The Capitals celebrate Joel Ward’s decisive goal on Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
I could, conceivably, complain about the weather.
I could decry the bitter cold we’ve been having, the endless snow and sleet, the ice that caused me to slam hard on my back a couple weeks ago. I could shake my tiny, insignificant fist at the sky and curse it from dawn to dusk.
But nothing would change.
I could complain about how the NHL governs its game, too.
I could break down the video, Zapruder-style, of Alexander Ovechkin’s vicious, cowardly, stick assault on Kris Letang’s leg from behind Tuesday night at Consol Energy Center, one that went wholly unpenalized as the Capitals proceeded to put down the Penguins yet again, 3-1.
I could show it to you right here …
Like I said … vicious, cowardly. And wholly unpenalized. Four officials were on the ice, all empowered to call majors, and the puck was right there, yet not a single right arm was raised. Nor was there any ensuing conference among those officials, as we’d seen impressively Sunday in Chicago, to double-check why Letang might have been crumpled up along the end boards. Or if anyone among them happened to notice one of the sport’s most visible stars raising his stick like a golf club and hacking down from the heavens at the back of an opponent’s leg.
I could complain about those guys, call for firings or a rewriting of the rule book.
But I’ve done that. So many others, including those with bigger fists, have done that. To no avail.
I could complain about the NHL Department of Hilarious Inconsistency, which probably will do nothing about this. Florida’s Dmitry Kulikovsubmarined Dallas’ Tyler Seguin over the weekend and got four stinking games. Seguin, one of the league’s top snipers, will miss 4-6 weeks. These clowns looked at that barbaric, senseless play, and thought, eh, four games sounds about right.
I’ve written that one, too. To no avail.
I could howl and protest that Gary Bettman, the commissioner who somehow has managed to have the world’s best game run by the world’s worst league, should be fired.
I could focus all the ire on Ovechkin, who too often blurs his natural brilliance with this kind of garbage. This wasn’t the first, won’t be the last.
And you can be certain from what he told me on this night he learned nothing …
So the puck was there in Letang’s skates and it seemed like a swell idea to take that graphite stick and chop down anything in his path as if it were a California redwood?
I could rip Ovechkin. But that’s been done. To no avail. And besides, the larger blame lies with the league that employs officials that allowed sticks to swing all night long at Consol. Yes, both teams.
Pittsburgh penalty, two minutes for decapitation!
There’s just no point. So I won’t bother. I’ll resign myself, as so many who love hockey have done, to watching this potentially spectacular sport in whatever form it’s available to us. That could be the graceful, garbage-free Olympics. It could be the sport you appreciate, or even participate in, at the amateur level. And sure, it could be that maybe once-a-month NHL matchup that’s got it all. Including, you know, more than a couple goals and no shot-blocking exhibitions.
But until that happens, I’m going to laser in on what ails your local team rather than the game as a whole. And the cold — check that, really cold — truth right now is that this team has three problems so much more sizable than Ovechkin or referees.
In no particular order:
1.They stink in their own division.
That’s 7-9-4 now, including 0-3 against these Capitals and a 10-1 disadvantage in goals. As the playoff picture is lining up, it might well be Pittsburgh-Washington, but it really wouldn’t matter if it was the Capitals, Rangers, Islanders … heck, even the failing Flyers have their number.
I asked Brooks Orpik if maybe his new team was getting into the Penguins’ heads …
He might have been uncharacteristically diplomatic with that one.
2.The Penguins’ biggest stars came up decidedly small in a big situation.
I’m not one for kneejerk reactions to mid-February hockey, but the fact is Consol’s crowd was very much brought to life — a rarity, don’t you know — by the Ovechkin assault, and the reaction from the home team to all that energy was … what? Chris Kunitz shoved Ovechkin once shortly thereafter, no one else mustered much physically or productively, Evgeni Malkin was shown up in a monstrous way by his longtime personal rival, and Sidney Crosby … man, he just disappeared.
I’m not being mean here. I noticed Blake Comeau maybe 10 times as much as Crosby.
