The weather in Pittsburgh has been unseasonably warm in the New Year, with temperatures hovering around 50 degrees. It’s a pity the same can’t be said for the local hockey team, which remains colder than an Arctic clipper howling across the frozen tundra.
A night after absorbing perhaps their most humbling defeat of the season, the Penguins traveled to Washington to take on the Capitals. First the bad news: the black and gold lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to run their losing streak to six games. And the good news? By all accounts they gave a good effort.
After being upbraided by the local press for their sorry performance against Ottawa, the Pens finally showed some moxy. Just past the two-minute mark Craig Adams dropped the mitts with the Caps’ Matt Hendricks in a battle of cruiserweights. Although Adams fell to the ice following a brief exchange, his grit lit a fire under his teammates. The Pens controlled the action throughout the opening 11 minutes while limiting the home team to a single shot on goal.
Entering Tuesday night’s contest with Ottawa at CONSOL Energy Center, the Pittsburgh Penguins were in desperate need of a win. After climbing to the top of the standings in the early weeks of the season, the injury-ravaged Pens suddenly found themselves clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference courtesy of an unsightly four-game losing streak.
Beating the improving young Senators (5-0-1 in their last six) would be no easy feat. After all, the Pens entered the game with a lineup decimated by the recent loss of two-way stalwart Jordan Staal (knee), not to mention the ongoing absences of Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang.
Prior to the opening faceoff the black and gold received some good news (a rarity these days) when it was revealed that leading goal-getter James Neal and gritty Craig Adams would suit up despite recent injuries. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Pens from belly flopping to their fifth-straight defeat.
When the Penguins and New York Rangers clashed at CONSOL Energy Center on Friday night, it was a definitive case of two teams headed in opposite directions. While the streaking Rangers (8-1 in their last nine) had scaled to the top of the overall standings, the skidding Pens (7-7 since Nov. 29) were struggling to keep pace in the race for Atlantic Division supremacy.
Thanks to a quirk in the schedule that provided a full week off, the Penguins entered the contest as fresh as proverbial daisies. However, the extra rest did little to improve the team’s sagging on-ice fortunes. After jumping to an early lead, the Pens unraveled over the final 40 minutes and fell to their third-straight loss, 3-1.
Determined to make a statement against an upper-echelon foe, the Penguins played arguably their finest opening period in nearly three weeks. Pascal Dupuis set the tone two minutes in when he tested Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist following a takeaway by Jordan Staal.
In the wake of the Penguins’ recent loss to the Flyers, I was struck by the pronounced difference in the makeup of the teams. While the Pens’ lineup was generously stocked with 30-somethings (nine to be exact), Philly featured a bevy of talented young forwards who are in their early twenties, including NHL scoring leader Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Matt Read, James van Riemsdyk, Wayne Simmonds, and Jakub Voracek. I’m not even counting fresh-faced role players like Zac Rinaldo and Harry Zolnierczyk.
I hate to covet anything Philadelphia, but I couldn’t help but be envious. Thanks to some astute drafting and personnel decisions by general manager Paul Holmgren, the Flyers’ future looks bright. Philly is positioned at roughly the same spot on the development curve that the Penguins were back in 2006-07.
Of course, the Pens aren’t totally bereft of young talent, either. Any team would die to have a core comprised of Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, and Jordan Staal.
Drastic times call for drastic measures! The Pens power play is mired in drastic times. Coach Dan needs to take drastic measures to make the power play even remotely effective. I am not sure what the answer is, but I would start with taking Kris Letang off of the number one unit. He is trying too hard, gripping the stick too hard or whatever. What he is right now, is ineffective. He struggles to hit the net with his shots (that is on the rare instances when he decides to shoot), his passes are off the mark, he is making bad decisions and losing pucks. He is not playing poorly in all aspects of the game, but the power play is horrible and he is the anchor on said power play.
Maybe they should let Talbot, Adams, Asham and Rupp run the power play. These guys have been their best players. Bring back Englland. He is not exactly crafty with the puck, but when he shoots, it goes on net. As Krundle said in his pre-game “Keep shooting, it really is the most effective way to score goals”. Maybe they should just shoot every time they have the puck. It can’t be worse than the existing PP.
Well, the season is now 20 games in which means that roughly one quarter of it is gone, and so, just like when you were back in school, it is time to issue the first quarter report card for the team, the players and the coach.
The Team: B-
The team has had to make quite a few adjustments this year from welcoming in new players to learning to play in a brand new facility and the adjustments have been anything but seamless. The Penguins currently sit fourth in the Eastern Conference four points behind division leading Philadelphia but with games in hand on both Philly and teams right behind them in the standings, this could change easily. The team has taken some time to get used to their new home, and it showed in their early games, but a 2-1-1 record in the last four at home shows that they may be settling in nicely. Scoring goals, which has never been a problem for this team is definitely not a problem this year as the Pens are currently 7th in the league in goals per game, but early struggles to find the right defensive pairings has led them to only 13th in goals allowed per game. Finding the right defensive players for the Penalty Kill has definitely not been a problem as they currently rank 3rd in the league killing off almost 90% of all man advantages. Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten how to play with the man advantage as their Power Play has sunk to 25th in the league converting on barely 12%. This team has way too much offensive firepower for this to continue, but I don’t think the problem is up front, I think it is on the blue line as the coaching staff seems to be relying way too much on Letang and Goligoski to get the job done. In the last 12 games(5-5-2), the Penguins are 4/49(8.2%) on the Power Play, and in that time, GoGo and Tanger each only have 2 Power Play points. I’m thinking it might be time to give Paul Martin a shot or go with an extra attacker at the point.
To win in the playoffs, all hands have to be on deck. With one series complete, the Pens have already used seven defensemen, 14 forwards, and one goalie. All 22 of these players had a role to play in the win over Ottawa. One player who does his job on a consistent basis, but is often overlooked, is Craig Adams. Adams is a Harvard grad and has had a solid career as a role player. His best offensive year was 05-06 with Carolina when he scored 10 goals and 11 assists as a part of the Hurricanes Stanley Cup Championship team. When Ray Shero picked him up on waivers from the Black Hawks, it was not front page news. Make no mistake about it, he has been a large part of the Penguins playoff success since his arrival. His name rarely appears on the scoresheet, but when you look at some of the other stats that helps win hockey games, this is where he excels. Hits, faceoffs, penalty killing minutes are a large part of his game. On a team with many stars and many leaders, his voice is the one often heard in the locker room. When people talk about the Penguins’ strength down the middle with their top three centers, I think Adams can be included in that strength as one of the more valuable fourth line centers in the game. He averages about 11 minutes of ice time per game, and was second in hits among all forwards in the Ottawa series. Kunitz led with 24 hits and Adams had 21, some of which were very punishing. Take a look at a hit he put on Alfredson in a regular season game this year –
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January 12, 2012 1:19 am | 
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