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You hear it all the time, it's easier to change the coach than to change all the players. It is true, moving one guy is way easier than moving multiple roster players. The Penguins changed that one guy officially yesterday with the hiring of Mike Johnston.
His hiring will impact all Penguins players, but it might impact some more than others. After letting the hiring sink in for a bit I started to think about the player it will help out the most next season. That player is Kris Letang.
If you look at the reasons why Letang has "struggled" in recent memory one of his major issues has been his health. Last year was a lost cause on the health front. Letang missed the start of the season with a knee injury, missed another chunk of time with an elbow infection, and then followed that up with the news of his stroke. Given the amount of health issues he experienced last year it would make sense that he was off his game a bit (although scored a career high 11 goals in 37 games).
The other significant variable was his head coach, Dan Bylsma. Bylsma was/is famous for his very long stretch passes that leave his defensemen on an island when they have the puck in their own end. If the stretch passes aren't there the defensemen has to buy more time. A guy like Letang can buy more time because of his great skating ability but it doesn't always buy enough time. The result can sometimes lead to a very bad turnover. This result happened and happened too often to Letang.
Now Letang isn't free from blame, no siree, but most times he was trying to make an actual hockey play, his counterparts would just smash it high off the glass and regroup. To me the smashing it high off the glass was the bigger problem because it was viewed as an acceptable outcome. Instead of creating more situations where skilled players (or any players) could make plays, the Penguins stuck with the script and "got to their game".
Bylsma's breakout put tons and tons of stress on the defensemen because their outlets were usually just each other. Think about it from a football standpoint, the Penguins consistently would send all of their receivers deep down the field leaving just the QB and the RB alone to fend for themselves. If all the receivers are covered, options are limited at that point. This setup failed the very skilled Letang and it certainly failed the lesser skilled guys like Orpik and Scuderi.
Enter Mike Johnston. You will not be seeing the one dimensional stretch passes anymore as the go to breakout. What you will see is a unit moving forward together via 10 foot passes. Penguins skilled defensemen will have the opportunity to make plays with their feet as well as their passing, all the while having puck support. This seems like a pretty simple fix and that is because it is a simple fix and always was. This is why you hear Rutherford and company consistently bringing up "adjustments". This is a simple adjustment, but one that was never made.
Johnston's team is going to be big on zone exits and zone entries and the best way to maintain possession while transitioning through both of those neutral zone phases is to have puck support at all times. Having a forward flat footed on the blue line for a baby chip into the zone does not accomplish this with enough regularity. Sure sometimes the Penguins would catch the other team sleep walking and the forward on the far blue line could chip the puck to the middle to a streaking forward, but that was the exception to the rule not the norm.
Johnston's philosophy is not going to eliminate the dump and chase, that isn't realistic as there will always be situations in hockey where you don't have any other option. What Johnston's philosophy will do is make that a last resort instead of a go to option.
Kris Letang is still a very good player, he is still a very good defender contrary some peoples belief. Kris Letang has struggled with his puck management lately and that should be helped significantly with a new structure in place.
I still have my doubts about Letang's ability on the power play but the Penguins should always have plenty of other options to do that job anyways. Letang is a force at even strength and does a nice job killing penalties which is good enough for me.
I look for a healthy Kris Letang to have a tremendous season coming up and a lot of that will have to do with Johnston's approach.
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A lot of people are still skeptical of Letang's 7.25M cap hit but moving forward you will start to see that the skilled players are going to get paid under this new CBA. You can't hide the cap hits anymore.
For years the Penguins have had both Crosby and Malkin making 8.7M per year. They were both so great so early on that the Penguins did not have the luxury of getting a bridge contract out of them. What they do have is their UFA deals at a very manageable cap hit (8.7/9.5M). The teams that have to pay their superstars now are going to see cap hits that we haven't yet seen before.
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Matt Niskanen has been a popular guy in the new negotiating period that started yesterday. He has been contacted by as many as 12 teams. His price range is right about where most people had it, in the ballpark of 7 years 40M. Minnesota and Detroit are amongst the teams that have contacted him.
With the hiring of Mike Johnston I wouldn't anticipate the agents of Tanner Glass, Taylor Pyatt, Joe Vitale, and Deryk Engelland to be receiving any phone calls from the 412 area code.
Although, Deryk Engelland has been contacted by as many as 6(!) teams. My advice to Rutherford is to make a note of those 6 teams and get a Don Draper-like Rob Scuderi sales pitch ready for them.
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Poll results from yesterday
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