The Pens should thank Fleury for their good form

Right now Marc-Andre Fleury is playing some the best hockey he has played in his career to start this season. Fleury has had one shut-out already this season, a 2-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on the 15th October. He has also only let in three or more goals twice this season, against the Dallas Stars in the opener and the Montreal Canadiens.

The Penguins are facing 30 shots per game on average and so far this season after 9 games Fleury has stopped 254 of 271 shots. That's good for just 17 goals conceded The reason why Fleury's performance is so impressive is partly due to the schedule (SOS) that the Penguins have had. His performances are also a complete change that Penguins fans have seen from Fleury in the past. Mike Bales has to take some credit for that.

The Penguins appointed Mike Bales to their goalkeeping coach position in August 2013 and they are currently entering their third season together. Bales joined on the back of Fleury having one of his worst post seasons with a .883 SV% and 3.52 GAA through 5 games. Fleury has become a much more confident player and is not as prone to collapses now as he was in the past.

With Fleury improving his game it would help if the defence stood up and prevented the opposition from taking so many shots. The game against Buffalo was reminiscent of that with the Sabres getting over 50 shots on net against Zatkoff. After a slight wobble in the 1st period. where the Penguins conceded two goals in quick succession, Zatkoff settled down. He was able to control the onslaught enough to eke out a 4-3 victory.

The Penguins have a good stretch of games coming up and they need to improve at both ends of the ice. Whilst they did, finally, manage to score more than three goals in a game, they won't in every game. They have been struggling for a while and one game doesn't change that. They need to take their chances up front and tighten up at the back. The Penguins play the Leafs on Saturday night. The Leafs have the worst goaltending in the league right now so it is a prime chance to put that to the test.

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Gonchar returns as development coach and Sprong stays

Today has seen two pieces of news that will please Penguins fans. Sergei Gonchar has returns to the organisation after being unsuccessful during his Professional Tryout in the summer. He has been appointed as a defenseman development coach. His role will involve with him working with the Penguins and Wilkes-Barre defeseman to tutor and help them. He will also scout European tournaments, so that could involve events such as the Spengler Cup.

Gonchar had a fine career in the the NHL and it saw him play 1301 games over 20 years. His final season was with the Montreal Canadiens last season. Over his career he put up 220 goals and 591 assists to become the highest scoring Russian defenceman. His experience will be invaluable to the Penguins younger defencemen.

The second piece of news is that, whilst it hasn't been officially confirmed, it is all but expected that Daniel Sprong will stay for the rest of the season. Just like Olli Maatta the ELC will see a year burnt. It will be a lot better for his development I feel as he is too good for the CHL and ineligible for the AHL.

I would like to see Sprong given more time in the top 6 as that is where his career path will likely see him end up. He has his first goal and he will be hungry for more as he is a determined and driven person who has been through a lot to get where he is. Hopefully the Penguins don't mishandle him and damage his performance.

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Why is Crosby struggling?

If you have been watching the Penguins this year then it is clear that Crosby is not playing as he should be. He is off and there is something different this year which has seen him only have 3 points through the first 8 games so far. By now you would expect that Crosby to have at least 10 points. A lot of people have speculated as to why he is struggled and there are a number of reasons, some more simple than others.

One of the most obvious things is that he seems to be passing it a lot more than usual and this is evidenced in his lower shot totals. A long with this he is also struggling to finish his chances that he does get. His career average is at a nice 14.3% but this season he is languishing at a much lower 4.3%. There have been mentions of him using a new stick recently which would explain why he is finding it harder to elevate the puck into the net. Twice against Montreal he was stopped by two great saves down low.

Over the summer the Penguins acquired Phil Kessel and he is the winger that this team has been wanting for a long time. Originally he was on the top line with Crosby and it was expected that they would light it up. Whilst they would have to learn each others game and get some chemistry it should by now have worked. However, it hasn't and Kessel has been moved to Malkin's line. Crosby's anchor, Chris Kunitz has also been dropped but to the third line.

Crosby now has Pascal Dupuis and Patric Hornqvist, two players whose game he knows really well and has worked well with in the past. Both are hard working players who are able to go to the dirty areas which takes away the responsibility for Crosby to do so and enables him to focus on the playmaking side of things.

Some have pointed out that the Penguins have played some of the top teams in the league this season with some of the best goaltenders. But that isn't really an excuse to score only 3 points in 8 games and for the Penguins offense to struggle like it has. This season the Penguins have the second fewest amount of goals with 13, only Anaheim are worst. As if that wasn't bad enough it is the Penguins lowest number of goals in franchise history through the first 8 games.

