Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins conclude very successful trip to Western Canada
March 14, 2017, 11:03 AM ET [104 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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The Penguins have wrapped up their annual trip to Western Canada and it was very successful. The team earned seven out of a possible eight standings points and now have the same amount of points in the standings as the Washington Capitals.

Pittsburgh was unable to solve Calgary in the shootout for the second time this season. The game itself was very entertaining with both teams trading quality scoring chances. Shot attempts at 5v5 were tied at 47 apiece.

Pittsburgh had a wonderful opportunity in overtime to end the game when they were given a 4 on 3 power play. They did not make the most of it. They played the perimeter passing game, but ultimately did not maximize the personnel they had on the ice. I detailed a 5 on 3 power play goal against Carolina earlier in the year and I believe that same concept would work on a 4 on 3 power play. You need to pass the puck to Phil Kessel on the half wall and let him swoop up towards the blue line

source: imgur.com

The chances are minimal that a penalty killer is going to follow him up there that high even if it is a 4 on 3 instead of a 5 on 3. This creates an Evgeni Malkin one timer or a Sidney Crosby shot tip goal like the one in the clip above. It makes the most of those three players skill sets. Phil gets to either take a snap shot with speed or allow Malkin to hammer the puck and Sid is great at tipping pucks and winning battles down low. The Penguins should revisit this concept the next time the opposition is down to three penalty killers.

The Sheary-Crosby-Guentzel line has really been something. It started in Edmonton trading chances with the McDavid line and since then has lived in the offensive zone. All three members of the line had two points for the second consecutive game and Sidney Crosby broke an extended goal drought by scoring late in the third period to tie the game. Here is a visual documenting their dominance from last night

source: imgur.com

They opened the scoring last night



That is Conor Sheary's 20th goal of the year. He's going to be deserving of around four million per year on his next extension and it would be worth it.

The trio currently has a CF/60 at 5v5 of 81.65 which is the highest among any Crosby line this year. It is the highest CF/60 among any Penguins trio this year. The only other Penguins trios to have a better CF/60 since 2010 are Malkin-Crosby-Neal (94.95) and Kunitz-Crosby-Malkin (87.53). So the only lines to generate more offensive opportunity than Sheary-Crosby-Guentzel have been situations where Crosby and Malkin are both on the same line. I'd say that is pretty great in the early goings of this line combo.

Evgeni Malkin's line didn't push play last night. I believe the four road games in six nights caught up to Chris Kunitz. In these situations it wouldn't be the worst idea to let Scott Wilson jump up for a few shifts with Geno and Phil at even-strength.

Kunitz did have a very nice assist on Malkin's power play goal



That goal gave Malkin his 33rd of the year and at the time he was within one of Sidney Crosby for the league lead. Crosby later scored in the game to get his 35th, but how great is it to have Crosby and Malkin vying for the Rocket Richard and Art Ross in the same season? They are past the normal aging curves for producing offense at this rate and it is a testament to their insanely awesome abilities.

Here is an up to date look at the scoring race

source: imgur.com

Sid and Geno weren't the only fun star players in the game last night. Johnny Gaudreau can do some cool things too




If I were Ron Hainsey I wouldn't lose too much sleep over that. He isn't the first nor the last who are going to get scorched by Gaudreau. Fleury went for the pokecheck which historically speaking has been one of his strengths, but the problem with the poke check is when you miss, you miss.

Fleury had some nice moments in the game, but he finished with a .900 save percentage. When Fleury makes nice saves they aesthetically look better because there is a lot of movement going on. Murray is a boring goaltender in this regard and a lot of his "nice saves" are more composed.

Not everything is roses. There are some concerns moving forward. Mark Streit is officially a Penguin and as a result had to leave the game in the first period and did not return. It is unknown what the extent of his injury is. This leaves Cameron Gaunce as the sixth defenseman and that isn't ideal considering the other injuries. I'd say to call up Derrick Pouliot, but the Penguins wasted one of their four post trade deadline call ups on Tom Sestito. If another Penguins defenseman gets injured they could use Pouliot as an emergency call up. At least that is my understanding.

Injuries are starting to catch up with the Penguins. Their bottom six forward grouping isn't getting it done lately. They can't drive play and they aren't putting up any offense. It isn't the players faults. They are being put in a tough situation, especially Carter Rowney, Oskar Sundqvist, and Josh Archibald. Sid and Geno are just going to have to keep carrying the team until Patric Hornqvist and Matt Cullen return to the lineup.

The Penguins will conclude their five game road trip by visiting the Flyers tomorrow night. Philadelphia has been struggling as of late