Wingers capable of flipping sticks
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan isn’t concerned that a shortage of right-handed sticks up front could lead to one or more lefties having to skate on their off wings this season.
“We have guys that are familiar with playing on their off sides,” he said.
In fact, Sullivan thinks it will be beneficial in one critical area.
The Penguins this offseason traded Phil Kessel, their most productive right winger, and signed three wingers who are lefties. That leaves center Nick Bjugstad and wingers Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust as the only sure-fire NHL forwards who shoot right-handed.
In the first two days of training camp, the lines centered by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each had three guys carrying lefthanded sticks. Dominik Kahun and Brandon Tanev, two of the newcomers, both skated on their off wing.
Conventional wisdom is that it creates problems while escaping the defensive zone because that lefty will have to corral breakout passes on his backhand.
“But,” Sullivan said, “when you think about how the game’s being played today and how aggressively defensemen pinch down the wall and put pressure on the puck, there’s a lot of wrapped pucks, a lot of rims. So your ability to play the puck off the boards and be able to make that next play is critically important.”
Potential pairing
Sullivan in the first two days of camp has not seemed overly concerned with potential blue-line partners finding chemistry. One duo that could stick, though, is Justin Schultz and Marcus Pettersson. Other than on the second power-play unit, the two didn’t really play together last season. But with the Penguins looking to put more on Pettersson’s plate, they could bump up the youngster to the second pair.