Defensemen Corsi Rating

Our boy JP loves him some Corsi Rating...What the heck is that?

It's a measure (here's last night's game) that explains, well, let's just rip off his explanation:

For example, if Player A skates a shift in which he takes a shot that misses the net, his teammate then puts one on goal and another teammate blocks a shot at the other end before the end of Player A's shift, Player A will have a +1 Corsi Rating for that shift. To put it in context, Henrik Zetterberg had the League's best Corsi Rating a season ago and a bunch of Thrashers were at the bottom. Basically it's another tool in the analytical arsenal to gauge a player's even strength effectiveness. Got it? Good

Now, as you've doubtlessly noticed, the Pens have allowed quite a bit of rubber at their goalies, which will lead to the several negative Corsi ratings you're about to see. Further a bunch of Penguins defensemen (Hal Gill, Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, Mark Eaton) have the offensive instincts and put less shots on goal than the kids who play during intermission. To that point those four d-men have combined for 17 shots on goal in 31 man games....But hey, they've also as many goals (2) as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin do, so you can't knock them too much, the point being if you're not shooting and your partner doesn't shoot much, you're probably looking at a bad Corsi.


But who would have thought rookie Alex Goligoski's at the head of the class? And remember, Corsi only measures of even strength instances (click to enlarge)

Let's Go Camping

As you've doubtlessly seen, Jesse from Faceoff Factor did a spectacular job recapping Day 1 of Pens on-ice training camp over at the blog. Here's our take:

• Perhaps the most interesting tidbit were how the players lined up. With such a short camp (it's only sixteen days away from opening night) the Pens can try different combinations but they don't have the time to try things that won't work. Based off of expectations, here's how the forward lines looked (teams were staggered to make it even): Dupuis/Crosby/Satan, Staal/Malkin/Sykora, Fedotenko/Talbot/Cooke, Pesonen/Taffe/Kennedy
• As you can tell, the question about where Jordan Staal will play, at least for Day 1, seems to be answered. If he remains on Evgeni Malkin's wing with Sykora the Penguins have arguably replaced Ryan Malone with a bigger, younger, and dare we say better power forward. According to the PG, this line lost the scrimmage 3-1 but Staal scored the only goal
• FF's first point was how great Miroslav Satan looked taking passes from Crosby. This doesn't surprise us, Satan puts the puck in the net and Crosby should be putting them on platters for him all season long. In the scrimmage (a 3-1 for this line) Satan scored 2 of the goals.
• The D pairings were: Orpik/Gonchar, Eaton/Letang, Scuderi/Gill, Goligoski/Sydor
• High praise was given for the duo of Mark Eaton and Kris Letang. If Eaton can stay healthy it'll be a huge defensive boost for the Penguins this year. Letang's importance to play more purposeful hockey is obviously at a premium too with Ryan Whitney out of the lineup for months.

Great to even hear reports of camp and know the boys are back in town, back at work.

Pens keep Eaton, sign a fighter, lose two more UFAs

The Penguins signed Mark Eaton, two years $2 million (source: TSN). A great signing if Eaton can stay healthy. Eaton played well with Sergei Gonchar on the top pairing before his knee injury, so one has to wonder if the Pens intend to stick him back there with Gonchar and come to terms with Brooks Orpik going somewhere else. The Pens now have seven defenseman on the roster and that doesn't even count Alex Goligoski who tore through the AHL playoffs.

The Pens also signed Eric Godard. He's regarded as a pretty solid fighter, but his hockey skills leave to be desired. This probably means the end of Georges Laraque's stint as a Penguin. Godard doesn't have to play much, even if dressed he won't take the ice much which could mean more opportunities for Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to double shift and increase their own ice time.

Tampa Bay, in their continuing effort to sign every free agent under the sun (especially if they're from Pittsburgh) signed Adam Hall, three years $1.8 million. Can't really blame Hall, as I'm sure the Pens contract wasn't three years. But still Hall owes something to his former aGM Ray Shero for inviting him to training camp last year when it seemed his NHL career was over.

