The early bump in the road of last night’s loss will be the first test for the Penguins in seeing how flexible or stubborn that Dan Muse and company will be with how they deploy their lines, with the answers provided (or at least a strong hint below) based on practice setups today. Neither strategy of making sweeping changes or sticking with what they’re trying to build is necessarily right, nor is the other wrong. Results of the decisions will certainly color public perception about if the coaches
are sharp with their finger on the pulse of the team, or look like they’re struggling for answers.
Of course, one bad game isn’t worth over-reacting towards any more than planning a parade rout following a 7-0 win on opening night. The season is bound to endure ups and downs, good games and bad ones. As more data and information comes in about the performances and where some areas of adjustments might be at.
There’s a lot of meat on the bone following how bad the Penguins looked last night.
Some key points:
- When the game ended, Egor Chinakhov didn’t have a shot attempt for the first game in his Penguin career. Later the statistician would adda missed shot. Still, Chinakhov has no 5v5 goals and only four 5v5 SOG in the first three games (contrast to last season when he scored 16 5v5 goals in 43 games with Pittsburgh and averaged just over 2 5v5 SOG per game). It’s not time to panic in the streaks but those are items worth at least bringing up at this point when it comes to considering shaking up the lines. So far Chinakhov’s line with Novak and Evgeni Malkin is the only one that due to injury or coaching choice hasn’t been touched. That might not last much longer unless No. 59 unlocks more of his game and starts playing noticeable like last season.
- Nick Robertson is getting beaten up for losing a battle at his own blueline and failing to clear the zone, directly leading to a goal against. Those things happen sometimes, it happened at a very inopportune time in the third period of a tight game. Robertson only played three more shifts after that over almost the last 13 minutes of the game, and just one of them was with Sidney Crosby. We’re going to find out very fast how much tolerance the coaching staff has in extending the experiment of having Robertson with Crosby, as he has been throughout camp practices and the season so far.
- Crosby himself hasn’t been immune from the frustrations, recording only two assists in three games. It’s early and there’s no reason to actively worry, aside from the reminder that he is 39 now, and not 29 or 19. That’s starting to show a little, but then again he’s started somewhat slow in the recent past and gotten back in a groove as the year goes along. One way or another, Crosby looks like a guy who could badly use the speed, familiarity and chemistry of Bryan Rust when he returns from injury. The Pens looked like they wanted to spread the talent with Rust on a different line, they might not have that luxury at this point.
- Andrei Kuzmenko has only averaged 12 minutes per game after his return to the team following personal leave. He’s done little to stand out or move the needle, which while understandable for someone having traveled and been away for a week, hasn’t been much of an addition just yet.
- Have to agree to Gretz’s take here on Connor Dewar, and to go a step further, he might have been the worst forward on the team on Monday night with multiple misplays and errors with the puck. Very unlike his game. Bad games happen from time to time, it’s a lot more interesting when players like Filip Hallander and Elmer Soderblom are watching instead of playing. Dewar was wearing the A on his jersey for preseason games, so let’s not get too carried away over one performance for extreme over-reactions, but the whole point of quality lower line depth has to be to reward players when they’re playing well and at least consider scratching them (maybe for even one game) when they’re not. Sitting Dewar next game would be completely defensible at this point based on his multiple failed clearing attempts that weakly ended up on Jets players’ sticks.
- On the plus side, Ben Kindel has been sizzling. Since the team has only marginally adjusted the top two scoring lines, that’s meant Kindel has played with players like Dewar, Blake Lizotte, Andrei Kuzmenko and Ville Koivunen a lot more than he’s been out there with forwards like Chinakhov, Rickard Rakell and Evgeni Malkin. Kindel’s placement when it comes to unlocking some of the more offensively-inclined names in the lineup sounds like a natural way to kick things up a notch.
The alignment and decisions for just how much (or little) to respond right now to some of those factors above made watching for line groupings interesting at practice today. Here’s how it looked.
Rust was not cleared for contact the last time the team practiced, it remains unknown if his involvement strongly suggests an imminent return tomorrow night – though certainly it’s looking like he will be back sooner than later at this point considering Rust also worked in with a power play group today.
The conclusions we can draw today are that Dan Muse is splitting the difference about the changes he could make, not drastically altering everything but still electing to switch some placements up. Robertson is not getting much rope to stay in the top line for an extended look, his demotion from the Crosby line in the third period now carrying over another day for practice. Hendrix Lapierre got the prime opportunity of jumping up to the big line, for one day in practice at least. Kuzmenko, too, has made a move down in the shuffle, which portends good things for Ville Koivunen – who now finds himself on a line with a very good player (Rust) and arguably the team’s top-performing forward lately (Kindel), whereas earlier in camp it was Kuzmenko in that position.
No news of movement is not good news for Elmer Soderblom and Filip Hallander, who don’t look like they’re going to get called on for playing tomorrow. Neither Dewar nor Robertson got demoted all the way out of the lineup at this moment and the only change appears to be Kuzmenko making way for the returning Rust, assuming he is cleared and the plan is to have him make his season debut tomorrow night in Washington.
Such a move to activate Rust from injured reserve would require one player leaving the roster to stay under the 23-player limit.
