Poll Results
Forty-seven percent of voters believe Chris Kunitz should skate with Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis. The number had been as high as 53 percent. The drop in the overall percentage is reflected in a jump for the option of using Kunitz on Crosby’s line sometimes and sometimes on Evgeni Malkin’s. That option moved up from 14 percent or so to 19 percent.
Thirty-three percent of the vote was made in favor of keeping Kunitz with Malkin and James Neal. Adding Crosby changes outlooks, even though the Malkin line was arguably the best in the league a season ago.
When the second and third possible responses are combined, over half of voters (52 percent) believe Kunitz should either stick with Malkin or switch back-and-forth situationally between the top two units.
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“Crosby with the puck behind the net, 15 seconds left on the power play. Crosby’s quick pass to Kunitz goes off a skate. Malkin’s got it on the half boards, no room to shoot. He passes it back out to James Neal at the point.”
Neal, Mr. James Neal? The man who led the NHL in power-play goals last year with 18?
Yes, you heard right. The Penguins are practicing their power play with James Neal as a “rover” at one of the points, along with Kris Letang.
On the surface, the move is a bit of a head scratcher.
Why move the NHL’s leading power-play scorer further away from the net?
The Pens finished fifth in the league with a 19.7 conversion rate on the man advantage, yet yielded 10 short-handed scores.
In 2011-12, Neal scored 14 goals while the Pens enjoyed 5-on-4 advantages, according to
Behind The Net.
The average distance of his goals checks in at 27.4 feet. By comparison, here are some of the other averages:
Neal (14 goals, 27.4 feet)
Malkin (11 goals, 32.9)
Staal (4 goals, 27.6)
Letang (4 goals, 46.7)
Crosby (2 goals, 30.6)
Steve Sullivan (4 goals, 43.1)
Matt Niskanen (3 goals, 50.5)
Chris Kunitz (6 goals, 18.7)
Aside from the obvious team-need of a net-front presence other than Kunitz, Neal’s shooting range of 27.4 feet is the second closest to the net.
Can he score from long range consistently? Can he handle being a so-called rover? How well can he do chasing down opponents and limiting short-handed opportunities when they inevitably occur?
Those are but a few questions to ponder with the move.
Giving Kris Letang the responsibility as the last man back is an entirely different story.
Still, with so many potential negatives surrounding the moves, there has to be a good reason why the team is taking a look, right?
I can think of two reasons right off the bat and their names are Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Coach Bylsma likely did a lot of soul-searching after breaking up Crosby and Malkin on the man advantage in the playoffs, even going so far as to take Crosby off the no. 1 unit. This could be a make-or-break season for the coach and with the two best players healthy he may need to get past the first round to keep his job.
The move with Neal at the point could be as much about freeing up Sid and Geno as trying a power forward with little or no experience at the point.
Neal, for his part, has come across as a fragile player at times. He scored one goal in 20 regular season games after coming to Pittsburgh via trade. He also had a reputation of being a fast scorer out of the gates, only to cool off down the stretch – until last season anyhow.
What coach Bylsma has to weigh is whether the improved comfort level of Crosby and Malkin is worth whatever chances that Neal’s production might fall off with the switch.
Are the two big guy better off on the half walls and behind the net? Absolutely.
Is James Neal better off closer to the net than as a roving point man? Absolutely.
The Penguins don’t have much time to arrange the power play before Saturday but one thing is certain: There will likely be changes if the man advantage goes 0-for-whatever against the Flyers.
Is this much ado about nothing? Boston won the Stanley Cup with a 20th-ranked unit.
If it comes down to a choice between keeping Crosby and Malkin comfortable over Neal then so be it. Hopefully coach Bylsma finds a way to keep the NHL’s leading power-play goal getter happy, too.
Josh Yohe of the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review does a nice job breaking down the potential changes here.
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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