Veterans heed call on faceoffs
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan didn’t need to turn to his newly formed trio during key defensivezone faceoffs in the third period of the 5-0 win in Buffalo Thursday night. That’s because, well, there weren’t any — not with the lifeless, undermanned Sabres stumbling through their third consecutive shutout loss.
But in other recent games, Matt Cullen, Nick Bjugstad and Patric Hornqvist answered his call.
“We’ve used them situationally, especially late in games if we need a big faceoff win or we need to defend against another team’s top line,” Sullivan said. “And they’ve been good for us.”
Cullen usually centers the fourth line. The other two headline the third. The Penguins have started using those three veterans together in big moments because they all bring some things to the table. And when you push all those things together, it creates a big pile of good stuff.
“They’re all pretty good defensively. They have good awareness. There’s some experience on that line. There’s two centericemen — there’s a lefty and a righty — so if one gets kicked out the other guy has an opportunity to win the faceoff,” Sullivan said. “They’re just good, solid 200-foot players.”
It starts with the faceoff. If it takes place at the left dot, the lefthanded Cullen often takes the draw. At the other dot, the righthanded Bjugstad often gets first crack. Cullen typically decides who takes it, but unless one of them is hot or decidedly not, it often comes down to handedness.
“We’re both generally better on our backhands,” Bjugstad said. “That’s pretty common.”
Having a second center out there in case you get kicked out is “a nice feeling,” Cullen said.
“It allows you to be a little more aggressive,” he added. “Obviously, if we can get it and get the puck down to the other end and spend time there, that’s huge. Those are important moments.”
And, when the Penguins do lose them, they have a plan for what might be coming next.
“We talk a lot about opposing teams’ faceoff plays and what they might do in the offensive end when they win,” Cullen said. “So you have to be prepared and have a plan how to defend.”
There’s where it helps to have Hornqvist in the “battle areas.”
“You’ve got Hornqvist working hard,” Bjugstad said. “He’ll take a hit to make a play. Anything you can do. Hornqvist, a few games ago, blocked a huge shot. He’s not afraid to step in front of it.”
Cullen claimed a couple of important defensive-zone faceoffs late in regulation March 5 against Florida, allowing the Penguins to get to overtime, when Jake Guentzel won it. Bjugstad was busy against Boston Sunday. That trio combined to get them out of jams Tuesday against Washington.
Close call for Trotman
For a moment Thursday, it seemed that Zach Trotman had scored his first goal with the Penguins and first in the NHL since 2015-16, when the defenseman played for Boston.
But after much consideration from the official scorers, who were trying to determine what the puck hit on its way past Sabres goalie Carter Hutton, the third-period goal went to Guentzel.
“I knew somebody tipped it,” Trotman said. “I thought Horny tipped it. I knew it hit something. It’s always nice to score . ... Obviously, Guentzel’s hot. Anything within 10 feet of him is going in. So it’s nice that he got another one.”
Of course, Trotman isn’t here to score goals. But he feels he has fared all right with all that other stuff in his nine games as a Penguin after he was called up following the injury to Kris Letang.
Pettersson steps up
The Penguins had a problem March 1 when they took the ice without Letang and Bryan Rust.
Letang is again an All-Star and Rust was having a breakout year offensively. But the issue in Buffalo that night was that neither was available to dig pucks out of the net in pregame warmups.
“Once Rusty got injured, nobody was doing it. I think we skated around for about five minutes, just looking at each other and waiting for someone to pick them up,” said Marcus Pettersson. “So I just did it.”