Again, it’s one game, two points. But it shouldn’t go unnoticed that the Penguins were handed a playoff atmosphere and turtled. Including the players they can least afford to have crawl into a shell. It might not have been outright alarming, but it sure was unsettling.
3. The power play is embarrassing on a bazillion levels.
This will be my primary beef, actually, as it spans much further back than this night. The Penguins are now 0 for 16 over their past eight games, they’re now producing at 12.9 percent since Nov. 11 — 28th in the league — and it’s apparently causing Mike Johnston and his coaches to lose their minds.
Sunday in Chicago, Johnston and Rick Tocchet, the assistant who oversees the power play but perhaps not for long, decided to take Malkin off the top unit. Which would be tantamount to the Patriots tinkering with a slumping offense by supplanting Tom Brady. Or the Giants responding to pitching woes by sending Madison Bumgarner to the bullpen.
It’s idiotic. Sorry, there isn’t a kinder term for it.
But unlike the weather and NHL officiating, there is no credibility in complaining without offering solutions. So if you’ll pull a chair up to our big dry-erase board, here’s at least one …
Starting up top, I’d go totally fresh at the points.
Paul Martin is exceptional at keeping the puck in the zone, an underappreciated aspect of any power play. Each time the puck escapes, 15-30 precious seconds tick away. He’s also terrific at rapid-fire distribution once he gets it. No hesitation. No looking around. Possession, then pass. He’s no great shooter, but that isn’t needed from both point men.
Christian Ehrhoff can take care of that once he’s cleared to return from his concussion, which could be any day. No one on the roster, not even Malkin, delivers the off-wing one-timer with as much force, as much accuracy and, above all, down low, where forwards can pursue rebounds. I’ve heard Tocchet isn’t wild about Ehrhoff on the power play, but I’ve yet to hear a compelling explanation.
This leaves Letang off the top unit, of course, but that’s fine because he’s not as good as Martin at what Martin does, and he’s not as good as Ehrhoff at what Ehrhoff does. Yeah, I wrote from Edmonton that he’s a legit Norris Trophy candidate for his overall play, including his production. But he’s never been a power-play quarterback, which means he’s basically just another participant. Those are interchangeable parts. And if Malkin can be used on a second unit, so can Letang.
Planting Patric Hornqvist in front is so obvious I’ve already invested one sentence too many on it.
Not so for the other two forwards, who probably represent a combined 90 percent of the problem with this power play, including how they’re utilized.
Crosby is not a great half-wall distributor. And as anyone saw from that sad display on the final power play Tuesday, he doesn’t even seem to want to shoot from there anymore. In the broader scope, like Letang, he’s had a career to establish being a power-play quarterback and has yet to do it. At the same time, the half-wall is his home, and moving him dramatically would be overly ambitious. I’m OK with him staying put, but I’d urge two conditions:
1.Work behind the net on occasion.
This is a lost art all around the NHL — has anyone truly excelled at it since Andrew Brunette in Minnesota? — but Crosby can be pretty good back there. Show a different look. Get a different look. And while there, play a little catch with Malkin to remove the constant imbalance on the right.
2.Go through. Go through. Go through.
I could type this all day for emphasis, as it’s been that important to the Penguins’ successes and failures on the power play over the years. Far too often, Crosby makes a pass from that half-wall, then just waits for the play to unfold. That’s why the coaches felt compelled to put Hornqvist and Kunitz in front, because two bodies are needed there for a true man-advantage. That’s lousy. That shouldn’t happen. Watch Jaromir Jagr, a master on the half-wall, and you’ll see he’ll make the pass, then go through, either high or low, like a rabid shark. Crosby stays put.
Malkin is a better power-play performer than Crosby, largely because of his added versatility. And yet, for all he can do, he’s rarely been put into what just might be his best location to do damage, and that’s the high slot.
Think James Neal. He led the team in power-play goals year after year, and he shot from that spot exactly. It remains vacated.
