COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Amidst the buffoonery put on display by Brad Marchand in the final moments of the Penguins' 4-2 victory over the Bruins Tuesday night, there was one moment from earlier in the game that really stuck with me.
It wasn't Sidney Crosby, in vintage fashion, dropping to one knee and picking up his 499th career goal.
Or even Tristan Jarry's robbery of Tomas Nosek late in the third.
It was John Marino's dash toward the middle and into open ice that resulted in ... a weak backhand attempt that was steered aside:
That play is something many believed, myself included, would be a more frequent occurrence for Marino at this stage of his career.
As the Penguins' power play expired, the puck landed on Marino's stick in the neutral zone. He immediately scanned the landscape and darted toward the open ice in front of him. The Bruins shifted over to impede Marino's direct path, but he smartly whipped out his go-to heel-to-heel move in order to slightly change his lane and pace before bursting through the middle.
Even though the Bruins were able to limit Marino's range of motion as he closed in, his backhand attempt would have been better served as a backhand pass across the front of the net for a probable tap-in from Jeff Carter.
Regardless of the rush's result, Marino showcased an aggressiveness and eagerness to attack that is too few and far between in his game.
Marino is firing just 6.95 shot attempts per hour at five-on-five this season, the lowest rate of any Penguins defenseman. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a believer that defensemen should spam shots from anywhere and everywhere whenever the opportunity arises, but that figure demonstrates a serious struggle to so much as get in position to be a shooting threat.
His average puck-handling skills in mind, the 0.12 expected goals per hour he generates at five-on-five -- the exact same figure as Brian Dumoulin and also a Penguins-low -- isn't going to cut it. Based on the quality of chances off his stick, you could expect him to score once after roughly eight hours of five-on-five ice time, if he was an average finisher.
Marino's offensive struggles don't stop at the infrequent individual looks he's getting. He's hampering the Penguins' attack as a whole:
HockeyViz
The Penguins are scoring a meager 2 goals per hour with Marino on the ice at five-on-five, and are creating 2.28 expected goals per hour. You guessed it: both rates are the lowest among Penguins blue liners.
Compare that with the Penguins' torrid output when Marino isn't on the ice at five-on-five:
HockeyViz
Of 178 NHL defensemen that have played at least 400 minutes at even-strength this season, Marino ranks 154th in regard to his isolated impact on his team's ability to muster quality offensive chances, per Evolving Hockey.
Can the Penguins afford to take such a hit offensively from their number three blue liner, even if his defensive impacts are strong?
Marino doesn't skate with the same fluidity as someone like Mike Matheson, but he controls his edges well and has a strong stride. Why hasn't that translated to offensive success?
Part of it comes down to overcomplicating and not taking what the game is giving him:
Against the Capitals, Marino received the puck at the point and had plenty of room to shrink the zone and work the puck toward the slot, but he hesitated and allowed pressure to swarm him. He made a nice move to evade the pressure and appeared as if he was going to rush the middle with the puck, either to fire a shot of his own or draw attention from the defenders to open space for his teammates on the outside, but he blasphemously circled back toward the point immediately after beating his man.
Seconds later he settled for a ho-hum one-timer that led to the Capitals exiting the zone.
Reads like that are all the more frustrating when he's previously shown a semblance of offensive instincts:
Forget the gorgeous shot to finish it all off for a second.
After baiting and walking the Stars' Jamie Benn at the point, Marino sprung toward the middle and dished wide after he didn't like the look. Rather than immediately rushing back to his station up top, Marino remained in the pile of traffic in the middle of the ice, and as he recognized a shot was coming, got into position out front for a rebound that ended up right on his tape and just as quickly ended up striking twine.
That's the kind of slipperiness we've come accustomed to seeing from Jake Guentzel, but it isn't uncommon for Marino to be a passenger on offensive possessions, either:
That clip is a great example of how crucial the players without the puck are to the puck-carrier. With his partner stretched to the left wing boards, Marino failed to position himself toward the middle to alleviate the Kraken's stronghold on his side of the ice.
If Marino had skated several feet closer to the middle, not only would he have lowered the risk of the pass coming his way getting intercepted, but he would have drawn the Kraken's coverage further away from the right half-wall where Crosby had little room to work with.
It isn't a question of whether or not Marino has the capability to be more impactful offensively.
He does.
The question is whether or not he can put it all together and combine his skating, instincts and awareness on a consistent basis to add another wrinkle to the Penguins' attack heading down the stretch.