Late-season momentum playoff asset
Penguins learned its value last year
Several Penguins players said after the Wednesday morning skate that it’s vitally important for the team to play well down the stretch in order to build momentum heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Is that accurate or simply a cliché?
Probably the former more than the latter.
And nobody knows it quite like the Penguins who made a playoff run last season, going 8-2 in their final 10 regular-season games. They parlayed that into the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup.
“We saw it last year,” defenseman Brian Dumoulin said.
“We were playing really good hockey. It carried us throughout the playoffs, when we were confident and playing well. Right now is kind of a different situation, where we’re a little bit banged up, but guys still want to be coming in and playing their best hockey and carrying that into playoffs.”
Since the lockout, the past 11 Cup winners have finished with a points percentage of .655.
No team had as many as the 2015-16 Penguins’ eight wins, while 10 of the 11 had a points percentage of .600 or better.
The current Penguins team was 0-1-2 in its previous three games before the marquee matchup Wednesday night with the Chicago Blackhawks, the only team under that .600 threshold with a 4-6-0 record over its last 10 regular-season games two years ago.
Which means a 5-1-1 mark over the final seven games would be necessary for the Penguins to hit that .600 points percentage.
“We have to find a way here to get a little better, maybe get a little physical and get prepared for the playoffs,” Patric Hornqvist said.
It won’t be easy, as five of those seven teams occupy a playoff spot entering the Wednesday games, with a sixth, the Carolina Hurricanes, four points shy of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
“I think we need to find the way we want to play and play a little bit more consistently than we have in the past few games here,” Bryan Rust said.
“That comes with trying to stay the course and, hopefully, things come.”
Sheary, Ruhwedel return
Turns out Conor Sheary only missed most of one of the Penguins’ worst losses this season.
After logging just 3:56 against the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday because of a lower-body injury, Sheary was healthy enough to play Wednesday against the Blackhawks.
He assumed his familiar spot on Sidney Crosby’s wing, this time on the left, a partnership that has been beneficial for both of them.
Crosby had eight goals in eight games entering Wednesday, all of them since Sheary returned from an earlier upper-body injury, after a stretch where Crosby scored eight in out of 25 games.
Sheary, meanwhile, has come back strong from that upper-body injury to notch four goals and 15 points in his past 13 games.
No more returns from injury would be just fine by Sheary.
“I don’t know what I have to do,” Sheary said. “I think I have to get as much karma as I can. I want to stay away from the injury bug that’s going around.”
Also returning was defenseman Chad Ruhwedel, who had missed the previous two games with an upper-body injury. Ruhwedel started the game on a pairing with Ian Cole.
Hainsey, Guentzel better
Defenseman Ron Hainsey (upper body) and forward Jake Guentzel (concussion) shed their non-contact jerseys for the Wednesday morning skate.
While neither played against the Blackhawks, their return do not appear to be far off.
“Feeling better,” Hainsey said. “The closer it gets, getting back into a regular routine will be exciting.”
That explains that
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan shared an interesting anecdote from his season with the Blackhawks (201415) on the player-development side.
It explains what the Penguins did last season: going all in with speed and acquiring players who fit that mold.
“They go out and get players that serve that identity,” Sullivan said of Chicago. “That’s important. Pittsburgh has a similar philosophy in the sense that we know what we are.
“Our hockey operations department acquires players that can play to the identity of the Pittsburgh Penguins.”