Through three regular season games, the Pittsburgh Penguins performances have gotten progressively worse. They started with a blowout win, won a high-scoring game where they blew a big lead, and last night played loose, mistake-filled hockey and lost to what should have been an inferior opponent on a back-to-back.
The Penguins dropped last night’s game to the Winnipeg Jets 3-2. They wasted Sergei Murashov’s quality performance and puck luck (WPG hit ~5 posts). It is their first defeat of the season.
The players have to own their mistakes in this one. There were a lot of poor puck handling (hello Erik Karlsson) and loose defensive play. However, the coaching staff has to own some of this as well due to their choices throughout the matchup.
Coaching decisions continue to be lacking
One of Mike Sullivan’s biggest flaws, especially at the end of his tenure, was just how rigid he was with the lines and unwillingness to make adjustments throughout the game. It never felt like he was willing to budge even if the game script was screaming for something to change.
I’ll give Dan Muse this; he did make some changes to the lines as the game went on, but they did not make logistical sense to me.
Ben Kindel looks like the best Penguins right now, but the line isn’t humming along. I get it, time to make a change, and he should. This is an improvement from Sullivan. Unfortunately, Kindel’s new linemates were Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte. You cannot be putting fourth-line players with the guy who looks like the Penguins most dangerous player on the ice. It just isn’t maximizing his value.
Again, not trying to be overly negative about Dewar and Lizotte, but they have specific roles. I shouldn’t see those two players on the ice inside of three minutes left with the Penguins trailing.
Muse also had Kindel out with the Letang and Trevor van Riemsdyk pairing. They’ve been fine, but Erik Karlsson and Sam Girard are the ones who move the needle offensively. Maximize Kindel’s potential when you are trailing in the third period. He didn’t do that until the very end when they loaded up with the goalie pulled. Do it sooner.
Stop me if you’ve heard me say this before: It is not illegal to play Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin together at 5v5! Malkin is a winger now. You aren’t even stealing him from playing center anymore. How is Dan Bylsma the only coach who understood that, in certain game situations, it makes a lot of sense to play one of the best duos of all time together? Look how fun and successful Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s shifts are together.
They overdo it in Edmonton, but the Penguins have actual forward depth and could lean into this more often. After penalty kills, after a TV timeout, and when you are trailing later in the game. This remains my biggest pet peeve of the Crosby and Malkin era. We were robbed of so much 5v5 time with them together, and still are.
Last one, Sam Girard should be one of the six Penguins on the ice at the end of the game with the goalie pulled, if they are going to use two defensemen. At this point in his career, Kris Letang doesn’t fit as well as he used to in this situation. Girard has been strong to start the year; he is left-handed, and he has done a great job being opportunistic in the offensive zone this year. I don’t think the risk/reward with Letang is as favorable as it once was for a high-leverage situation.
Kuzmenko needs a night off
This is a really tough situation. Andrei Kuzmenko has been through a lot. He is really well liked by his new teammates and the organization has been trying to do right by him given what he is going through. I have no problem with him being put in the lineup right away after he returned from Russia. It can be really healthy returning to a routine after going through a loss, especially a parental one.
Unfortunately, his level of play is not close to being good enough to stay there right now. In other years it wouldn’t be as pressing to remove him from the lineup, but when you have players like Philip Hallander and Elmer Soderblom on the outside looking in it isn’t fair to them. To be in this current lineup, you need to be effective.
Kuzmenko currently owns the lowest xGF% at 5v5 at 25.02. I’m not surprised to see that number. I don’t think it has looked good out there. Ben Kindel has the second worst number on the team at 32.19. Kindel looks great out there. Therein lies the problem. The majority of Kindel’s minutes have been with Kuzmenko, and together they are 20.58. Without Kuzmenko, Kindel’s xGF% rises to 50.91.
These sample sizes are super small and volatile, but when paired with how each player looks on the ice I think it is reasonable to suggest that Kuzmenko is holding Kindel back at the moment.
Filip Hallander has more than earned a jersey at this point. He was splendid throughout camp and in the preseason games. Through two games, he leads the Penguins with an 86.31. Hallander looks the part. He has been incredibly responsible with his positioning and can be trusted on the ice. He is not far removed from being one of the top scorers in the SHL. There may be some depth offense to tap with him. For now, reward Hallander’s commitment to rehab and bounce back from his blood clots.
Allow Kuzmenko to take a breath and get his bearings. There is enough playable depth to allow that to happen.
Impressive showing from Murashov
In one of the most anticipated season debuts, we saw Sergei Murashov start his first game of the year last night. I thought it went really well. He had a lot of puck luck with the number of posts hit, but he looked the part of a confident and capable NHL starting goalie.
He finished with a .912 save percentage and made some really good saves, which highlighted his fluid movement around the crease. When he makes a save, it looks like he does it on purpose. It looks like it is repeatable. There aren’t a lot of situations where you think he cannot make a save because he moves so well.
It is my own personal vibes, but I feel more confident with Murashov in net for the reasons stated above than I do Arturs Silovs. Even on nights when Silovs has a great save percentage, I feel like he fights the puck and things can go south quickly on any given sequence. This might be unfair to Silovs, but it is how I feel during his starts.
Murashov is also a good quote
My prediction is that Murashov becomes the Penguins 1A goaltender by the time American Thanksgiving rolls around.
Huge game next
The Penguins will have today to figure out what went wrong against Winnipeg before they play one of the more anticipated regular season games of the year. The Penguins will be visiting the Washington Capitals in their last-ever home opener with Alexander Ovechkin.
Ovechkin announced this will be his last season in the NHL. The league’s all-time leading goal scorer is retiring. We are officially entering the final times that Sidney Crosby and his #1 rival will be facing off against one another. This will be must-see TV. It should be an exciting night.
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