Observations/Thoughts .......
- I don't know if the Pens will make the Playoffs or not this season but they are going to have to play much better more consistently to do so ...... their best games have been the ones where they played with the most structure and positionally sound, the worst games they were more helter/skelter.
- The PP has been atrocious ...... they haven't scored a PPG in 12 games going 0-34 and Tristan Jarry has scored more goals in the last 12 games than the PP unit has ....... the star players seem to be deferring to each other and just passing the puck around the perimeter instead of getting shots on net ...... generally when the PP is not working you either change players or change the structure but I think the keys here may really be to simplify things, get more shots on net and get more traffic in front of the net looking for screens, deflections, and rebounds to knock in .... the idea is to create chaos, make the defenders move out of position, and get scoring opportunities ...... they may have to change some players and structure to do that ...... if the PP was even average they may have won 3-4 more games, a big difference.
- Bottom 6 ...... I think the additions that Dubas made did strengthen the bottom 6 ...... last year the bottom 6 were bad both offensively and defensively ...... this year up until 3-4 games ago the bottom 6 was very slightly better offensively and a lot better defensively than last season ..... up until that time the Goal Differential/60 minutes for the bottom 6 (GF/60 - GA/60) last season was a minus 0.09 while this year it had been a plus 0.67 meaning last years bottom 6 gave up more goals than they scored while this season up until 3-4 games ago, the bottom 6 had scored more goals than they gave up mainly because this years bottom 6 had been much better defensively ....... the problem more recently has been injuries to both bottom 6 and top 6 players (Rust, Rakell, Acciari, Nieto, Hinastoza) that has necessitated moving some bottom 6 players to the top 6 (DOC and briefly Zohorna) and replacing bottom 6 players with AHL players (Harkins, Kopponen, Nylander) and Carter ...... this has weakened our bottom 6 ..... we have a problem with quality depth at the forward position and when injuries hit, the team is much weaker ...... L3 with DOC-Eller-Zohorna was really coming around and L4 was very solid defensively and a real asset on the PK but injuries have changed all that in a negative way ..... let's see what happens when the injuries heal.
- Top 6 ..... Sid's line has been one of the best in the league ...... Geno's line started the year very strong with Malkin and Smith seeming to mesh well and although Rakell hadn't scored a goal this year, he was getting a lot of good scoring chances and playing well defensively ..... then Rakell gets hurt, Smith's play drops way off and Geno tends some back toward bad Geno and L2 isn't nearly as effective ..... they need to get Rakell back, Smith to up his game, and Geno not trying to do everything himself and to stay structured.
- Another decision that Dubas had to make in the off season was what goalies to sign and although it is still relatively early in the season, our goalies so far have been outstanding ..... Jarry's advanced stats are top 10 and Ned has been playing very well when called upon, even our third goalie was solid in a couple games he played..... we'll see if this keeps up as the season progresses.
- D-men ....... Graves has had some problems making the change from the NJD's system to the Pens system and hasn't looked as good as I expected but I think he is better than Dumoulin was last year, will hopefully improve with time/experience with the Pens and be a solid top 4 D-man, plus sometimes it can also be a little tough getting used to playing with Letang ..... Pettersson, on the other hand, has been very good this season so far and continues to get better ...... Karlsson and Letang are liked by some and disliked by others and certainly they both have pros and cons that can be debated ..... put me in the like them group as I think overall the pros far outweigh the cons ...... one can argue that the Pens should be rebuilding and getting rid of Letang (and others) and should not have traded for Karlsson but the decision was made , rightly or wrongly, to support the core and so getting Karlsson made sense (got an excellent player and allowed us to dump bad contracts of Granlund, Petry, Rutta) ....... the third line defense has been interesting, started the year with POJ/Ruhwedel and is now Shea/Ludvig ....... I like the Shea/Ludvig pairing but think POJ will get another chance after his rehab stint at WBS ..... if that doesn't work out POJ may be on the trade block.
- One comment on the recent TB game, maybe not a big deal but ..... we were down 3-0 with about 4 minutes to play and got a 5 on 3 PP, we didn't score on the 5 on 3 nor on the remaining 5 on 4 ...... we had to score two goals on that PP sequence to have any chance to tie the game ...... why not pull the goalie on the 5 on 3 and make it a 6 on 3 and then 6 on 4 after the 6 on 3 ran out ?
- Florida Panthers next up tonight ......