Also, it's somewhat sad to report the Conkblock has moved on, signing a one year deal with Detroit. We wish he could have gotten the shot to be a number 1 goalie somewhere (like Colorado) but in the end he's going to a great organization. Also Conklin should fit in well with Detroit with how he handles the puck and can hold a team in the game.

A lot of rumors flying around as to who's fielding offers from where. Stay tuned.

And no, we're not even going to touch this one with a stick.

Rough Recap for TSN

TSN is owned by ESPN, so I guess you'd expect these types of mistakes in their game recap that they're using as the lead story on their website.

"Ryan Christensen and rookie Kris Letang scored for Pittsburgh in the shootout, both beating Tim Thomas"

If that wasn't enough....

"Pittsburgh D Adam Eaton was forced out late with what appeared to be a shoulder injury."

Adam Eaton = shitty Philadelphia/San Diego baseball player
Mark Eaton = anonymous but important defenseman.

Come on now, TSN.

Pens strike Oil and the Anatomy of a Good Coaching move

Road win tonight, unlikey since the Pens were 1-9-2 this season when entering the 3rd period. But here's what I found most interesting:

--The first two periods were the quietest of Sidney Crosby's season so far. For whatever reason, he didn't have his usual spark, his game wasn't there. So to the dismay of messgae board posters, Michel Therrien puts Crosby on the bench for about 6-7 minutes; obviously something unusual for your #1 center and star player on a night when you're only dressing 11 forwards anyways.

How does Crosby respond? With one of his most forceful periods in the 3rd, where he had 3 assists.

Credit Crosby for really responding. Whether sitting the bench refined his focus, gave him perspective, gave him a minute to catch his breath from all the interviews and pressure for going to Western Canada, whatever. Whatever it was, it worked.

A lot of fans are quick to scream bloody murder when a coach does something they disagree with and don't give much credit for when a decision/strategy/plan pays off. Credit Therrien for doing what he thought was right. It wasn't as if he benched Crosby for a period, but he did sit him long enough to send a message. And by the way Sir Sid responded, clearly the intended effects worked 100%.

Other notes:
``You could tell Edmonton backed off once they had a 2 goal lead. A lot of dumping and chasing and clogging the neutral zone. Bad mistake. You can't back off on a team with so much firepower. 4 goals in 7:25 minutes later, the Oilers probably learned this lesson.
``Sergei Gonchar's return to the lineup and no defensemen were scratched, 7 played. Adam Hall joined Jarrko Ruutu as healthy scratches. Old Man Recchi was technically a healthy scratch, but since he didn't even make the road trip, obviously he's not really a part of the team.
``Maxime Talbot's diving effort on the first goal really lit a fire under the team too. His effort and enthusiam is contagious. It shows. He's such a valuable player.
``Marc-Andre Fleury was THIS close to scoring an empty net goal. Defenseman Tom Gilbert was the last line of defense and he barely got his glove on a clearing effort that appeared to be otherwise on target. The Oil quickly took the puck the other way and Fleury remained sharp making a good save on super rookie Sam Gagner. Another good, if not spectacular game, for Fleury. He did what he had too and he really looks confident out there right now. That's a good sign.
``Quiet night for guys like Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora. But Mark Eaton and Colby Armstrong each had 2 point nights. So figure. Armstrong scored what would be the game winner on a deflection of a Eaton shot. Colby very well have just stolen the only goal Eaton would get all year, but given the team won, I doubt Eaton would mind.

A win is a win is a win. The Penguins dominated about the first 7-8 minutes in the game and then fell into a big rut until about the last 15. But at the end of the season these two points will look just the same as a complete 60 minute effort.

The Penguins don't have too long to celebrate as there's a game tomorrow night in Calgary. Calgary's been surprisingly loose in giving up goals by their standards from past years, so hopefully momentum will carry over a little bit.

