Dan Muse made a number of lineup changes for Saturday's Game 4 against the Flyers. But one combination he did not touch despite struggling at points throughout the series was the second pairing of Sam Girard and Kris Letang.
Turns out, leaving them together was the right call in the Penguins' 4-2 win to force a Game 5.
The Game 4 win was undoubtedly the pair's best game of the series, and potentially their best game since being put together. The Penguins' lone five-on-five goal from Rickard Rakell came with the Girard-Letang pairing on the ice, and Letang scored a four-on-four goal while he was out there with Girard. Girard also drew the penalty from Denver Barkey that preceded Sidney Crosby's power-play goal to open the scoring.
The pair combined for just two giveaways -- both from Girard -- but otherwise played a pretty solid overall game. Both led the Penguins' defensemen in expected goals-for percentages -- Girard first at 69.66%, then Letang at 63.03% — showing the Penguins had control over the quality of opportunities by a decent margin with that pair on the ice.
"I think we did a pretty good job of coming out of our zone and maintaining position in the offensive zone," Letang told me. "I think we still can do a better job at putting more pucks at the net, try to create a second chance for our forwards. And obviously we're two guys that want to join the rush and play with speed, so we have to keep doing that."
Dan Muse said of that pair afterward that he has "confidence in them."
"I'm not surprised," he said of their bounce back. "I think we took a step in the right direction as a team, and that was everybody, including that pair."
THE ASYLUM
Girard-Letang pairing plays its best
Dan Muse made a number of lineup changes for Saturday's Game 4 against the Flyers. But one combination he did not touch despite struggling at points throughout the series was the second pairing of Sam Girard and Kris Letang.
Turns out, leaving them together was the right call in the Penguins' 4-2 win to force a Game 5.
The Game 4 win was undoubtedly the pair's best game of the series, and potentially their best game since being put together. The Penguins' lone five-on-five goal from Rickard Rakell came with the Girard-Letang pairing on the ice, and Letang scored a four-on-four goal while he was out there with Girard. Girard also drew the penalty from Denver Barkey that preceded Sidney Crosby's power-play goal to open the scoring.
The pair combined for just two giveaways -- both from Girard -- but otherwise played a pretty solid overall game. Both led the Penguins' defensemen in expected goals-for percentages -- Girard first at 69.66%, then Letang at 63.03% — showing the Penguins had control over the quality of opportunities by a decent margin with that pair on the ice.
"I think we did a pretty good job of coming out of our zone and maintaining position in the offensive zone," Letang told me. "I think we still can do a better job at putting more pucks at the net, try to create a second chance for our forwards. And obviously we're two guys that want to join the rush and play with speed, so we have to keep doing that."
Dan Muse said of that pair afterward that he has "confidence in them."
"I'm not surprised," he said of their bounce back. "I think we took a step in the right direction as a team, and that was everybody, including that pair."
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