Or, more recently, think of this goal over the weekend by Winnipeg’s Andrew Ladd, in which he systematically glided through a soft seam in the high slot, took a short pass from Toby Enstrom and just whipped the puck on net.
Neal is a great long-range shooter. Ladd is pretty good, too. Neither is a match for Malkin. And yet, Malkin has been mostly restricted to the left point, where it’s far easier for penalty-killing boxes to align with his shot. Or he’s just kind of … I don’t know, chaotically floated all over creation. That’s partially on the player, as with Crosby, but it’s also on the coaches.
Actually, a huge chunk of this is on the coaches, and I’m not comfortable thinking that way as a rule. The players are on the ice. They’ve got to perform. But deciding to split up Crosby and Malkin isn’t a solution. It’s punting on a solution. It’s throwing your arms up in disgust.
Tuesday brought more of the same. The Penguins had three measly power plays, and they performed without a clue on all three.
The first came with the score tied midway through the second period, and it opened with Malkin on the bench, even though the first faceoff was in the Washington zone. Crosby took the ice with Kunitz and David Perron, with Letang and Derrick Pouliot at the points. Malkin hit the ice 56 seconds later. Kunitz never left it.
The lone bright spot was that the high slot was finally occupied, this by Perron.
Right alignment, wrong guy.
Another power play came near the end of the second, still tied, same alignment. Only on this one, Kunitz whiffed in front of an open net. And Malkin took to the ice even later, with just 46 seconds left on the man-advantage.
The final power play came in the harried final minute, and the only meaningful chance was a badly shanked one-timer from Letang at the left dot that caromed all the way back to center ice.
The true definition of insanity isn’t trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results. It’s trying something dumber and expecting different results.
I’m flying to Bradenton this morning, so I honestly won’t complain about the weather. But I’ll cling to my right to complain about the most confounding power play in franchise history and how, if it isn’t fixed, all this talent will be flushed away in roughly the same amount of time it takes to maim someone and establish plausible deniability.
I think there's a larger problem for this team. They don't win enough 50-50 pucks and that's resulting in both a lack of quality possession and a really small number of power plays. The lack of reps on the power play makes it that much harder to fix things.
One consequence is that the Pens are a much more effective team in transition than they are on the cycle. They're like a great fast break team in basketball that sees a big fall off when they're forced into a half court offense.
I don't know if it's accurate, but it sure looks like Crosby is trying to prop everyone else up, especially Kunitz, instead of taking control and being a little pleasantly selfish for a change. The one thing I always appreciate about a player like Ovechkin is the unfaltering desire to score. Players of that caliber should be willing to take any small crack in the defense and rip a puck through it.
And...MY KINGDOM FOR SOME PHYSICALITY FROM THE DEFENSE! I don't know if I've ever seen a set of blue-liners spend so much time reaching for pucks from their knees rather than (even occasionally) physically removing opponent from puck. It's hockey...not basketball.
Yes to the needed physicality! I never thought I would miss Orpik so much. The problem is, I probably shouldn't miss him at all but I loved his play last night. But, in the long term, no way is he going to earn all of that contract.
tfftroy
2-18-2015, 12:36 am
What a frustrating, crazy game. Here's my question/comment regarding the power play. HCMJ has said that he believes in a more balanced attack on the PP. Two units capable of scoring, rather than one overloaded unit. Right? That seems to be what they have tried to do here with putting Malkin with his linemates. MJ might think he's doing something tricky or unique, but it just isn't the way the NHL works. I guess I'm just saying I don't think HE thinks he "benched" Malkin. But he practically has.
Here's my question: the real top unit, as originally constructed, was clicking at 40%. In the span of two months it went from historically lethal to historical awful. So WHAT HAPPENED? Injuries? Did they get cocky? Honestly DK. What happened? And not just to the PP but the whole offensive/neautral zone attack?
