Questions for the Penguins’ stretch run
for that matter, Sheary and Patric Hornqvist did with Crosby two seasons ago. Until Wednesday night.
“Sid and the Kids” were back together against the Flyers and looked dynamic. If they can stay hot, that’s the easiest answer. Those three guys have an undeniable chemistry when they’re clicking and have the results to back it up.
Before Wednesday, coach Mike Sullivan’s most recent stab at finding some stability around his best player had been putting Guentzel and Hornqvist with Crosby. That line was fine but hasn’t necessarily caught fire the way the Penguins would probably like.
Hornqvist will probably stay in the mix if Sullivan wants to shake things up at some point. He and Crosby have a long history of working well together, and Hornqvist’s play around the net tends to pair well with Crosby’s work down low.
One wild card might be rookie Zach Aston-Reese, who is out “longer term” with an upper-body injury but showed some good chemistry with Crosby in a brief stint together last month.
And then, of course, there’s Daniel Sprong. If, or when, Sprong gets called back up, he could get another crack on Crosby’s wing. When it comes to potential wingers for Crosby, Sprong probably offers the highest upside, but it’s unclear if that potential will actually get realized this season. • Who is the sixth defenseman?
This one seems pretty simple: Matt Hunwick or Chad Ruhwedel?
Hunwick has more playing time this season but has had a rough year. Over the past three games, he has been scratched in favor of Ruhwedel, who has looked good after two months off the ice due to injury and as a healthy scratch.
If the Penguins could wave a magic wand for this one, their solution would probably be to have Hunwick playing well. They didn’t sign him to a threeyear contract as a free agent to sit in the press box.
But based on the on-ice results the last few games, Ruhwedel might have the inside track. He looks more comfortable playing next to Olli Maatta on the team’s third pairing. He’s not lighting the world on fire, but it’s worth remembering that we’re talking about a sixth defenseman here, and that’s perfectly OK.
Ruhwedel’s presence also seems to give the Penguins better balance through all three defense pairings. Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin are more of a traditional top pair than anything they had last year, but the bottom four of Jamie Oleksiak and Justin Schultz and Maatta and Ruhwedel can be deployed pretty much equally, spreading the ice time better for everyone. Hunwick and Oleksiak, who never really clicked, were much more of a traditional third pairing.
• Can they limit the oddman rushes?
Sullivan and his players often say these defensive lapses, which have reared their head again recently, are easily correctable.
OK, fair enough. Why haven’t they been corrected?
It’s possible that once the games start mattering a little bit more, the Penguins will ratchet up their intensity and the defensive play tightens up.
This question, maybe more than any other, will play a major part in whether or not the Penguins can win another title. Yes, they have virtually unparalleled offensive firepower, but they’re best when they’re able to effectively put away a one-goal game in the third period.
Sullivan often laments when his team gets into “track meets,” as he calls them — chance-for-chance offensive games up and down the ice.
That would seem to be a dicey proposition against a team such as the Devils (or maybe even the Flyers) in the first round of the playoffs. The Penguins could certainly win a series like that, but their odds are much better if they find their “defensive conscience,” as Sullivan often says. • Is Conor Sheary back? He certainly seemed to be Wednesday night, breaking out of his prolonged goalscoring slump with two goals against the Flyers. The best-case solution for the Penguins is Sheary, Crosby and Guentzel rediscover their 2017 magic and form a dynamic top line heading into the postseason.
But given Sheary’s upand-down season, it’s reasonable to ask what happens if he doesn’t click back on the top line over the next few games. If that’s the case — and Sheary’s scoring struggles aren’t totally fixed — he has also had some good games on the fourth line with Tom Kuhnhackl and Riley Sheahan.
• Do Derick Brassard and Phil Kessel click together?
The two have had some good moments since Brassard joined the Penguins (Brassard’s goal against the Islanders stands out) but still seem to be a bit of a work in progress. That’s understandable. There aren’t many players in the league like Kessel, and Brassard certainly didn’t play with any (or in a system like the Penguins) in Ottawa.
Through five games, their possession numbers aren’t great. When Brassard and Kessel are on the ice together, they have a Corsi For percentage (CF%) of just 39.81. That could be due to a relatively small sample size but certainly needs to come up down the stretch.
There are plenty of reasons to think this partnership will work eventually and give the Penguins a dynamic third scoring line heading into the playoffs. Brassard has already spoken about learning Kessel’s on-ice strengths and tendencies, and both are good enough players that they should be able to work it out.
It also could depend on who the third linemate is on the left wing. Sheary didn’t seem to fit, but Dominik Simon seems to have added something to that line over recent games. Bryan Rust would be interesting to see there, assuming he’s not out for long with his injury.