The Penguins haven't been winning games and now they have a pretty daunting back to back situation.
Today they'll square off against one of the Western Conference powerhouses in St. Louis. On Sunday they'll take on the #fancycats of South Florida who are on the cusp of bumping the Boston Bruins out of the playoff picture.
Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Tribune has been led to believe this is a big weekend as far as the front office is concerned
“We’re going to be watching the next two games as closely as we’ve watched any games this year.”
That was how one member of the Penguins front office described the team’s upcoming back-to-back set Saturday at St. Louis and at home Sunday against Florida.
We’re there.
Nobody who has a hand in personnel decisions is happy. This much was made very clear to me on Friday.
General manager Jim Rutherford, I learned, did not travel with the team. Instead, he spent the day Friday on the phone, exploring various trade angles.
Nothing is imminent, but I’m told Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury are the only names not in play.
The Penguins should definitely be exploring all possibilities because that is something that should always be done.
Whether the Penguins get blown out or win convincingly the next two games shouldn't have an impact on potential big moves they want to make as a franchise. These are things that should already be decided upon. These two games shouldn't influence big decisions. If so that is silly. Make decisions with the head, not the heart.
Trades aren't the only way to change things up. You could always change up the lines and I think that is something that should be explored.
I would go with something along these lines:
Perron-Crosby-Hornqvist
Kunitz-Malkin-Bennett
Comeau-Spaling-Downie
Adams-Sutter-Lapierre.
Sutter deserves the demotion and seeing what Spaling can do as a third line center seems like a smart thing to do. Kunitz and Malkin have done really well in the past and it is also time to see Bennett away from Sutter for an extended period of time.
Some don't believe that Chris Kunitz is still a top six winger, that is fine. Just understand if you are holding other players to that same standard Patric Hornqvist isn't one either.
Also, there is no denying that Blake Comeau has been a very nice surprise with his goal total while playing with Evgeni Malkin, but this isn't an inseparable duo.
Comeau has been Malkin's most common linemate at even strength this year with 353 minutes played together. A CF% of 50.9% together isn't on the high end when we are talking about Evgeni Malkin.
Beau Bennett (85 minutes) and Chris Kunitz (74 minutes) have much smaller sample sizes with Malkin this year but there is evidence from the past that points to this being a good match.
Chris Kunitz has played 937 minutes with Malkin in the past 4 years and they have a CF% of 58.7%. Kunitz has been Malkin's second most common linemate during this time period. Only James Neal had more time with Geno.
In his career Beau Bennett has played 180 minutes with Malkin they have a CF% of 59.6%. Obviously injuries have limited his sample size.
And just for context, Beau Bennett isn't the only one dragged down by Brandon Sutter. Malkin and Sutter have played together for 193 minutes at even strength and have a terrible CF% of 46.9% together. It is so incredibly hard to make Geno that bad on the possession front. Malkin is a one man possession machine.
With all that said, are changes on the horizon? We'll see.
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