Pittsburgh Penguins

Crosby line set to feast on Ristolainen and the Sabres
March 21, 2017, 12:23 PM ET [169 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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The Penguins are back on the road again and this time it's a short little trip to Western New York to take on the Buffalo Sabres.

Pittsburgh is still battered with injuries, but at least they will be facing a team that isn't shy about giving up shot attempts. Buffalo currently ranks 26th in the NHL with how many shot attempts they allow at even strength. Their CA/60 is 58.5. Pittsburgh's CF/60 against all teams is 58.8. The Penguins shouldn't have trouble generating attempts, especially the Crosby line.

Are you sick and tired about hearing about the Sheary-Crosby-Guentzel line? Too bad. They're awesome. Jesse Marshall did some line comparisons for The Pens Blog and found some pretty impressive stuff about the line.

NEW PENSBLOG: The Crosby line is even better than you thought. In fact, it's the best line recent #Pens history.https://t.co/1AFHxxMgnS
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) March 21, 2017



Jesse made multiple comparisons to other Penguins lines in recent history as well as current lines from around the NHL. When compared to the other top possession lines in hockey this year the Sheary-Crosby-Guentzel line was the best in xGF/60, scoring chances for per 60, and goals for per 60. Generating offense is kind of their thing.

Probably not good news for Rasmus Ristolainen who is Buffalo's "top pairing" defender. Ristolainen is currently in a role that he cannot handle. He is a solid contributor on the power play, but his work at even-strength against the other teams top players has been low end. He has some of the worst underlying numbers in the entire NHL.

Buffalo fans don't want to hear it, but their defense corp. stinks and while it isn't completely Ristolainen's fault he is not helping the cause. He needs to be a middle pairing guy with power play time. You can't really dispute the evidence.

source: imgur.com

He is objectively drowning. Buffalo's biggest task moving forward will be improving their defense corp. so they aren't throwing players like Ristolainen to the wolves. He is out of his league.

Here is an unflattering heat map

source: imgur.com
On the left hand side are the shot attempts Buffalo gives up with Ristolainen on the ice. Red is bad. On the right hand side is how the team does when he's on the bench. The Crosby line should have some fun.

I remember last summer hearing some rumors about the Oilers being interested in Ristolainen before they moved Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. Whoops.

Jack Eichel has been very good for the Sabres. Since returning to the lineup after a training camp injury he has been one of the better offensive players in the league. He's a good player at even-strength but he's a great player on the power play. If you want to take a chunk out of Eichel's effectiveness don't take penalties. Here is how Eichel ranks in 2016-17 with his 5v4 points per 60

source: imgur.com

He's the eighth best player in the league at generating offense with the man advantage. His effectiveness in this area reminds me of what a pain in the ass Claude Giroux was a few years back when he was producing on the power play at an elite rate and producing as a second line player at even-strength.

Evgeni Malkin did not make the trip to Buffalo. His run at the Hart, Art Ross, and Rocket Richard is now dead because of a meaningless blocked shot.

Derrick Pouliot was demoted. This one was deserved. He was bad in both games. What is weird is that Jim Rutherford talked about keeping Pouliot down with the Baby Penguins so he could develop some consistency as a player. Since those comments he has been called up and demoted twice. Nothing about the Pouliot situation has been consistent other than it has been inconsistent. The team has done a horrendous job with this player. There were two distinctive paths the team could have gone down which made sense and they chose neither

1. Commit to the player and let him play in the NHL for an extended period of time with a consistent partner.

2. Sell high if you are not willing to give the player a chance to succeed.

The team went with a third option. Tank the players' value and continue the yoyo him between the AHL and NHL. This is a case of poor asset management.

The latest demotion is more palatable considering it isn't for somebody like Steve Oleksey, Cameron Gaunce, David Warsofsky, Taylor Chorney, Chad Ruhwedel, or Rob Scuderi. Frankie Corrado was promoted and could make his Penguins debut tonight. He is 23 years old and in 41 NHL games the last two seasons he has a shot attempts for percentage of 54.4%. He's worth giving a look to because he is still an unknown whereas the other examples have a very predictable career path.

Marc-Andre Fleury had a splendid game on Sunday against the Florida Panthers earning his first shutout of the season. He has been excellent since the trade deadline. Matt Murray will be making the start tonight and he remains the team's starting goaltender.