No, if you look at the numbers, their shooting percentage was abnormally sky high and unsustainable. That gave the illusion of a great power play when it really wasn't. So they were getting lucky and it led to cockiness.
tfftroy
2-18-2015, 10:11 am
Looking back over those first weeks, I wouldn't call it lucky. They were dangerous. They moved as a unit. They shot the puck! (There's a concept). They allowed lanes to open up before forcing the play. They may have had a high shooting % but that's because they were doing things that gave them great opportunities to burry the puck. And Malkin was drilling the puck from the side boards and point. Not necessarily luck. Though they say luck is indicative of hard work...
Windsor Spits
2-18-2015, 12:39 am
I keep emailing the league;
"Best sport. Worst league."
To no avail.
I know this is blasphemous....and I have even named my dog Sidney(huge fan). But after that last minute power play we just saw I would tell Sid to either shoot the puck, or HE can watch the power play from the bench. Every PP I get more and more frustrated watching this team.
Agreed that everyone needs to be held accountable for their play but how do you sit Sid during the PP? I like DK's idea of Sid moving behind, or even setting up, behind the net. If you want to get radical put him at the point for a few man advantages (not as a long term solution, obviously). At least he would put the puck on the net.
Ryan18
2-18-2015, 5:50 pm
Frustration speaking there. Benching Sid isn't a solution. Guy just needs to shoot. Absolutely no reason for the best player in the world to defer a shot to Kunitz. Or anybody for that matter.
doug.english
2-18-2015, 12:51 am
Good article and you are correct the Pens have far more problems that missed penalty calls and complaining about a lack of PP time. I hate when people focus on the wrong thing as the focus should be on the crappy PP and lack of overall scoring.
That said, I hope that the Pens are learning how to play playoff hockey and not focusing on the regular season. All that really matters is what happens come the playoffs. Hopefully this team and coaching staff figures it out by then but they sure seem to be making life harder than it needs to be by continuing to drop in the standings.
Letang off #1 PP is correct. Commented 2 months ago it would be HCMJ's toughest but most necessary move. That chip MUST fall sooner rather than later.
Substitute Pouliot for Ehrhoff and agree with you on balance. Pouliot is our top D-man entering zone (VASTLY underrated aspect of any top PP) and better lateral movement along blue line than Ehrhoff.
On Pouliot, picture a "baby-faced Gonchar" moonwalking the blue line.
bv10001
2-18-2015, 1:00 am
thank you dk for expressing in words all of my frustrations.. so many media reporters---who are apparently so surpreme to the fans that watch minute after minute after year after year of these penguins, but seem to dismiss our observations,-- are too easily tiptoeing around all of the points you make, even the opening couple paragrapghs pawned off as sarcasm but artfully made. In spite of my insistence that there are lots of positives, like playing neck and neck with very good teams and this still not being the playoffs, this game really angered me.. needed to win one.. right now, they dont pass the eye test.
Are any sports leagues well run? Maybe our expectations are the problem.
Sorry DK Neal's shot > Malkin's shot, James Neal made the Pens PP elite and the current coaching staff hasn't found a way to replicate that level of performance. Without Neal the PP returns were middling to poor, remember when everyone wanted to ship Mike Yeo down the Ohio.
The PP was good with success rates approaching the level of the last three years was when Gonchar was quarterbacking it in 06-07, 07-08. Just run the overload, Crosby on the goal line, Malkin at half boards, and then Pouliot and whoever as the D-Men, and another forward. The Pens have been essentially doing this out of different set-ups already.
Numbers of times James Neal has scored 30+ goals: 1
Numbers of times Evgeni Malkin has scored 30+ goals: 4
Most goals scored in a season by James Neal: 40
Most goals scored in a a season by Evegni Malkin: 50
Where's your argument?
Richii81
2-18-2015, 9:19 am
Neal has an excellent wrist shot where Malkin has a very good wrist shot and a bomb of a slapshot which makes him a better overall a better threat shooting.
Richii81
2-18-2015, 9:20 am
Neal has an excellent wrist shot where Malkin has a very good wrist shot and a bomb of a slapshot which makes him a better overall a better threat shooting.
