leeroggy
Registered User
- Jan 3, 2010
- 9,475
- 5,773
Last night's game against Dallas certainly exposed our weaknesses and if the rest of the league can do to us what both Dallas in last night's game and Columbus in Game One we can forget about a deep playoff run.
Right now we stand 1 point outside the playoffs . . . sound familiar? There are plusses this year and minuses and not all of either were expected going in. But those two games really showed what types of teams we will struggle with all season with this roster as well as what is necessary to take the steps necessary to get to a legitimate contender. Also, now that the players are adapting to the new rules we can see who is benefitting and who is not. It looks like the number of the new slashing penalties is trending down rapidly, which is a good thing and the hooking penalties really never were a big issue since the league cracked down on those last year so you have to figure the rest of the year will see less penalties.
Both Dallas and Columbus have big teams that can hem us in the defensive zone and both are very good in stuffing the neutral zone against the breakout. Our offense loves to use the board to board pass in the neutral zone to try to get our receiving player a chance to get a head of steam going against more open ice but both of those teams take that away and that really hurts our transition game and forces us to try to stickhandle through too much. Those teams are the ones you need to adjust by chipping and chasing and hopefully getting pressure on a less mobile defense but we did not do much of that last night and in the first game of the season.
Not to panic too much on that . . . these teams are coached this way and not every team in the NHL can play it like they do and we only play Dallas one more time, but the film is there for all to see, and if I can see it so can other teams.
Another issue we have with playing these types of teams (big forwards who can skate fairly well) is that our defense is now our Achilles heel. There’s no getting around it. We have a lower #1 in Leddy, 2 lower middle pairings in Boychuck and DeHaan and everyone else right now has only proven to be bottom pairing quality at best, trying to play out of proper slotting. And a number of them are not comfortable making the play deep in our zone or under pressure and with the way our goalies are playing that is getting magnified.
And we can’t even blame the new rules for the defense’s struggles. We don’t take a lot of the ‘stick’ penalties on defense anyhow, and didn’t in the past. It’s all about the talent level on the back end. We got 14 shots on goal last night and I think the first game against Columbus we had a low number of shots too. Until we have more defensemen who can make a clean first transition pass, instead of struggling against the forecheck we have a ceiling as a team.
When you look at who has been the biggest beneficiary of the new rules you have to start with Barzal. His game is tailored made for these rules. Imagine the hacking he’d be taking on those lengthy rushes and the wide sweeping plays he makes in the offensive zone . . . he’d likely be on IR already under last year’s rules. The top line also has benefitted some. But the downside to the rules is that the two-way pluggers like Ladd, Chimera and Clutterbuck are less effective and likely to stay so. We’ve all noted how much better Ladd is skating this year but it looks to me that none of those three are clearly comfortable playing the forecheck because of the new rules.
Right now, better goalie play will help a lot but there’s a reason why Greiss was never really trusted as a starter in the NHL anywhere he’s been and Halak is the epitome of the high Beta stock you invest in and right now he does not look comfortable. But the better way to mask the goalie deficiency is to cut down on the open shots they are facing. We’ve seen way too many open shots from the slot this season and we were known for forcing the shots from the perimeter and wide before, so the shot quality given up needs to be a big focus too.
Thankfully the Power Play has gotten itself back to average statistically but there’s also the eye test and looking at Dallas last night and some of the other teams that move their players and the puck quicker we know there is still plenty of work to do. But our PK is not consistent yet either and that’s where the goalies really need to step up. Our two goalies rank 48th and 49th in Save percentage in the league right now!
Going forward
There’s going to be some tough choices to make and soon. We’ll put side the JT stuff for now as well as whether Ho-Sang should be up with the team right now (there’s arguments to be made on both sides of that one that are justifiable).
The biggest question we have right now is how do we upgrade the defense to where we have a group that can make transition to offense easier because that’s where we get the most bang for the buck in fixing the weaknesses as well as whether we seriously need to consider trading for a goalie. Keep the other team from hemming us in as well as players who don’t treat the puck like a grenade.
I hate to say it but if there is a way to upgrade on Boychuck to find either a more likely top line player or be able to move him to a second pairing we have to try to do so. His contract is above his performance right now and it won’t get better.
DeHaan looks to me to still be miffed with the contract situation and what was a strength at outlet passing is now not noticeable, partly because we keep changing his defense partner pretty much every game. If I can criticize the coaching staff in one thing it would be the constant revolving door with playing the defense. We have too many defenders who can’t distinguish themselves enough to be consistently in the lineup and that just hurts all of them. If we are letting DeHaan walk this summer we might as well move on and let Pulock and Pelech, when healthy, play together permanently.
Last night we saw why Hickey can not be relied on to be the type of player you can win with in the playoffs, he just can’t play against big forwards who forecheck. Time to move on there too.
So we have to really think about how to get another legit defenseman like what we saw in Dallas last night in Klingberg, who now leads all NHL defensemen in points.
A number of us have been on the main Trade board discussing OEL. If we can’t draft one we have to trade for one and it will hurt. But right now we have all the quantity and then some that we need, we don’t have quality and there are no Top pairing defenders in our system. You draft them or you trade for them.
Even though Pittsburgh has won Cups with a mediocre GROUP, we have no one who was of
Letang’s caliber. And Schultz produced just as well as Leddy did last year. And our goalies versus Murray and Fleury? Different zip codes.
I hope I’m wrong, but right now our ceiling as a team is pretty much right where it has been . . . grind for a playoff position, hope to win a round with a hot goalie . . . that’s about it. Because this team is imbalanced between the goal scoring skill we have versus the ability to feed those players from the back end.
