Pittsburgh Penguins

Stop blocking shots + Looking at trends of past champions
April 3, 2017, 9:02 AM ET [84 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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The Carolina Hurricanes came into Pittsburgh with their season on life support. The Pittsburgh Penguins pulled the plug. Pittsburgh’s 3-2 victory ended Carolina’s late season run at the playoffs. The victory also propelled the Penguins into second place in the Metropolitan Division. They have a one-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets who lost in regulation to the Washington Capitals last night. Pittsburgh and Columbus will play one another on Tuesday evening.

The injuries continue to pile up for the Penguins. Chris Kunitz did not play last night and it looks as though he could be missing extended time. It is likely the injury occurred blocking a shot. It is likely that Evgeni Malkin’s injury is from a blocked shot. Mark Streit had to go to the hospital after blocking a shot against Calgary. Carl Hagelin blocked a shot against Edmonton and was then shelved for 4-6 weeks. Nick Bonino tried to make a glove save with his players’ glove last night and was shaken up afterwards. Pittsburgh’s infatuation with blocking shots this year is costing them a lot of man games. This wasn’t the case last year leading into the playoffs




It might be wise to start letting the guys with the big pillow pads earn their money by making saves. Given the injury situation and the fact their playoff situation is pretty much locked in place it would be prudent to dial back the shot blocking approach as the team closes out the regular season.

The injuries the Penguins have suffered has obviously had a negative impact in their underlying numbers. They have been able to scrap together some wins along the way, but the process has been damaged. The team is saying that they expect both Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang back for the playoffs. They will need that to be true because the status quo is not going to get it done. At least historically speaking.




Last year the Penguins were healthy and on a rampage heading into the playoffs. That won’t be the case this year.

A team outside of the top five in score-adjusted Corsi for the final 25 games of the regular season hasn’t won the Cup since Anaheim in 2007. There are still a few games left to be played in the regular season. Here is what it looks like right now.

source: imgur.com

The Kings are always a top possession team under Darryl Sutter. They will not be in the playoffs. They couldn’t score goals. This speaks to Sutter’s ability as a coach to get the most out the players he has. Los Angeles is really lacking skill at the forward position.

The Bruins are a popular dark horse candidate to do big things in the playoffs this year. They are playing well leading up to the playoffs. If they can stay in the second or third place spot in the division they will likely avoid the tougher Metropolitan matchups until the Conference Finals.

This could be Washington’s year. All the underlying numbers are good and they are healthy. If Pittsburgh enters the playoffs wounded one of their biggest potential threats could be neutralized.

Tampa Bay might not make the playoffs and the Eastern Conference should be very happy about that. If they get in and add Stamkos back into the lineup they will be a difficult out. They have four games left and if they can win them all they have a decent chance of sneaking in.

Montreal has the potential to beat anybody because of Carey Price. Now they have Claude Julien who has a great track record of getting his teams to play quality hockey.

The East is not least this year. They are the stronger conference.

Being out of the top five isn’t an automatic death sentence, but there’s a reason for the current trend. Bad possession teams have to overcome a lot to make their way to the Stanley Cup Final. In a sport with more fluky bounces than any other, the way to combat that is to have the puck yourself.

Pittsburgh is currently 15th at 50.28.

There is a reason there have been no repeat champions in the salary cap era and that is because it takes so much luck to win it all just once. You have to be healthy. Your goaltenders have to play well. You need to get the bounces. Your star players have to play well. Your depth has to play well. Coming up short in just one of those areas and it’s probably lights out. Right now Pittsburgh has serious injury problems. And while the team is confident they will be getting back some important players in the near future, how healthy are they going to be?

Pittsburgh’s roster is Stanley Cup worthy. Unfortunately, it may not be the one they get to compete with.