But wouldn't that mean that the PK unit would only have to focus on one player? With Sid and Geno out together, they'd have to keep somebody on both of them, thus being more likely to leave a gap in their defense and allowing our guys more chances to score?
When players change or pairings change, they won't have the benefit to put their top shutdown players out for two fresh units back to back.
When healthy:
PP1A- Perron, Crosby, Hornqvist
D-pairings are not the issue here and both will be left out.
PP1B - Kunitz, Malkin, Bennett
Guys who can be subbed in: Sutter, Downie, and Comeau in Lieu of injuries.
Malkin, Kunitz, and Neal worked just fine without Crosby when he was sidelined with his head injury.
To say There's no proof to support it would be pretty bad considering how much those two have missed over the recent past.
Kunitz also has increased his PP goals each and every season going 6>9>13, and he's at 6 this season. Kunitz has worked his way to being a PP specialist. Even if we don't see it that way.
Obviously Neal is gone, but with Perron and Hornqvist they have made that difference up. Malkin is wasted at the point beyond his slap-shots.
The only question mark is how much Bennett can stick there.(injuries)
Bennett (RHS) would be on the LW boards with Kunitz in front and Malkin doing his RW boards thing.
People just don't get this below screws up their PP.
----------------[NET]----Crosby
-------------Kunitz/Horn
Perron--------------------------Malkin
-------------Letang/Ehrhoff
You always have your two best players on the same side of the ice.
Now change it up:
----------------------[NET]
-------------------Kunitz/Horn
----Perron
----------------------------------------Malkin
---------Crosby
--------------------Letang/Ehrhoff
Your quarterback is Malkin because he has way more options open to him than Sid standing at the RW goal-line. You could do the same if you mirror this with Kunitz in Perron's positioning on the RW. They'd just play tag in front of the net. Same with Hornqvist being used in Perron's position the tagging in to the front of the net and Kunitz tags out.
The entire problem here is neither Geno or Sid want to be there fulltime.
The second setup allows Geno to slide up and down the boards for his one-timer that is shades of Stamkos.
The Pens are --------------------------------------RW heavy. Perron and Hornqvist balance that out a bit, but that means Sid and Geno need to shoot more often.