I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the Penguins lines from years past using some of the modern data and visualizations we use to analyze the current players. Today, I decided to take a look back at a contender for one of the Penguins best third lines of all-time. We will look back to 2009 at the famed Cooke-Staal-Kennedy line.
You had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin near the height of their powers doing their thing, but without that third line taking on some difficult matchups there’s no way the team wins the Stanley Cup. Was this actually true? Were they *that* good? Let’s take a gander
We’ll start with the anchor of the line, the former second overall pick, Jordan Staal.
First things first, understand that the projected WAR percentage is heavily influenced by the finishing percentile in these calculations. Nobody will ever mistake Jordan Staal for being a gifted goal scorer. His value has always been his ability to play against the best in the league at even-strength and hold his own. You can see this was the case in the 2008-09 season. He did contribute to positively to offensive chances even if he wasn’t gifted at it. Surprisingly, the PK% is pretty low, a lot lower than I thought it would be. Ironically, one of the biggest goals in Penguins history is from this season and it was shorthanded. Scored by none other than Jordan Staal
I think this was one of the biggest crowd pops in the history of the Igloo and deservingly so. I don’t know if people remember, but trying to create offense against the 2007-09 Red Wings was a near impossible task. Detroit was up 2-1 in the game when they got this power play. I remember feeling like if they had scored on the power play the lead was insurmountable. To have Staal score that goal? Just an insane turn of events. Maybe the most important goal of the series.
Up next we have an underappreciated Tyler Kennedy... Kennedy. Boy did this guy get under the skin of some Penguins fans. I don’t think he ever got his proper due among the fan base as a whole. He was a very good third line player.
Like Jordan Staal he was very responsible defensively. The big difference is Kennedy was better shooting the puck. Some might say he did it too much, but he was a decent finisher. His skating was an asset and it is on full display with this forecheck which led to a very aestetically pleasing goal
He also scored the game winning goal in Game 6 to send the series to Detroit.
Last and least is Matt Cooke. I say that not only for his on-ice behavior, but his on-ice contributions were perhaps a little overrated.
I’m going to be honest I didn’t expect to see those EV offense and EV defense numbers so low. He was a very good penalty killer and his linemates ability to drive play via their defensive work opened things up for Cooke to contribute via goals and assists. This is how you get a functional line, though. Cooke’s weaknesses were mitigated by the other two’s strengths. Put all three together and you have yourself a highly functional championship caliber third line.
I tried to look up a Matt Cooke highlight, but I didn’t have the patience or the effort to sift through all the dirty hits which pop up in the results way before any hockey related plays do.
So there you have it. The Penguins third line during their 2009 Stanley Cup run was indeed a very good line. I’m going to try and do this same thing with some of the other historic lines throughout the current era.
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