To be fair to Crosby, I don't think this is just a problem that he is having. A lot of players on the team are struggling offensively, it isn't exclusive to Crosby. The teams defensive system isn't conducive to the way this team should be playing. Instead of a pass and move game the team is more focused on a dump and chase game which just isn't working. It has severely affected the power play as well, a key proponent of Crosby's game. I've mentioned that before here.

I think that Crosby is in a slump right now and his body language shows that he is struggling. He isn't going to the net as much as he used to an he is a perimeter player right now. He needs to work hard with his team mates to get back in the grove and the next two games against Washington and Buffalo would be a good start. What more to get him riled up and firing than going against Ovechkin and his old coach? I hope he does get it going because seeing Crosby struggle is painful and not have Crosby as his best is sad.

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The Penguins have serious scoring problems - play the Preds next

The Penguins looked bad last night. Really bad. The scoreline showed it and that was reflected on the ice in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars. After a good showing against the Florida Panthers it was back to normal with a turgid, lacklustre and error strewn performance against, admittedly, a strong and impressive Stars team. The Stars completed the sweep over the Penguins in the series and the Penguins top lines were again shut down.

The Penguins scoring problems aren't new. They struggled last season as well after a bright start that was augmented by an originally good power play. That went south and it was perhaps evidenced best in the play off series against the New York Rangers. In that series the Penguins scored a grand total of 8 goals in the 5 games. But that wasn't the starting point.

Photo by Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

Looking at last years result you can see a clear change around the beginning of March shortly after the Penguins had beaten the Blue Jackets 5-3. After that point the Penguins only scored more than 2 goals in a game 5 times in the remaining 20. For a team with as much offensive talent as they do, that should have set alarm bells. I am aware that there were depth problems but that still doesn't excuse a low scoring rate.

Some players who have been available just haven't been playing well at all. The Penguins traded a 1st round pick, which ended up being Matthew Barzal, and Klinkhammer for Perron. After a good start he slowed down and has 8 points in his last 28 games, going back to the 25th February. He isn't alone though, Chris Kunitz has been similarly awful. He has played 22 games since the 25th February and has just 5 points since then.

Photo by Gregory Shamus, Getty Images

How are the Penguins best players expected to score and take their chances when their line-mates are struggling and not playing to their abilities? This Penguins team is also the second lowest in franchise history for number of goals through seven games. They have 11 and only the 1970-71 season was worse.

You're probably wondering what Johnston is doing to fix this. Well, today he changed lines in practice and ended the Crosby - Kessel experiment. He also removed Chris Kunitz off the top line to the third alongside Bonino and Sprong. Kunitz should have been removed from that line earlier but his replacement is Dupuis who has been out for almost a year with serious injuries. I rate Dupuis more than Kunitz but can he help improve Crosby's game? MJ also swapped Kessel and Hornqvist around.

The Penguins offensive problems aren't exactly what you want to hear when you see that Pittsburgh play on the 24th October against the Nashville Predators. A team that I see as a good defensive team. They've conceded 2 goals per game this season so far. The Penguins need to play the same game they did last time in Nashville when they won 4-1. If MJ doesn't do well in these next three and the scoring doesn't improve or change. He could be out.

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Pens beat Cats, prepare for Dallas

The Penguins beat Florida 3-2 in overtime the other night after Florida came back from 2-0 to tie it late on. Evgeni Malkin scored the winning game on a power play in overtime meaning the fans were deprived of some 3-on-3 hockey. Sidney Crosby managed to break his streak of pointless games which was brilliant to see. Crosby played one of his best games in years and ended up with 9 shots on goals. The joint most in his career in one game.

Crosby's first goal of the season came on the power play and was also incidentally the Penguins first power play goal of the season. The power play came about from a Nick Bjugstad trip on Olli Maataa at 10:07 in the first period. The power play was different with Crosby and others being noticeable in their movement around the zone rather than having a solitary position. Crosby worked the puck around the net and moved to the blue line before rifling a shot in straight past Luongo.

The Penguins dominated in the first period finishing with 16 shots to Florida's 5. Florida came into the game more in the second period and it was a more even period with only one penalty kill by the Penguins being the only real incident of note. The Penguins returned to their old problems however in the third period and allowed Florida to take control of the game. The Penguins failed to yet again make their early chances count and were forced to overtime thanks to two quick fire, well worked goals by the Panthers. The Penguins ended overtime early after 1:21 with Malkin's goal, as mentioned.

The Penguins are looking to carry on their winning streak and use Fleury's good start to their benefit when they rematch the Stars tonight. The Stars won the first game 3-0 with Niemi getting on the assists sheet. He still has more points than Chris Kunitz. The Stars are a team in form and are so far 5-1-0 with Benn and Seguin at the top of the NHL points board. This will be a bigger test than the last few games and if the Penguins can come out with 2 points it will be a great win.