Crosby should be on Dallas....He's a Star

The Penguins make it 3 wins in a row with a solid 4-1 showing at home over the Dallas Stars. Sidney Crosby, as usual, set the tone for the Pens. This time is was a goal on the opening shift, just :24 into the game. When Jordan Staal forced a turnover and got the puck to Tyler Kennedy (who in turn absolutely wired it over Mike Smith's shoulder) just 3:38 into the game, the rout was on. Dallas, not Pittsburgh looked like the team that hadn't played a game in almost a week. Nope, no signs of rust here. So here's my game observations before a trip tomorrow to another struggling opponent, the Make Beliefs.

• The Penguins are .500 for the first time since November 7th. Time to keep climbing. All four lines played well. The lower lines grided, the skill guys made skill plays.
• Early in the game, someone named Krys Barch decided he wanted to fight Georges Laraque. Barch decided to use the back of his head to smash BGL's fist about 5 times, then get tired and fall. Laraque easily retains his crown as the NHL's Heavyweight Champion.
• No Sergei Gonchar, no problem. For tonight at least. Ryan Whitney played the most minutes for defenseman (26:15) but that was inflated for all the PP time at the end of the game. Pretty much all the defensemen picked up the slack and did what they do best. Brooks Orpik hit (a game high 9 hits), Mark Eaton blocked 5 shots (and was named the 3rd star of the game), Robert Scuderi chewed up minutes, Darryl Sydor jumped right back in the lineup (more later) and Kris Letang didn't make any rookie mistakes.
• 5 points (1g, 4a) in the past 3 games for Colby Armstrong (the 2nd star of the night). He's responded well from his frequent healthy scratches.
• Crosby shot the puck 11 times. 2 scored, 6 were saved by Smith, 2 got blocked and 1 missed the net. Any time Sid is shooting that much, I like how it's looking.
• Sydor easily transitioned back into the lineup, and even though he screened Marc-Andre Fleury on the only goal against, he made the play perfectly on Crosby's 2nd goal. Sydor belongs with the Pens, not on Old Man Recchi's train out of town.
• Speaking of the netminder, Fleury was near perfect. The only goal he gave up was the result of a bad Ryan Malone turnover that developed into a 2 on 2 that Mike Ribeiro took a great shot on. Fleury didn't make any 5 star saves, but he didn't have to. Still, he stopped 22 of 23, something the Pens will take every time.
• Jordan Staal had a really authoritative night, as mentioned he made Kennedy's gamewinner happen, but he was just 20% (2 for 10) in the faceoff circle.
• Speaking of Mr. Kennedy, he had his best night in a Penguin sweater so far, being an absolute buzzsaw hustling around the ice, winning battles and of course, scoring the game winning goal.
• Saving the best individual play for last: Petr Sykora did his thing and threw a puck for the easiest goal Malkin could hope for. Erik Christensen's role of driving to the net won't make the headlines, but you can bet he had the Dallas goalie's attention.

As you can see, I pretty much mentioned every member of the Pens team (except for maybe Adam Hall and Dany Sabs), something I don't normally do... It was a great team effort tonight. The skill players showcased their skill, the fighter fought, the grinders grinded, the defenseman defensed and the netminder minded his net. A tremendous effort that was near perfect.

Hopefully the team doesn't read blogs like this and start thinking how good they are. They're only at .500 and far from a playoff spot. Still, the last 3 games have been very, very encouraging.

Impact of Kris Letang

Something I found interesting, courtesy as always of Jon Bombulie:

Another number you might find interesting. WBS power play with Kris Letang in the lineup -- 11-66 (16.7 percent). Without Letang in the lineup -- 4-50 (8.0 percent). Twice as good.

Terrific statistic from a defenseman, especially a professional rookie.

Tonight the Penguins take on Atlanta Thrashers, who've been good since their coaching change, but no player has been better offensively since Todd White got to center the top line with superstars Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa. The Sarge and Mark Eaton are quietly going to have their hands full stopping the engine that's made the T-bombs drive.....And if it's not so quiet the Pens are in for a long night.

A long November

Well, I suppose one point is better than no points, after the Penguins lose tonight in overtime from a most unlikely source: Jason Strudwick.