Malkin is obviously better, in just about every other facet, including staying on the ice, but did you watch the last three season? All the set face off plays for Neal, a PP focused on getting him one timers. Only Ovechkin, and Matt Moulson, scored more PP goals than Neal from 11-14.
BK
2-18-2015, 1:19 am
So are we still spoiled fans after not being overly impressed by beating Edmonton and Calgary?
I hate saying I told you so, except when it comes to hockey and being able to see these results coming from a mile away.
This team will continue to be a fraud until there's a major shakeup personnel wise, and when for the first time in 5 years someone other than the players control that locker room.
What I'm witnessing with the PP is worse than anything I ever witnessed under Bylsma, and watching Sid out there on the PP freelancing is beyond embarrassing, because it's undermining the coaches. Their solution? Make Malkin play second fiddle while Kunitz gets rewarded.
Oh, and trying to force chemistry between 71 & 72 just to placate 87 & 14 has gotten to the point where for the first time in my life, I'm starting to loathe the logo because I feel the organization is more interested in making certain players happy rather than doing everything it can to win, even if it means ruffling some feathers. I've been watching the same stupid, undisciplined hockey for years now, and I'm sick of it.
Trading for a d-man or even a forward won't fix a thing until the root causes are dealt with. At this point, Johnston and Tochett are no more than chaperones. Their miserable record against division opponents is proof positive of exactly that, because all I've seen is the same mistakes over and over again.
Agree that all egos MUST be set aside to have any sniff of a Cup run. HCMJ began inching in right direction but then pulled back as even BOLDER moves called for.
Geno off #1 PP is not one of those necessary moves.
fried003
2-18-2015, 7:56 am
Correct on all points.
There are some very talented players on the roster but it's a mediocre team.
Dejan Kovacevic
2-18-2015, 8:22 am
Absolute positions tend to be self-defeating.
Mark M.
2-18-2015, 3:14 pm
Well said, you're exactly right!
DJ
2-18-2015, 1:21 am
". . . and how, if it isn’t fixed, all this talent will be flushed away in roughly the same amount of time it takes to maim someone and establish plausible deniability."
The Ovi play was not near as dirty as what Downie did to get ejected. Deserving of a penalty, but it's hockey. If he doesn't lose balance and slam into the boards nobody is talking about Ovi. They are talking about a missed call.
Great column, DK. Surely the coaches can see these issues as clearly as the rest of us. I understand taking Sid and Letang off the top power play will not be popular but at this point they need to accept that maybe it's better for the team. And play Geno as much as possible. Keep him and Letang on the ice. They're both trying to make something happen. I love Sid but something's up with him. He won't shoot the puck. Thank goodness for MAF. I really hope the coaches can make some adjustments and get the Pens back on track.
I'm not sure why my name didn't come up. Sorry about that!
DJ
2-18-2015, 1:38 am
Sid has (and will have) no passing lanes as long as he's stationary. Can't happen.
Letang has been "trying to make something happen" on PP for years. Results count. Needs off #1 unit and you'll be happy with result.
Jay Baileys
2-18-2015, 8:06 am
Letang can't hit the net on the PP, ever! They backdoored him against the Hawks late and over the top, last night wide and out of the zone. THE DUDE CANT HIT THE NET.
theplanisworking
2-18-2015, 1:52 am
Heart.
This team does not have enough heart.
And, come playoff time, if they dont find it, one and done awaits.
Simply unacceptable the division record.
But hey, carry on fellas.
I have to admit, this game made me angrier and more upset than any in a long time.
Yes, Ovechkin was allowed to get away with an incredibly dirty (and blatant) two-hander. And (once again, as all too often in the NHL) because the refs refused to call an obvious cheap-shot penalty, the game sank into all kinds of stupid garbage afterwards.
Ovechkin should be suspended. He is a great player, but all too frequently indulges in dangerous, dirty play.
That said, guess what? The NHL is not going to change. The refs are all too often going to make really terrible calls, and non-calls (and never ever have to answer for their really poor officiating).
This was a game the Pens NEEDED to win, especially after Ovechkin's slash. That is the only way the Pens can punish him for being a cheap-shot artist.
