, and all players will see their team’s cohesiveness disrupted at a critical point in the schedule as they run down the stretch towards the playoffs. 

It will certainly be an interesting second half to follow, with the Penguins looking for that ever-elusive 3-peat visit to the Eastern Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals.  While the odds are certainly against them, we have to ask whether there is any team better suited to face this mighty challenge?  We think not. 

 

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