The good:
``Sidney Crosby pushes his scoring streak to 19 games with a sensational effort, 1 shorthanded assist (a tap-in for Maxime Talbot) and a goal from an impossible angle. As usual Crosby was the best player on the ice and making good things happen for the Pens left and right.
``Geno extends his personal best point streak to 13 games on a primary assist on Petr Sykora's game tying 3rd period goal. Malkin was clearly the 2nd best player tonight "galloping" around the ice, beating defensemen, setting players up. Another awesome display.
``Ryan Malone showed great effort and had a season high 5 hits.
``Mark Eaton, as usual, was very solid and had 23:29 of icetime and was a +2.

The bad:
``Marc-Andre Fleury didn't do enough to win, surrendering 4 goals of 26 shots.
``Michel Therrien scratched two of the youngest forwards (Colby Armstrong and Tyler Kennedy) in favor of Gary Roberts and Old Man Recchi.....The vets responded with a combined 24 minutes of ice-time, 4 fairly pedestrian shots and nothing else.
``The Pens took 7 penalties; all but one were of the lazy variety (hooking and tripping). And only one powerplay was generated. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize your odds aren't very good to go 1 powerplay against 7 penalty kills and come away with a W.
``All goals scored by the Rangers were defensemen, most of them coming on transition plays, which, of course, means blown coverage by the Penguins forwards.

Thoughts:
``Does anyone miss Darryl Sydor or have noticed that he's been scratched for two straight games now? Didn't think so. Kris Letang has acquitted himself decently, and obviously Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney are staples in the lineup. The unsung trio (Eaton, Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi) have done nothing to deserve getting taken out of the lineup.
``Still need to see forwards not named Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin generate offense.....As per usual, didn't happen tonight. But if the Pens have any hopes of playoffs, it needs to. I'm looking at you, Gary Roberts, Mark Recchi, Erik Christensen and Jordan Staal.
``Speaking of, has anyone seen Jordan Staal? 19 minutes of icetime tonight and not a shot to be had. Classic sophomore slump. But remember: dude is 19 years old, not many teenagers are a staple of the penalty kill like Staal was, logging 7:40 minutes of short-handed time and not being on the ice for a goal against.
``Don't look now but Ryan Whitney blocked a team high 4 shots tonight and was credited for a hit. Hardly highlight worthy, but at least he's out there trying.
``As usual Gonchar lead all skaters in icetime on both teams, with 27:00 minutes. Quietly he's the glue holding this team together (other than Crosby and Malkin of course). God forbid, but if either Sid or Geno got hurt the other could pick up the slack.....No Penguin defenseman could pickup the matchups or eat up the minutes Gonchar does (7:05 shorthanded tonight)....To brake up the Sarge love-fest he rushed the puck end-to-end and couldn't get back in time for Strudwick's OT winner. Gotta take the good with the bad.

So what's a trigger happy coach like Therrien to do? Nobody asked me, but my advice would be:

• Insert Armstrong and Kennedy in the lineup (at the expense of Recchi and Jarrko Ruutu). Don't change the defense. No one has merited a scratch, Sydor should continue to sit. He's a pro and making $2.5 million, he can handle it.
• And, for the love of God, leave Fleury in. If the Penguins sink or swim, it's going to be with him. And almost a quarter of the way into the season it's past time to find out now before it's too late.
  

Not good times, but as mentioned, a 1 point night is better than a 0 point night. Still hurts to give up a 2 goal lead. Hat tip to our old buddy Michal Rozsival on his 2 goal night. And kudos to Eaton and Gonchar to hold the ever dangerous Jammer Jagger to no points and no shots.

It's worth mentioning that with only one game to go in this crucial 9 game series of playing divisional opponents, the Penguins have gone 2-5-1, gathering only 5 of a possible 16 points. But more importantly, the lost points are all going to every other divisional opponent which makes the hill to climb that much steeper.

The end result is not nearly enough to get the job done and pretty disappointing; given how purely awesome Crosby and Malkin played. At this point the best hope is just to at least get the next two points and carry on to the next segment of the season.

Chin Up Sid

You can tell this is killing Sidney Crosby. But the NHL's youngest captain has set an excellent example for his team to follow. Such as:

--A 17 game (and counting) point streak, which has tied him with Henrik Zetterberg for the NHL's lead.

