The Penguins continue bank standings points in order to avoid the dreaded second wild card slot. Over the weekend they were able to defeat the Dallas Stars by a score of 3-2. It was another game where even-strength scoring was limited and Matt Murray was excellent. Pittsburgh has earned at least a point in 11 out of the 13 games in March. They are two points behind the Islanders for second place in the division. They remain three back of Washington for the division lead. All three teams have played the same number of games (76).
Jared McCann was the star offensively for the Penguins. He scored the Penguins lone goal at even-strength and it was his excellent effort while shorthanded that led to the game winning goal.
When you deploy players on the penalty kill that have the ability to skate and make plays with the puck the chances of cashing in offensively go way up. Both McCann and Teddy Blueger fit the description and it ended up winning the game for the Penguins.
Matt Murray stopped 29 out of 31 shots. It is the fourth consecutive game he has been .935 or better. His all-situations save percentage for March is .933. He’s been the Penguins best player for this latest stretch of hockey. Instead of the Penguins worrying about making the playoffs they are in a spot where they can think about what spot would be most ideal for them. Personally, I believe finishing second or third in the division and playing the Islanders would be a best case scenario for the Penguins.
After going on a points rampage Sidney Crosby has settled into a little bit of a cold patch. He only has one assist in the team’s last five games. There is no cause for concern. This is part of the natural ebb and flow of a season which impacts even the best players on the planet.
Mike Sullivan should think about how to get Justin Schultz going. In 12 of the 19 games since coming back he has not been above 50% in his CF%.
Schultz isn’t at his best playing out of his own end. He is a puck mover and is offensively minded. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the Penguins are going to do to get him going. It is likely that they don’t do anything. Even with Olli Maatta healthy enough to make a return to the lineup it isn’t a guarantee that he will be in the lineup. It is either him or Marcus Pettersson who will be on the outside looking in and right now the Pettersson-Gudbranson pairing is doing good work on the bottom pairing. The answer to this issue is obvious to pretty much anybody who follows this team. Hubris will likely get in the way. In a perfect world this is what I would experiment with to get the most out of every player on the defense:
Maatta-Letang
Dumoulin-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
Realistically:
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta/Pettersson-Schultz
Johnson-Gudbranson
Tonight the Penguins will face the New York Rangers. Four of their next six games will be against New York and Detroit which is a nice change of pace from the strength of schedule they’ve been facing the last few weeks.
Thanks for reading!
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