Unless we are willing to bite the bullet and sacrifice some of our offensive skill to beef up the back end.
Right now we stand 1 point outside the playoffs . . . sound familiar? There are plusses this year and minuses and not all of either were expected going in. But those two games really showed what types of teams we will struggle with all season with this roster as well as what is necessary to take the steps necessary to get to a legitimate contender. Also, now that the players are adapting to the new rules we can see who is benefitting and who is not. It looks like the number of the new slashing penalties is trending down rapidly, which is a good thing and the hooking penalties really never were a big issue since the league cracked down on those last year so you have to figure the rest of the year will see less penalties.
Both Dallas and Columbus have big teams that can hem us in the defensive zone and both are very good in stuffing the neutral zone against the breakout. Our offense loves to use the board to board pass in the neutral zone to try to get our receiving player a chance to get a head of steam going against more open ice but both of those teams take that away and that really hurts our transition game and forces us to try to stickhandle through too much. Those teams are the ones you need to adjust by chipping and chasing and hopefully getting pressure on a less mobile defense but we did not do much of that last night and in the first game of the season.
Not to panic too much on that . . . these teams are coached this way and not every team in the NHL can play it like they do and we only play Dallas one more time, but the film is there for all to see, and if I can see it so can other teams.
Another issue we have with playing these types of teams (big forwards who can skate fairly well) is that our defense is now our Achilles heel. There’s no getting around it. We have a lower #1 in Leddy, 2 lower middle pairings in Boychuck and DeHaan and everyone else right now has only proven to be bottom pairing quality at best, trying to play out of proper slotting. And a number of them are not comfortable making the play deep in our zone or under pressure and with the way our goalies are playing that is getting magnified.
And we can’t even blame the new rules for the defense’s struggles. We don’t take a lot of the ‘stick’ penalties on defense anyhow, and didn’t in the past. It’s all about the talent level on the back end. We got 14 shots on goal last night and I think the first game against Columbus we had a low number of shots too. Until we have more defensemen who can make a clean first transition pass, instead of struggling against the forecheck we have a ceiling as a team.
When you look at who has been the biggest beneficiary of the new rules you have to start with Barzal. His game is tailored made for these rules. Imagine the hacking he’d be taking on those lengthy rushes and the wide sweeping plays he makes in the offensive zone . . . he’d likely be on IR already under last year’s rules. The top line also has benefitted some. But the downside to the rules is that the two-way pluggers like Ladd, Chimera and Clutterbuck are less effective and likely to stay so. We’ve all noted how much better Ladd is skating this year but it looks to me that none of those three are clearly comfortable playing the forecheck because of the new rules.
Right now, better goalie play will help a lot but there’s a reason why Greiss was never really trusted as a starter in the NHL anywhere he’s been and Halak is the epitome of the high Beta stock you invest in and right now he does not look comfortable. But the better way to mask the goalie deficiency is to cut down on the open shots they are facing. We’ve seen way too many open shots from the slot this season and we were known for forcing the shots from the perimeter and wide before, so the shot quality given up needs to be a big focus too.
Thankfully the Power Play has gotten itself back to average statistically but there’s also the eye test and looking at Dallas last night and some of the other teams that move their players and the puck quicker we know there is still plenty of work to do. But our PK is not consistent yet either and that’s where the goalies really need to step up. Our two goalies rank 48th and 49th in Save percentage in the league right now!
Going forward
There’s going to be some tough choices to make and soon. We’ll put side the JT stuff for now as well as whether Ho-Sang should be up with the team right now (there’s arguments to be made on both sides of that one that are justifiable).
The biggest question we have right now is how do we upgrade the defense to where we have a group that can make transition to offense easier because that’s where we get the most bang for the buck in fixing the weaknesses as well as whether we seriously need to consider trading for a goalie. Keep the other team from hemming us in as well as players who don’t treat the puck like a grenade.
I hate to say it but if there is a way to upgrade on Boychuck to find either a more likely top line player or be able to move him to a second pairing we have to try to do so. His contract is above his performance right now and it won’t get better.
DeHaan looks to me to still be miffed with the contract situation and what was a strength at outlet passing is now not noticeable, partly because we keep changing his defense partner pretty much every game. If I can criticize the coaching staff in one thing it would be the constant revolving door with playing the defense. We have too many defenders who can’t distinguish themselves enough to be consistently in the lineup and that just hurts all of them. If we are letting DeHaan walk this summer we might as well move on and let Pulock and Pelech, when healthy, play together permanently.
Last night we saw why Hickey can not be relied on to be the type of player you can win with in the playoffs, he just can’t play against big forwards who forecheck. Time to move on there too.
So we have to really think about how to get another legit defenseman like what we saw in Dallas last night in Klingberg, who now leads all NHL defensemen in points.
A number of us have been on the main Trade board discussing OEL. If we can’t draft one we have to trade for one and it will hurt. But right now we have all the quantity and then some that we need, we don’t have quality and there are no Top pairing defenders in our system. You draft them or you trade for them.
Even though Pittsburgh has won Cups with a mediocre GROUP, we have no one who was of
Letang’s caliber. And Schultz produced just as well as Leddy did last year. And our goalies versus Murray and Fleury? Different zip codes.
I hope I’m wrong, but right now our ceiling as a team is pretty much right where it has been . . . grind for a playoff position, hope to win a round with a hot goalie . . . that’s about it. Because this team is imbalanced between the goal scoring skill we have versus the ability to feed those players from the back end.
Unless we are willing to bite the bullet and sacrifice some of our offensive skill to beef up the back end.
