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Penguins Lines

We recently added a new page to the site to show the Penguins lines.  We did this after seeing that a significant quantity of searches were looking for the penguins lineup.  We suspect that this is mostly from fans of our opponents.  While we don’t always know what the coach is going to do on any given night, we have posted the generic lineup at http://nhlpens.com/team/penguins-lines/.  You can also navigate to it from the blog by clicking the “Team” navigation button and then “Lines”.  Hopefully this will satisfy the needs of those looking for that information.  I plan to add am additional table that shows depth at each position (to include AHL talent).  More to come!

Penguins Adjust and Shake Things Up

After posting just 7-shots in the final 42-minutes of Game 1, the Penguins are wasting no time in making adjustments.  At practice on Sunday, Coach Therrien juggled the lines in an apparent effort to shake things up a bit and to give the Penguins a different look.  The practice session on Sunday is a likely a preview to what we will see in Game 2 on Monday night.  The Coach’s theme for Sunday’s practice was effort and desire, two things that seemed to wane after the first period of Game 1.  In the first period the Penguins looked competitive and hungry, but as the game progressed they stopped skating and started watching too much. 

If the lines used in practice hold for Game 2, you can expect to see some interesting changes for Monday night.  First, expect to see Sidney Crosby centering Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone.  I like this combination as it adds a new dimension to the Penguins top line that may pay dividends.  In addition to the speed and playmaking abilities of Crosby and Hossa, you now have Ryan Malone who can post his big body in front of the netminder and give the Detroit defense another element to worry about. 

Pascal Dupuis will be moved to a new Penguins second line, centered by Jordan Staal with Tyler Kennedy on the opposite wing.  Again, this is another interesting matchup as the long reach and excellent defensive abilities of Jordan Staal will be teamed with the speed and energy of Dupuis and Kennedy. 

This means that Evgeni Malkin will now center the 3rd line as he has been struggling of late.  He will be flanked by energy man Max Talbot and sniper Petr Sykora.  It will be interesting to see what moving him to the 3rd line will do as far as Detroit’s line matchups.  Whether Malkin is ailing or just in a funk, the move will either serve to release a little bit of pressure or motivate him to to step his game back up.  Again, it will be interesting to see how Detroit reacts to Malkin’s new location in the lineup.

Finally, the Penguins will put 42-year-old Gary Roberts back into the lineup and sit Georges Laraque.  Roberts, an experienced and gritty forward, has had a difficult year as he dealt with a broken leg and a high ankle sprain that kept him out of the lineup for the 2nd half of the season.  During the Eastern Conference Finals, he again sat out with a bout of pneumonia.  Although healthy enough to play on Saturday, Roberts was a healthy scratch.  That won’t be the case for Game 2, when Roberts will join fiesty Jarkko Ruutu and Adam Hall on the 4th line.  “I’m excited.  For me, bringing some emotion, some intensity.  I’m obviously not going to change my game at this point.  I know what I need to do to be successful.  This team we’re playing against is really smart.”

The Penguins will be looking to turn things around in Game 2 and find a way to steal one in Detroit before heading back to Pittsburgh.  If Coach Therrien can motivate his team to put in a full 60-minutes of effort like they produced in the first period of Game 1, they could generate a very different outcome.  With the line changes and some motivating forces, it will be interesting to see if the adjustments being made by the Penguins coaching staff will yield dividends for the young team.  The only way to the Stanley Cup for the Penguins is to win at least 1-game in Detroit.  They need to believe that the 1-win must come on Monday night. 

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Final Pre-Season Line Tweaks in Action

The Pittsburgh Penguins are making final pre-season tweaks to prepare the club for the much anticipated start of the 2007-2008 NHL Season this week.  In addition to making the final roster cuts yesterday, the Penguins organization returned to the ice and got down to the business of adjusting the lines, practicing the system and getting ready for a strong start to the season.   

Coach Therrien is shuffling up the lines and the word on the street is that there will be a different look to the lines for the season opener in Carolina on Friday night.  If you were one of the hardcore fans that grumbled about player line placements during the pre-season, you will probably like the look of the line changes employed during the first post-exhibition practice on Monday.  They are likely a preview of what we will see on Friday night, and possibly longer if the combinations work:

Forwards

1. Jordan Staal—Sidney Crosby—Petr Sykora
2. Ryan Malone—Evgeni Malkin—Mark Recchi
3. Gary Roberts—Erik Christensen—Colby Armstrong
4. Jarkko Ruutu—Maxime Talbot—Georges Laraque

Defense

1. Mark Eaton—Sergei Gonchar
2. Brooks Orpik—Ryan Whitney
3. Darryl Sydor—Rob Scuderi

Perhaps the most encouraging element of this line-up is the movement of sophomore Jordan Staal from third line Center to first line Wing.  This will not only benefit Staal, but I believe it will pay dividends across the front line in terms of pure playmaking and scoring capability.  Last year, Jordan Staal mentioned the difficulty of getting used to the speed of the game and how quickly the play unfolds.  It is certainly understandable for a rookie to be challenged by the transition into the NHL.  This year, however, he will have to have his head and stick on a swivel if he is going to keep up with Sidney Crosby and Petr Sykora.  I think there is a real chance for some magical chemistry here, but only if Staal can handle all of the creative plays that Crosby is sure to initiate.

Another promising aspect of the line-up seen in practice on Monday is the appropriate use of Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts to round out the second and third lines.  These are the roles that these two players should play this year, ceding the way to the younger generation to pick up the torch and carry it.  Combined, they have decades of experience in the NHL and plenty of skill to boot, but they are the “greybeards” of the team and need to serve as the foundation upon which the youth and speed of the team can build upon.  

The line-up above uses the traditional arrangement of speed and skill up front, and increased grit as you go down.  There is tremendous depth in the forward lines with significant goal generating capability resident within each of the top three lines.  It will be a challenge for some teams to be able to roll the lines the way that Pittsbugh should be able to do this year.  This should bode well for the Penguins offensive game. 

On defense, the pairings are a bit surprising in that I would expect to see different matchings.  Certainly the Mark Eaton and Sergei Gonchar pairing is a welcome sign after their success early last year before Eaton was sidelined with a wrist injury.  As far as the pairings go, Perhaps Coach Therrien is attempting to shore up his defensive corps by ensuring that all of his defensive talent isn’t on the ice at the same time, leaving a possible weak flank with his lower defensive pairings.  Time will tell if these pairings (and the forward matchups for that matter) hold very long into the season.  I certainly hope that he finds a combination that works well and shores up the defensive corps. 

The Penguins have a couple more days to settle in before they start the long journey to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Today, the NHL Center Ice Package was ordered and the HD TiVo-equipped 55″ HDTV sits ready for 82-games of glorious, pulse pounding, Penguins hockey action.  Let the games begin!