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What is wrong with Pittsburgh's power play?

Unless you have been living in a cave for the past few weeks, then two things will have been incredibly clear and obvious. One is that Sidney Crosby is struggling right now, with 0 points through the first five games. He isn't the player he was a few years ago and there are some concerns over how long it could continue. The second is that the Penguins power play has been awful since Tocchet took over and little has been done to fix it.

Starting with the Penguins power play issues, there are three things that need to be in place for a good power play. The first is that you have good personnel, i.e. players in place. With the Penguins that is fairly straight forward. The Penguins have an abundance of offensive talent right now which should indicate a lethal power play. Throughout their history that has been true as well with guys like Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis to name a few.

The Penguins cannot complain about a lack of talent to run on the power play with the likes of Crosby, Malkin and Kessel on the team. Such talent in the team means that the Penguins can have the luxury of playing two units, both of which could be considered top units elsewhere. In the most recent game against Toronto saw the Penguins utilize Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, Hornqvist and Letang all on one unit.

The power play is currently 0-for-17 on the season, which is nothing short of an abomination. Mike Johnston was quoted in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette as saying;

“For me, the power play, you’re talking about your top scorers. If your top scorers are on a roll and your power play is not working, obviously you have some concerns,”  Johnston said. “But I think right now, once those guys start to get going, feeling comfortable with each other, we’re going to be fine.”  

Personally I don't believe that is something that should be expected from them. Of the five players three of them, Letang, Crosby and Malkin, have played together since the 2006-2007 season. If they haven't gotten comfortable in that time with each other's playing style then something is wrong. I could understand them taking time to get used to Kessel's game, but it shouldn't be that build chemistry when Crosby and Letang are on the ice at the same time during regular play.

The second thing you need for a good power play is a good system and setup. In the past the Penguins used a shoot first, pass later policy and this is generally one used by teams as it is more effective. Especially with someone in front of the net tipping shots in. Lately the Penguins appear to be more content with passing the puck around the zone, cycling it, which gives the opposition a greater chance to clear it through poke checks.

The Penguins need to go back to this original system as it worked greater. I think they also need to explore perhaps splitting the power play at times to keep the opposition on their toes. Right now the second line is showing signs of chemistry and is clicking. Would it not make sense to have them heading up one power play unit and the top line another?

Splitting the power play units is something used against Dallas this season and whilst the Penguins went scoreless they had 7 shots across three power plays and as yet they have yet to match that in a game since. One of the biggest problems with the Penguins is the entry zone plays which has resulted in a lot of offsides. A structured entry allows for a better setup and a sustained zone presence improving the chances of scoring.

So far I have mentioned two things required for a good power play, the last is a good back room team. The Penguins currently have Rick Tocchet as their power play coach and he has had underwhelming results. Last season the Penguins finished with a 19.29% which was 10th in the league and only just above the league average. The league average was 18.66% and of the top 16 teams the Penguins had the fourth lowest number of goals with 49 on 254 attempts.

So far this season the Penguins are 0-17 through five games and they are currently the joint bottom team alongside the Anaheim Ducks. These are the only two teams remaining that are still yet to score on the power play. It might seem early to attack the setup behind the bench after just 5 games but when you have a line-up as star studded as the Penguins then it is a worry.

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Penguins host Leafs looking to double win streak

The Penguins are hoping to double their win collumn with a win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice in the 3rd game of a 5 game homestand which concludes with Dallas and Florida. The Penguins have struggled offensively but going up against a team in rebuild mode such as Toronto should help them break the shackles and open the floodgates.

There has been a lot of interest in Crosby so far this season as he has been held pointless through the first four games of the season. For someone as talented as Crosby this is unprecedented and not welcome. The years before his concussion are a distant memory and it would be great to see him break out of his slump tonight. He needs to build chemistry with his team and whilst he has started to look better with Kessel, his body language is still off.

Having been in attendance for the first two home games his (Crosby) body language was off and a worry. He seemed reluctant to take the puck at times and was skating around the edge of the rink instead of going to the net and getting in the goalies kitchen. He needs to go back to what worked. To be fair to Crosby, against Montreal he was robbed twice by Carey Price.

Elsewhere, Scuderi is back in tonight in place of Clendening who played excellently in the Penguins 2-0 win over Ottawa on Thursday night. I would say I am baffled as to how Scuderi worked his way back in but Johnston seems to have a fixation on Scuderi. He even went as far as to describe him as an excellent penalty killer which is simply not true.

