What I’m about to type, I’ll admit in advance, could be seen as a little unfair. But here goes, anyway: The Penguins first line hasn’t been good enough. Certainly not by the standards Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust had set for themselves as a trio.
Yeah, they've put up more than their fair of share of points through 55 games entering tonight pre-Olympic break finale against the Sabres at KeyBank Center. Sid remains, as ever, a point-a-game guy at 27 goals, 32 assists. Rakell's missed a month to injury, and he has 10 goals, 14 assists. Rust's missed seven games to injury or suspension, and he has 19 goals, 21 assists.
Nothing much amiss with any of that. On the surface.
Couple of outright problems, though:
1. Forty-four of the Sid line's combined 123 points have come on the team's richly productive power play. The latter's to their credit, and it's plainly a positive, but it's still doing some statistical lifting.
2. Of all of the Penguins' forward lines to have logged a reasonable amount of five-on-five ice time together, believe it or not, the Sid line's rated among the lowest when it comes to possession as measured by shot-attempt metrics.
Full-season figures for all current lines:
• Sid line: On the ice for 49.05% of all shot attempts • Evgeni Malkin, Tommy Novak, Egor Chinakhov: 52.65% • Anthony Mantha, Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau: 56.03% • Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari: 53.69%
And bear in mind, additionally, that the Sid line begins most of its shifts with a head start of sorts in that they're sent out for 63.7% of all offensive-zone faceoffs.
That’s not OK. I mean, it’s clearly cool that there's more dynamic depth up front than at any stage of the post-HBK era. But it doesn’t change that Sid, Rakell and Rust could be doing more defensively and infinitely more in the way of drawing penalties. The Penguins as a collective don’t draw enough penalties -- Sid's drawn an impressive 13, but Rakell only four and Rust eight -- and that onus tends to fall on the better players operating in the attacking zone.
As criticisms go, this isn't exactly searing stuff. I don't intend it to be.
It's just reasonable, I'd say, to expect the best line to be the best line.
• Thanks for reading. I'll be all hockey while here in Western New York, and I'll have much more to offer from the 11:30 a.m. skate this morning at the fabled Had Series But Choked Arena and, of course, during and after the game itself. Faceoff's at 7:12 p.m.
THE ASYLUM
Grind: Enough from Sid's line?
What I’m about to type, I’ll admit in advance, could be seen as a little unfair. But here goes, anyway: The Penguins first line hasn’t been good enough. Certainly not by the standards Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust had set for themselves as a trio.
Yeah, they've put up more than their fair of share of points through 55 games entering tonight pre-Olympic break finale against the Sabres at KeyBank Center. Sid remains, as ever, a point-a-game guy at 27 goals, 32 assists. Rakell's missed a month to injury, and he has 10 goals, 14 assists. Rust's missed seven games to injury or suspension, and he has 19 goals, 21 assists.
Nothing much amiss with any of that. On the surface.
Couple of outright problems, though:
1. Forty-four of the Sid line's combined 123 points have come on the team's richly productive power play. The latter's to their credit, and it's plainly a positive, but it's still doing some statistical lifting.
2. Of all of the Penguins' forward lines to have logged a reasonable amount of five-on-five ice time together, believe it or not, the Sid line's rated among the lowest when it comes to possession as measured by shot-attempt metrics.
Full-season figures for all current lines:
• Sid line: On the ice for 49.05% of all shot attempts
• Evgeni Malkin, Tommy Novak, Egor Chinakhov: 52.65%
• Anthony Mantha, Ben Kindel, Justin Brazeau: 56.03%
• Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte, Noel Acciari: 53.69%
And bear in mind, additionally, that the Sid line begins most of its shifts with a head start of sorts in that they're sent out for 63.7% of all offensive-zone faceoffs.
That’s not OK. I mean, it’s clearly cool that there's more dynamic depth up front than at any stage of the post-HBK era. But it doesn’t change that Sid, Rakell and Rust could be doing more defensively and infinitely more in the way of drawing penalties. The Penguins as a collective don’t draw enough penalties -- Sid's drawn an impressive 13, but Rakell only four and Rust eight -- and that onus tends to fall on the better players operating in the attacking zone.
As criticisms go, this isn't exactly searing stuff. I don't intend it to be.
It's just reasonable, I'd say, to expect the best line to be the best line.
• Thanks for reading. I'll be all hockey while here in Western New York, and I'll have much more to offer from the 11:30 a.m. skate this morning at the fabled Had Series But Choked Arena and, of course, during and after the game itself. Faceoff's at 7:12 p.m.
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