Defense takes on offensive burdens
Did you see what Brian Dumoulin did against the New York Rangers?
During the second period of the Penguins 6-5 win Sunday, Dumoulin stretched out to smother an oddman rush, scrambled to his skates after nearly sliding into the corner, then, with goalie Casey DeSmith having lost track of the puck, laid out to block a Chris Kreider shot with a double-pad-stack save that would make Tom Barrasso proud.
But that’s standard stuff for Dumoulin, the Penguins’ leader in plus-minus.
No, what Dumoulin did that was uncommon, and perhaps a sign of things to come for the Penguins’ defensive corps as a whole, happened his next time out.
After fellow defenseman Marcus Pettersson raced to the corner in the Rangers zone and whacked the puck away from a defender, Sidney Crosby whipped a pass up to the high slot, where Dumoulin ripped a one-timer past Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
The stoic defender hardly celebrated his second goal of the season, other than a quick twirl of stick blade. But it was a big one, putting the Penguins up, 3-1. They eventually held on to win and
move back into playoff position with 23 games left.
“Especially the last couple games, we’ve been really active in the offensive zone, creating chances,” Dumoulin said. “Our forwards have done a good job of working the puck and creating time and space for themselves, allowing us to jump up in the play and hit seams. We’re going to need more of that, obviously.
“If us defensemen can chip in as much as we can, that will help us a lot.”
It certainly did Sunday. Four of the team’s six goals came from defensemen, the first time that’s happened since 1990, the year before Dumoulin was born.
“It’s huge. That’s how we want to play,” Kris Letang said. “We want guys to join the rush and support the attack. We rely a lot on our mobility out there, guys that can help our forwards offensively. To see them getting rewarded, it’s nice.”
Their defensemen put 14 shots on goal and attempted to get another dozen or so there, too. Letang twice beat Georgiev. Pettersson blew one past him, too. It remains to be seen if this will start a new trend for the Penguins. But coach Mike Sullivan would “certainly like to see” this offensive approach continue.
When the puck is deep in the zone, especially when Crosby or Evgeni Malkin are the ones bulldozing behind the net, most NHL defensive schemes tend to collapse in the area around the puck, taking away valuable time and space and fortifying high-danger scoring areas.
“In order to try to spread them out or find some ice to play on, a lot of times it’s in the top half of the zone,” Sullivan said.
“If you can go low to high and look for an opportunity to get the puck to the net or look for an off-net deflection, it’s a predominant way to manufacture offense in the way that the game’s being played today.
“We’d like to see our defensemen shoot the puck, get more pucks at the net. If we do that, it’s going to give us more opportunity to create something off of it.”
That’s what happened on Dumoulin’s goal, Crosby working it low to high.
It was a similar idea on Letang’s go-ahead goal in the third period, though Crosby probed the middle of the zone before finding Letang.
And with Jake Guentzel screening Georgiev, Letang was able to pick the top right corner of the net.
That, of course, was nothing new for Letang. He has 15 goals, one shy of his career high, and is playing some of the best hockey of his career, Sullivan said.
But even with the outburst Sunday, the Penguins have gotten just eight from their other defensemen. Letang is their only one with more than two.
Last season, the Penguins got 38 goals from defensemen. There is still time to get within striking distance of that, especially now that Justin Schultz is back.
Schultz returned to the lineup from a fractured left ankle Saturday in the 5-4 loss against the Calgary Flames. He got about 36 minutes of ice time in the span of 26 hours and did not look like someone who hadn’t suited up for a hockey game in four months.
He seemed comfortable retrieving pucks deep in his end, was accurate firing 100foot passes to push the Penguins in transition and did not hesitate to jump in from the point when they had offensive-zone time. Schultz nearly scored doing that on his first shift Saturday. He showed up on the score sheet with an assist in each game.
“He’s been huge,” said Zach Aston-Reese, who did on-ice workouts with Schultz while both were on injured reserve in recent weeks. “When he wasn’t even playing yet but he was close, he just looked so smooth. Even in the games now, you see it. The transition has been pretty seamless. He’s an anchor back there.”
Aston-Reese added, “Offensively, he’s really good at getting pucks through.”
It’s reasonable to think the presence of Schultz alone will give the Penguins a scoring boost from the back end. And Letang, who entering Monday was tied for the NHL lead in goals among defensemen, will make a run at scoring 20.
If the other guys can continue to be a little more involved, too, look out.
Crosby recognized
Sidney Crosby was honored Monday as the NHL’s Third Star of the Week.
The Penguins captain tied for the league lead with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) over the course of last week, as the Penguins won three games while dropping just one. He sat at eighth in the NHL in points (72) entering Monday’s action and has a five-game point streak heading into Tuesday’s game against New Jersey.