Hopefully, the Penguins get another win tonight and Crosby gets on the board. God knows he needs to. Big questions about him are mounting.

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5 Predictions for the season

With the season starting tomorrow I have had a look at the league and come up with 5 predictions as to what I think will potentially happen. Not everyone will agree with what I have come up with but without the benefit of hindsight, any prediction is, to a degree, as good as another.

1 - The Stanley Cup final will be between the Anaheim Ducks and the Tampa Bay Lightning

Last year the final was between Chicago and  Tampa Bay and whilst many expected Chicago to do well I don't think many expected Tampa to get that far and even push Chicago to six games. With the Blackhawks losing Saad and others along with some new players coming in I think they will take a down year this year. They'll still qualify for the playoffs, but will be eliminated in the Western Conference Final by the Ducks. In the East I think the Lightning will be a stronger and more mature team this year and after beating the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Final they will beat the Ducks in 7 games.

2 - Jaromir Jagr will score 50 points or more with the Florida Panthers.

Jaromir Jagr is fourth in the all time points list just 48 points behind the great Gordie Howe in 3rd. Jagr has made it clear that he wants to carry on playing for as long as possible in the past and hopefully he avoids injuries and is able to continue to cement his legacy. Playing with the Panthers last season his production increased from 0.50 PPG to 0.90 PPG. Whilst that isn't sustainable it is an indication of how well the younger Panthers players work with Jagr and how his play-making abilities complement them well. I can see him hitting 50 points again.

3 - Crosby will score 100+ points again and regain the Art Ross trophy

Last season wasn't Crosby's best season, that much is clear. With the addition of Phil Kessel to his wing he finally has a top winger to play alongside who is being utilised correctly. Kessel will likely break his own seasons best but I can see him and Crosby working incredibly well. There have been glimpses of it in the pre-season and in the new 3-on-3 overtime format they have been a joy to behold. I reckon that Crosby will return to his dominant ways and score 40 goals and 70 assists.

4 - The Arizona Coyotes will come last by at least 15 points.

The Coyotes are at the bottom of the ladder right now and with Edmonton and Buffalo getting better they're only going to struggle. Coyotes have had youth but they do not have depth and some of their better players are ageing in Smith and Doan. This year will be all about coming last and draft Auston Matthews. He will be able to market the team well and be a great addition for them to start pulling in the other direction.

5 - The Vancouver Canucks will miss the playoffs.

Jim Benning isn't coming across as a good GM with the way he is handling the Canucks. The trade for Sutter was lopsided and they haven't added any better players this season to help them challenge. The Sedin's are 35 now and whilst they might still be incredibly gifted they're going to start to decline in the coming years. They can't continue to rely on them to score. Brandon Sutter will struggle in Vancouver as well.

Roll on tomorrow!

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Penguins make camp moves

The Pittsburgh  Penguins have made some tough decisions and cut their roster to 25 players. Two of those players are injured, those being Eric Fehr and Tom Kuhnhackl. Fehr will be put on LTIR and Kuhnhackl will be sent down when healthy. The surprise story is that Daniel  Sprong has made the team and will see at least a 9 game stint before the Penguins decide whether to keep him up or send him down to the QMJHL for the rest of the season.

The Penguins released both players that were on PTO's, Gonchar and Sestito. Sestito has since signed a tryout with the Penguins affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins whilst Gonchar has been offered a behind the bench role if not offered a playing role elsewhere. Gonchar is seen as a good tutoring force for the Russian and/or European players and also a good coach for the young defencemen.

Speaking of young defencemen, Derrick Pouliot was sent down to the Wilkes-Barre Scranton to work on his game.  As mentioned before I don't believe this would be a terrible move as I think he does need to work on his game. As soon as he does that, he'll be back up. Adam Clendening, part of the Sutter trade, has gotten through to the opening night roster however. He has just 21 NHL games to his name but will look to take advantage of this opportunity, no doubt.

In terms of results the Penguins didn't have a great pre-season but some players did show some good glimpses, others not so. Chris Kunitz continued to struggle and watching Scuderi play was like an assault on the eyes. If there is a taker out there then someone needs to take him. He just isn't worth having on the team.

I don't have as much an issue with Chris Kunitz as he is still a fairly decent player but he isn't a first liner any more. He should be on the 3rd line with Pascal Dupuis being centered by Bonino. However, it appears that Perron has fallen out of favour and will occupy that third line due to what Johnston has perceived to be poor play. I don't think the Penguins are going to run an actual "fourth line" in the sense. He wants four scoring lines and with the likes of Perron on the third line, he will get that.

I'm looking forward to the season starting, this season proves to be a promising one for the Penguins lets hope they can back that up with on ice performances.

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