--On pace to score 46 goals!

--Taking the 3rd most faceoffs in the NHL so far, winning 55.0% of his draws, a huge personal improvement over last year (49.8% for the entire year). Other notable centers so far: Joe Thornton (62.6%), Rod Brind'Amour (55.4%), Mats Sundin (54.0%), Vincent Lecavalier (46.1%), Eric Staal (45.8%). Remember folks, Crosby is still 20 years old. He's showing improvement that other young center (Staal, Lecavalier) are not.


And, in general, let's find some bright spots for the Penguins:

``Evgeni Malkin joins Crosby at the top of the assists lead, with 17.

``Mark Eaton is 5th in the NHL with 48 blocked shots. Which makes you appreciate just how skilled the best at this craft is (Ottawa's Anton Volchenkov is 1st in the NHL with 72 blocked shots in 16 games).

``Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi share 27th in the NHL in blocked shots; each of them blocking 32.

``Orpik is 6th among defensemen in the league in hits, being credited with 47.
It's not all doom and gloom....Just 95%!

Going into the Flyers game tonight...

Things are still up and down and frustrating.

The Penguins come into tonight's matchup 7-6-1, good for 15 points in 14 games. Which is not that good.

They're tied for 3rd in the Atlantic (with a game in hand) with the New York Rangers.

Overall in the East, the Penguins are in a 4-way tie for 6th place. But the team in last place (fimiliar to see Washington) is only four points back, so things are much more clustered in the middle-to-lower part of the conference then up top, where Ottawa (26 points) and Carolina (21 points) are starting to break away from the pack.

Stats that will make a Penguins fan smile:

• -The Penguins are currently on a 13 game streak of scoring atleast one powerplay goal. As mentioned here, they can tie the NHL record of 14 games (held by the 1989 Penguins) tonight.



• -As you'd expect with a powerplay clicking like that, it ranks well. 3rd in the NHL at the moment at a rate of 24.3%.

-Quietly the penalty-kill is 8th best in the NHL, success rate of 86.4%

-Crosby has a 13 game point streak, and is 2nd in the league in scoring. Malkin is tied for 8th in the league in scoring.

-Guys like Brooks Orpik (35 hits, 27 blocked shots), Mark Eaton (10 hits, 39 blocked shots) and Robert Scuderi (27 blocked shots) have been stellar at their roles of low profile but highly effective defensive defensemen.

-Crosby has won 53.9% of his faceoffs, up considerably from last season.

Stats that have been making Penguins fans' blood pressure go up:

-The Penguins are -6 when considering their 5 on 5 play (24 GF and 30 GA).

-Jordan Staal has 1 goal and 1 assist through 14 games. And is only averaging 0:46 powerplay ice time per game.

-Mark Recchi is averaging 17 minutes of icetime and has 1 goal to show for it.

-Marc-Andre Fleury has been inconsistent.

-Ryan Whitney has 19 giveaways and 2 takeaways and hasn't shined like he did last year.

-Sergei Gonchar is 8th in the league with 22 "missed shots".



Up and down and up some more. Hopefully the boys can continue to right the ship. The Flyers are much different from the team that got beaten 8 times by the Penguins last year. Should be an intense and interesting game.

Aces Wild: Pens Win

Big 4-2 win on the road tonight against a Minnesota team that's been one of the NHL's strongest over the first month of the season (7-3-2 record good for 2nd in the West). Even better though, this was the first time of the season that the Penguins really put in a solid 60 minutes of effort and played well at both ends of the ice. Game notes

• Obviously this game was all about Sidney Crosby (1g, 3a, +3, 4 SOG, 3 hits, 68% faceoffs (15-7), 21:30 TOI) and Evgeni Malkin (2g, 1a, +3, 3 SOG, 4 PIM, 19:40 TOI). I was against using them on the same line long-term, but on a night like this why not? They were dominant and it showed.