The only penalties they should've taken after that slash were goaltender interference penalties from driving and crashing Holtby's net so hard that he wouldn't know what was coming at him.
They absolutely wasted a terrific performance from Fleury.
And, I wish that the coaches would realize that Letang needs to be off the top PP. Letang is a great player, having an absolutely terrific year; but he is a big part of the problem with the PP. He doesn't distribute the puck well, or quickly enough. He doesn't shoot when he should; and, when he does shoot, he all too often misses the net by 10 feet or more. He's not the only problem with the PP, but I do think he's the biggest problem.
On Letang -- bingo! Would only add he's not a precision tape-to-tape passer, which is HUGE and only magnified on PP where split seconds really do matter.
But hey, not to pile on or anything.
Julie
2-18-2015, 7:30 am
Great read! I feel like I'm going insane watching this team!!
Honestly, what purpose does Tochett serve? For at least a year he mouthed off on the radio about how easily he could fix the PP, but now that the decisions are actually his to make, he's actually participated in making it worse.
Splitting the units up smacks of desperation and does nothing more than make things a lot more complicated than they need to be. Show some balls and put the right guys in the right spot and quit worrying about hurting people's feelings.
And for the love of God, please end this Kunitz nightmare one way or the other.
Honestly, from things I've heard HCMJ say. I think he genuinely believes that two units can work. He has stated that if the first unit can't get it going by the 1:00 mark, the second one deserves a chance. You don't put a weak second until out if that's what you believe. Ergo Malkin as center. I don't agree with him but that appears to be the logic. To everyone else who runs the PP with only one strong unit, it looks like MJ benched Geno. But I don't think MJ sees it that way, right wrong or indifferent.
And I have to agree. Kuni just looks bad still. He makes bad decisions and isn't doing the necessary things to free up Sid or Perron. I know we are all hating on Sid and he needs to produce. But Kuni really is getting in his way (or not getting in his way in the right ways).
February 18, 2015
Column: Bigger issue than an idiot-run league
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Penguins
The Capitals celebrate Joel Ward’s decisive goal on Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
I could, conceivably, complain about the weather.
I could decry the bitter cold we’ve been having, the endless snow and sleet, the ice that caused me to slam hard on my back a couple weeks ago. I could shake my tiny, insignificant fist at the sky and curse it from dawn to dusk.
But nothing would change.
I could complain about how the NHL governs its game, too.
I could break down the video, Zapruder-style, of Alexander Ovechkin’s vicious, cowardly, stick assault on Kris Letang’s leg from behind Tuesday night at Consol Energy Center, one that went wholly unpenalized as the Capitals proceeded to put down the Penguins yet again, 3-1.
I could show it to you right here …
Like I said … vicious, cowardly. And wholly unpenalized. Four officials were on the ice, all empowered to call majors, and the puck was right there, yet not a single right arm was raised. Nor was there any ensuing conference among those officials, as we’d seen impressively Sunday in Chicago, to double-check why Letang might have been crumpled up along the end boards. Or if anyone among them happened to notice one of the sport’s most visible stars raising his stick like a golf club and hacking down from the heavens at the back of an opponent’s leg.
I could complain about those guys, call for firings or a rewriting of the rule book.
But I’ve done that. So many others, including those with bigger fists, have done that. To no avail.
I could complain about the NHL Department of Hilarious Inconsistency, which probably will do nothing about this. Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov submarined Dallas’ Tyler Seguin over the weekend and got four stinking games. Seguin, one of the league’s top snipers, will miss 4-6 weeks. These clowns looked at that barbaric, senseless play, and thought, eh, four games sounds about right.
I’ve written that one, too. To no avail.
I could howl and protest that Gary Bettman, the commissioner who somehow has managed to have the world’s best game run by the world’s worst league, should be fired.
Done that one, too. Didn’t make any friends, either. Didn’t matter. No avail.
I could focus all the ire on Ovechkin, who too often blurs his natural brilliance with this kind of garbage. This wasn’t the first, won’t be the last.
