Penalty kill gets major facelift
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Take a look at the players the Penguins are missing due to various injuries — all five of them — and you will notice a trend.
They’re all key members of the penalty kill.
In terms of overall ice time, Brian Dumoulin (concussion), Kris Letang (upper-body), Bryan Rust (lower-body) and Olli Maatta (shoulder) occupy spots two through five behind Jack Johnson.
Over the past seven games before Friday, only two players received more short-handed ice time than Chad Ruhwedel (upperbody).
That means the Penguins basically are missing a quarter of their team and they’re going to need to use some new faces in key penalty kill roles. At a time when better results are essential.
Over the 17 games before Friday, the Penguins penalty kill was clicking at just 67.3 percent (33 for 49), bad enough for 30th in the 31team NHL.
“We’ve got to get the job done,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
As far as those faces, tradedeadline acquisition Erik Gudbranson has the most experience, logging 909:51 of short-handed ice time with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. He’s not new, but Johnson — who before Friday had spent 1,908:26 in that situation — will be a key cog, too.
The interesting part should be the other four.
Justin Schultz has been on the penalty kill for just 17:09 in his NHL career. Juuso Riikola, a rookie, has logged 1:54 of shorthanded ice time. Marcus Pettersson had logged 57:40, while Zach Trotman was the leader with 89:15, though almost all of it came when he played for Boston earlier in his NHL career.
In their biggest rut this season, the Penguins penalty kill will need to figure it out, and one of the ways they can do that is simplifying things, although Sullivan said they already try to do that anyway.
Whatever the case, it must happen. The Penguins are 23-10-4 when they do not allow a powerplay goal and 10-12-4 when they do.
“We’re trying to keep it simple on the penalty kill, regardless of who’s in our lineup,” Sullivan said.
Injury updates
As for actual injury updates, Sullivan said that neither Dumoulin nor Letang would play this weekend. He said, they are, however, making progress.
Dumoulin, who suffered a concussion last Saturday on a hit from Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds, skated on his own Thursday in Pittsburgh. Letang, who incurred an upper-body injury in a wrestling match with Shayne Gostisbehere in a subsequent scrum, has not skated since.
Gudbranson is excited
Erik Gudbranson played his first game with the Penguins — and his excitement was palpable. The nerves, too.
“A good nervousness, though,” Gudbranson said. “It’s more of an excitement. You still have those butterflies in your stomach like you did as a kid. It’s just about harnessing that and going there, getting your feet wet. Make simple plays early and communicate a lot.”
So far, Gudbranson has been impressed with a couple things in Pittsburgh — the puck support the defensemen get, also how quick thinking can help out on the back end — and said he’s felt comfortable with new partner Pettersson, another in-season acquisition.
Defending Simon
Dominik Simon has received plenty of fan criticism lately for his lack of offensive production — three goals and 13 points over his past 37 games. In defending Simon, Sullivan said part of that was on him because he wasn’t putting Simon in spots to have success.
“When you look at him, for most of the year he’s been a half-apoint-a-game guy, which is pretty respectable,” Sullivan said of Simon, who had 13 points in his first 26 games compared to 10 over his past 26. “Lately, to Dominik’s defense, I haven’t necessarily put him in the position to post numbers.”
When Sullivan says that, he’s likely referring to using Simon on the fourth line, which he was doing until Rust’s injury earned Simon a promotion to the third line.