The Pittsburgh Penguins lost to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night by a score of 3-1.
This was not a good loss for Pittsburgh. Colorado is the worst possession team in the entire NHL among teams that are actually trying to be good. Only the Buffalo Sabres are worse than them and they want to be worse than everybody.
The Penguins were outplayed in the first period but dominated even strength play in both periods 2 and 3.
*Data courtesy of
Natural Stat Trick*
Player for player the Penguins were the better team.
The Avalanche went back to the same well that had them find success last year. Great goaltending and a high shooting percentage. We all know that it isn’t sustainable over the long term but in a one game sample size it can certainly be good enough and it was last night.
How about Kris Letang though? An absolute beast last night. On the ice for 36 shot attempts for and only 9 against. With Mark Giordano out for the year Letang is one of the heavy Norris Trophy favorites.
The new guys (Lovejoy, Cole) played well in their Penguins debut, but the real test will come this weekend against some prime competition.
In a game against a lesser opponent with solid possession numbers you would hope that you could get some secondary scoring, but once again if it isn’t Sid or Geno making things happen, it is nobody making things happen.
Nick Spaling and Beau Bennett do not have points in their last seven games.
Max Lapierre has one point in his last nine games, but that is the only point he has in 16 games with Pittsburgh. Still waiting on this “grit” factor from him as well. Since coming over from St. Louis only Zach Sill (43.7) and Craig Adams (44.2) have had a worse Score-Adjusted Fenwick on the team than Max Lapierre (45.3).
Steve Downie has two points in his last ten games.
Brandon Sutter does have four points in his last ten games but when he’s the guy you are hanging your hat on for depth scoring it isn’t saying all that much.
Daniel Winnik has 6 points in his last 10 games (split between Toronto and Pittsburgh) and that is a pretty good rate for a third line player.
While there is still time left in the regular season I would like to see the coaching staff play around with the potential of Nick Spaling playing in the third line center role.
Winnik-Spaling-Bennett
Lapierre-Sutter-Downie
Lean heavily on the top nine while giving that fourth line spot duty. If you want to get Sutter more minutes just keep giving him some PK time. He seems to generate his best offense during that game situation anyways. Pretending Sutter is a third line center is only going to hurt the team moving forward. Need to try something different before playoffs. If Spaling doesn’t work so be it, try Winnik instead.
Penalty kill hasn’t been firing on all cylinders lately and part of that is because of goaltending. Not because Fleury is playing poorly but he just couldn’t sustain his crazy .936 shorthanded save percentage he had at the beginning of the year. Just to highlight how good he has been shorthanded I will compare him to the two main Vezina candidates this season.
Price and Rinne are significantly better at even strength but this is one area where Fleury can claim excellence.
Fleury’s .913 shorthanded save percentage is still second best in the league among goaltender who have played at least 200 minutes shorthanded.
However, Fleury’s play regressed and so have the penalty killing results. The only way to maintain prior levels of success is to get better at shot suppression. Pittsburgh is currently 27th overall in Corsi Against per 60 while shorthanded. This needs to get better or Fleury needs to reach those crazy save percentage numbers from earlier in the year. That isn’t fair to Fleury though.
Simon Despres and the Anaheim Ducks are up next. Should be a good game.
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