And you can be certain from what he told me on this night he learned nothing …
So the puck was there in Letang’s skates and it seemed like a swell idea to take that graphite stick and chop down anything in his path as if it were a California redwood?
I could rip Ovechkin. But that’s been done. To no avail. And besides, the larger blame lies with the league that employs officials that allowed sticks to swing all night long at Consol. Yes, both teams.
Pittsburgh penalty, two minutes for decapitation!
There’s just no point. So I won’t bother. I’ll resign myself, as so many who love hockey have done, to watching this potentially spectacular sport in whatever form it’s available to us. That could be the graceful, garbage-free Olympics. It could be the sport you appreciate, or even participate in, at the amateur level. And sure, it could be that maybe once-a-month NHL matchup that’s got it all. Including, you know, more than a couple goals and no shot-blocking exhibitions.
But until that happens, I’m going to laser in on what ails your local team rather than the game as a whole. And the cold — check that, really cold — truth right now is that this team has three problems so much more sizable than Ovechkin or referees.
In no particular order:
1. They stink in their own division.
That’s 7-9-4 now, including 0-3 against these Capitals and a 10-1 disadvantage in goals. As the playoff picture is lining up, it might well be Pittsburgh-Washington, but it really wouldn’t matter if it was the Capitals, Rangers, Islanders … heck, even the failing Flyers have their number.
I asked Brooks Orpik if maybe his new team was getting into the Penguins’ heads …
He might have been uncharacteristically diplomatic with that one.
2. The Penguins’ biggest stars came up decidedly small in a big situation.
I’m not one for kneejerk reactions to mid-February hockey, but the fact is Consol’s crowd was very much brought to life — a rarity, don’t you know — by the Ovechkin assault, and the reaction from the home team to all that energy was … what? Chris Kunitz shoved Ovechkin once shortly thereafter, no one else mustered much physically or productively, Evgeni Malkin was shown up in a monstrous way by his longtime personal rival, and Sidney Crosby … man, he just disappeared.
I’m not being mean here. I noticed Blake Comeau maybe 10 times as much as Crosby.
Again, it’s one game, two points. But it shouldn’t go unnoticed that the Penguins were handed a playoff atmosphere and turtled. Including the players they can least afford to have crawl into a shell. It might not have been outright alarming, but it sure was unsettling.
3. The power play is embarrassing on a bazillion levels.
This will be my primary beef, actually, as it spans much further back than this night. The Penguins are now 0 for 16 over their past eight games, they’re now producing at 12.9 percent since Nov. 11 — 28th in the league — and it’s apparently causing Mike Johnston and his coaches to lose their minds.
Sunday in Chicago, Johnston and Rick Tocchet, the assistant who oversees the power play but perhaps not for long, decided to take Malkin off the top unit. Which would be tantamount to the Patriots tinkering with a slumping offense by supplanting Tom Brady. Or the Giants responding to pitching woes by sending Madison Bumgarner to the bullpen.
It’s idiotic. Sorry, there isn’t a kinder term for it.
But unlike the weather and NHL officiating, there is no credibility in complaining without offering solutions. So if you’ll pull a chair up to our big dry-erase board, here’s at least one …
Starting up top, I’d go totally fresh at the points.
Paul Martin is exceptional at keeping the puck in the zone, an underappreciated aspect of any power play. Each time the puck escapes, 15-30 precious seconds tick away. He’s also terrific at rapid-fire distribution once he gets it. No hesitation. No looking around. Possession, then pass. He’s no great shooter, but that isn’t needed from both point men.
Christian Ehrhoff can take care of that once he’s cleared to return from his concussion, which could be any day. No one on the roster, not even Malkin, delivers the off-wing one-timer with as much force, as much accuracy and, above all, down low, where forwards can pursue rebounds. I’ve heard Tocchet isn’t wild about Ehrhoff on the power play, but I’ve yet to hear a compelling explanation.
