McCann deals with goal drought
During his first 76 games with the Penguins, Jared McCann was one of their most prolific scorers with 25 goals. It was the team’s third-best total in that span.
The past few weeks, though, the long list of Penguins with more goals includes Dominik Simon, rookie Anthony Angello and defenseman Jack Johnson.
McCann has gone 13 games without scoring. The 23-yearold’s most recent goal came Jan. 14, Sidney Crosby’s first game back after sports hernia surgery.
Since then, he has four assists — only two at even strength — with a minus-9 rating. He received just 10 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time in the 4-0 loss Thursday against the Maple Leafs in Toronto, his lowest total in more than three months.
“Jared and I spoke [Thursday morning], and that was part of our conversation, [to] take the focus off scoring,” coach Mike Sullivan said after practice Friday morning at PPG Paints Arena. “‘Just play the right way. You’re going to get chances. Keep shooting the puck. It will go in the net for you. You just have to trust the process.’”
Few, if any, players have been moved around the lineup more often this season than McCann. With Crosby or Evgeni Malkin (or both) sidelined, he often was asked to play center. When they’re available, he typically skates on the left wing. In the past two weeks, he has played with three different centers.
Asked if the constant shuffling is a factor in McCann’s slump, Sullivan said he didn’t think so, pointing out that “Jared’s got a lot of scoring chances.” McCann has 17 shots over his past five games, including two Thursday.
“As I say to the players sometimes, you can’t always control whether it goes in the net or not,” the Penguins coach said. “He’s just got to keep his game simple. He’s got to play the game the right way. Sometimes, I think when goal-scorers don’t score for a few games, there’s a tendency to focus on scoring goals.”
Kahun misses practice
Dominik Kahun did not practice Friday, a day after Kahun was hit in the left knee with a hard shot and had to be helped off the ice in Toronto.
“Right now, his status is just day to day,” Sullivan said. “So we’ll take each day as it comes. We’ll see how it is [Saturday]. He’ll be a game-time decision.”
With Kahun sitting out Friday, Angello took his spot on Evgeni Malkin’s line.
Kahun returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing four weeks with a concussion. He was a minus-3 in two games before he went down again.
The 24-year-old winger has 10 goals and 27 points in 50 games this season.
Struggling second pair
It has been two weeks since John Marino went down after taking a slap shot to the left cheek. That injury, which required surgery, prompted Sullivan to reunite Marcus Pettersson and Justin Schultz as the second defensive pairing.
But they have struggled in the six games since. The Penguins have had a 45.6% shot share with both on the ice at 5-on-5 and opponents have had 23 high-danger chances compared to just 10 for the Penguins, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
Pettersson and Schultz had a rough night Thursday in Toronto, giving up eight high-danger chances. That included a goal by Maple Leafs forward Zach Hyman, who outmuscled Schultz in front to gain position and whack in a rebound.
“I think we’re doing OK in the offensive zone. He’s a great player getting pucks through. Both of us got to step it up in the defensive zone,” Pettersson said. “We’ve been giving up some chances here lately that are a little bit too good [of] chances . ... That’s something we both feel like we want to do work on.”
Two Swedes ‘flipping out’
The Penguins practiced for only a half hour Friday at PPG Paints Arena, where they will play host to Buffalo Saturday afternoon. But while most of their players headed to the locker room for media availability, Pettersson and Patric Hornqvist lingered on the ice to participate in a promotional challenge.
Hornqvist stomped into the locker room afterward, grumbling about getting shut out in the mystery competition. Pettersson filled people in on what was missed.
“It was me and Horny, blue line to blue line, just high-flipping pucks into KeyBank [buckets],” he said. “All the money raised will go to charity, so it’s good.”
The defenseman guessed that he had flipped four of his 10 attempts into a bucket that was about a couple of feet wide, adding, “It was kind of hard, actually.”