Drive to the Net: Penguins' rushes among NHL's most creative taken in Columbus, Ohio (Weekly Features)

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Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby, earlier this month in Seattle.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gone are the days of 2016 when the Penguins would relentlessly rush up ice and jam their blazing speed down the opposition's throat -- sort of.

Though the Penguins, more or less, abide by the same tactical principles that brought them success in 2016 and 2017, their stars have aged and unquestionably lost a step speed-wise, while the NHL continues to see an influx of youth and speed.

Kasperi Kapanen is one of the fastest straight-ahead skaters in the league. Bryan Rust can burn it too, but overall, the Penguins are much closer to average in the speed department than they were five years ago.

Of course, foot speed alone doesn't inherently take a team to the Promised Land. Just imagine a team full of Carl Hagelin clones.

It's the speed or tempo that the game is played on an individual, as well as team-level, that breeds success. Lots of players can skate fast. Not all players can read, process, react, or make decisions quickly and cohesively, which is something many of the Penguins' skaters do very well.

Mike Sullivan demands an uptempo yet cerebral approach from his players, and it's bringing the Penguins consistent offense on the rush.

According to the manual tracking of Corey Sznajder, the Penguins are crossing the offensive blue line with possession (whether by carrying the puck or completing a pass) 10.16 times per hour at 5v5 this season. Florida (12.36) and New Jersey (11.4) are the only NHL teams doing it at a higher rate.

On top of that, the Penguins are generating 3.79 scoring chances per hour at 5v5 after a controlled zone-entry, which trails only Florida (4.08) and Columbus (3.80).

You can't score on the rush by dumping the puck, and just five of fourteen Penguins skaters that have enough minutes tracked are dumping the puck more frequently than entering with possession: Zach Aston-Reese (43.6% controlled zone-entry percentage), Bryan Rust (36.8%), Brock McGinn (34.8%), Brian Boyle (30.4%), and Jeff Carter (28.6%).

That means the likes of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Evan Rodrigues are hanging onto pucks and looking to create as they gain the offensive zone.

How are they going about it?

BAIT ALONG THE BOARDS

Ideally, skaters want to get the puck off the boards and toward the middle of the ice as soon as they can. Defensive pressure, as well as the positioning of teammates, doesn't always allow for that. 

On several occasions this season, the Penguins have baited defenders to seal them off along the boards, only to work a pass to the middle once the pressure steps up:

The Penguins caught three New York skaters deep in the offensive zone and turned on the jets to get up ice and create a four-on-two.

Crosby, who carried the puck up the left boards, didn't have a ton of speed or even much of an attack angle on the defender that marked him. Instead of forcing a play, he simply stopped skating once he got to center ice. This caused the defender to step up on him, thinking that he had the jump. As soon as the defender made his move, Crosby slipped a pass to his support, Kapanen, who gained the zone and rifled a shot to the back of the net.

This is a great example of letting the game come to you, and it will be a recurring theme in this column:

This time it was Rodrigues that made a similar play against Washington.

Washington's turnover led to a quick Penguins counter-attack, but Rodrigues found himself in the unenviable position of not having enough space to beat the defender wide, while also not having a clear passing lane to his support.

The solution? Hold onto the puck until the defender bites and opens up the lane for you.

Once Rodrigues' pass slipped through to Crosby, Washington's coverage converged on Crosby in a panic, but they left Kapanen wide open in the process as he scored a near carbon-copy of the last goal.

CENTER-LANE DRIVE

As elementary as it may seem, a center-lane drive from a non-puck-carrier can cause fits for the opposition if executed properly:

Carter came through the neutral zone with speed and looked like a threat to carry the puck to the slot, but just before crossing the blue line, he dished the puck wide to Guentzel and carried his momentum directly between Chicago's defenders and toward the goal.

This caused a miscue between the defenders as they both found themselves sagging back to prevent Carter from getting wide open, but in doing so they gave Guentzel way too much room to operate.

Guentzel walked off the boards methodically and waited for his trailer, Danton Heinen, to emerge and catch a pass in the slot before wiring the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury.

If you don't have the puck skills to create on your own, get your legs moving and drive to the net:

After a stretch pass generated a three-on-two for the Penguins against Edmonton, Aston-Reese, very similarly to Carter, powered his way to the middle and went right between both defenders.

Edmonton's defenders were so concerned with Aston-Reese driving the paint that they left Rodrigues and Teddy Blueger with all the time in the world to make several passes to each other with the puck ultimately ending up in the back of the net.

Rodrigues deserves props for selling the shot and creating that much more room for Blueger, which leads us to the final section:

PINPOINT TIMING

Whether it's forcing a pass too soon, or even hanging onto the puck too long before all options have disappeared, skaters throw rush opportunities away frequently. There's an extremely fine line -- I'm talking split-seconds -- that makes a shot or pass viable in any given situation. 

While impossible to ride that fine line every second you're on the ice over an 82-game schedule, the Penguins have done a marvelous job this season of finding that sweet spot:

Sprung on a two-on-one, Rodrigues skated up the left side as Guentzel took a wide angle on his flank to stretch the ice. Once he gained the zone, Rodrigues had the puck in his hip-pocket, making him a threat to shoot in a snap.

Primed to fire the puck, Rodrigues smartly waited for Seattle's defender to sink back just far enough to feed a cross-ice pass to Guentzel, who snapped the feed into the twine. Had Rodrigues passed sooner, the puck likely gets tipped by the defender. Had he waited to pass, Guentzel likely would have been too deep to get as much power on his one-timer. 

In the final clip, Guentzel showed off his hockey IQ, as well as his ability to react to the play immediately:

Rust caught one of Toronto's defenders cheating up ice and flipped a pass to Guentzel's stick to create a partial odd-man rush. Guentzel had Crosby as a one-timer option across the royal road, but Toronto's back checker was catching up and their defender had the lane taken away. 

Most skaters would fire a somewhat low-danger attempt from the circle if they were Guentzel, but he had the poise to hang onto the puck and wait for the defenseman to make a move first. As soon as the defenseman turned toward Guentzel to completely take the pass away, Guentzel swiftly moved the puck to his backhand as he cut to the slot and whipped the puck past the netminder. 

The Penguins' process has been superb this season. They are controlling shot quality and quantity at both ends of the ice among the league's best teams, they are generating and executing on the rush, and they're about to get a generational talent in Evgeni Malkin back from injury.

When the postseason rolls around and defenses get a little stingier, it's paramount that teams are able to generate in more ways than one, and the Penguins have proven they can do just that.

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