This leaves Letang off the top unit, of course, but that’s fine because he’s not as good as Martin at what Martin does, and he’s not as good as Ehrhoff at what Ehrhoff does. Yeah, I wrote from Edmonton that he’s a legit Norris Trophy candidate for his overall play, including his production. But he’s never been a power-play quarterback, which means he’s basically just another participant. Those are interchangeable parts. And if Malkin can be used on a second unit, so can Letang.
Planting Patric Hornqvist in front is so obvious I’ve already invested one sentence too many on it.
Not so for the other two forwards, who probably represent a combined 90 percent of the problem with this power play, including how they’re utilized.
Crosby is not a great half-wall distributor. And as anyone saw from that sad display on the final power play Tuesday, he doesn’t even seem to want to shoot from there anymore. In the broader scope, like Letang, he’s had a career to establish being a power-play quarterback and has yet to do it. At the same time, the half-wall is his home, and moving him dramatically would be overly ambitious. I’m OK with him staying put, but I’d urge two conditions:
1. Work behind the net on occasion.
This is a lost art all around the NHL — has anyone truly excelled at it since Andrew Brunette in Minnesota? — but Crosby can be pretty good back there. Show a different look. Get a different look. And while there, play a little catch with Malkin to remove the constant imbalance on the right.
2. Go through. Go through. Go through.
I could type this all day for emphasis, as it’s been that important to the Penguins’ successes and failures on the power play over the years. Far too often, Crosby makes a pass from that half-wall, then just waits for the play to unfold. That’s why the coaches felt compelled to put Hornqvist and Kunitz in front, because two bodies are needed there for a true man-advantage. That’s lousy. That shouldn’t happen. Watch Jaromir Jagr, a master on the half-wall, and you’ll see he’ll make the pass, then go through, either high or low, like a rabid shark. Crosby stays put.
Malkin is a better power-play performer than Crosby, largely because of his added versatility. And yet, for all he can do, he’s rarely been put into what just might be his best location to do damage, and that’s the high slot.
Think James Neal. He led the team in power-play goals year after year, and he shot from that spot exactly. It remains vacated.
Or, more recently, think of this goal over the weekend by Winnipeg’s Andrew Ladd, in which he systematically glided through a soft seam in the high slot, took a short pass from Toby Enstrom and just whipped the puck on net.
Neal is a great long-range shooter. Ladd is pretty good, too. Neither is a match for Malkin. And yet, Malkin has been mostly restricted to the left point, where it’s far easier for penalty-killing boxes to align with his shot. Or he’s just kind of … I don’t know, chaotically floated all over creation. That’s partially on the player, as with Crosby, but it’s also on the coaches.
Actually, a huge chunk of this is on the coaches, and I’m not comfortable thinking that way as a rule. The players are on the ice. They’ve got to perform. But deciding to split up Crosby and Malkin isn’t a solution. It’s punting on a solution. It’s throwing your arms up in disgust.
Tuesday brought more of the same. The Penguins had three measly power plays, and they performed without a clue on all three.
The first came with the score tied midway through the second period, and it opened with Malkin on the bench, even though the first faceoff was in the Washington zone. Crosby took the ice with Kunitz and David Perron, with Letang and Derrick Pouliot at the points. Malkin hit the ice 56 seconds later. Kunitz never left it.
The lone bright spot was that the high slot was finally occupied, this by Perron.
Right alignment, wrong guy.
Another power play came near the end of the second, still tied, same alignment. Only on this one, Kunitz whiffed in front of an open net. And Malkin took to the ice even later, with just 46 seconds left on the man-advantage.
The final power play came in the harried final minute, and the only meaningful chance was a badly shanked one-timer from Letang at the left dot that caromed all the way back to center ice.
The true definition of insanity isn’t trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results. It’s trying something dumber and expecting different results.
I’m flying to Bradenton this morning, so I honestly won’t complain about the weather. But I’ll cling to my right to complain about the most confounding power play in franchise history and how, if it isn’t fixed, all this talent will be flushed away in roughly the same amount of time it takes to maim someone and establish plausible deniability.