• Ryan Malone deserves a lot of credit too. He's played really well this year and opened up room on the top line. If he gives this type of effort every night this team is going places...Malone's knock has always been consistency and periods of no production over long stretches but he's answered the bell so far this year...It's almost like he's a UFA at the end of the year or something...


• The defense played very solid as well. As usual, Sergei Gonchar led all skaters on the Penguins with 24:38 in icetime. But the defensemen with the least amount of icetime was Darryl Sydor and he had 16:25. Most fell into the 19-20 minute range. Good balance. And, if I'm going to go on forever with Sid and Geno's statline it's worth mentioning these unsung heroes: Mark Eaton (20:28 TOI, 8 blocked shots), Brooks Orpik (3 hits, 4 blocked shots). That's not a typo, Eaton really did block 8 shots.


• Petr Sykora showed why he's a slick goal scorer with his powerplay goal. Dude has a heck of a release on that shot. Hopefully he keeps getting a lot of PP time, he's notorious for scoring slumps so it's good to see him producing.


• Michel Therrien must have gotten the message loud and clear: Old Man Recchi had but 13:30 icetime. He's good in that role. His line with Adam Hall and rook Tyler Kennedy play well as a lower line unit. And that's basically the same role Recchi played for Carolina when they won the cup.


• Is there a goalie controversy? Sabourin was great. He made the saves he need to make, the Wild were frantic but Sabs was strong. Really, if you took the numbers off both goalies backs (and, I suppose the identifying yellow pads away), you'd probably have to say Sabourin deserves the next start. But this team is not going to go places with Sabs, it's going to have to be Marc-Andre Fleury taking them places....Stay tuned.

Now it's off to Colorado for a game against a team with a pretty fair home record so far (5-0-0).

Oh yeah, don't forget Sidney Crosby is now up to 5th place in the NHL in scoring with 17 points. He is on a 10 game point scoring streak. Malkin is tied for 7th in the league, right behind him with 16 points.

Stop me if you've heard this one before

The Penguins get outshot, outchanced, outworked and the difference in the game is the first powerplay unit featuring Sidney Crosby, Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Whitney and Evgeni Malkin. Marc-Andre Fleury plays great and stops every puck he sees (and he saw them all tonight).

No, I'm no longer talking about Saturday night's game against the Caps, this was basically the synopsis of the Penguins first shutout of the year, a 1-0 blanking of the Rangers. Game notes:

• Malkin was clearly the best player on the ice. He was making things happen with the puck, rushing it up the ice all night long, and generally having his way with the Rags. He also fired a pass from Jordan Staal off the post for what would have been a second goal.
• The Penguins were lucky enough to catch what was thought of being a high-powered Rangers team in a very big drought (no even-strength goals in 340+ minutes, no goals period in atleast 125+ minutes). Sweater Ted favorite, Marty Straka just got hurt. Shanahan is snake bitten right now. And try as Jammer Jagr did, he was dangerous but the best he could do was throw his heavy wrist shot off a post once. One 600+ goal scorer doesn't stay in a rut for too long, let alone TWO! I wouldn't imagine it's going to be too long before NYR breaks out for a 5 or 6 goal game in the near future.
• Fleury was great, stopping all 36 shots on net but the defense was sensational, officially blocking 13 shots (led by Mark Eaton with 4).
• Lord Sergei Gonchar continued his under-valued defensive play by frustrating Jagr and playing a game high 24:38 and blocking 3 shots.
• Crosby was an amazing 65% (11 of 17) in the faceoff circle, Max Talbot was at 58% (7 of 12), and the team as a whole was 53%, very good for a traditionally poor Pens team.
• Brooks Orpik was credited with a game high 6 hits, and recognized as the 3rd star of the game for that. After playing a little tentatively since getting a concussion almost 2 weeks ago, it's clear Orpik is back and at full strength and confidence now.

If you win a game 1-0, you have to do the little things right. The Penguins blocked shots, won faceoffs, dished out checks, and yes, got a little lucky that things aren't going the right way for their opponent right now.

There's still plenty of things to address, such as getting more shots on net, getting more puck control, limiting the amount of shot opportunities you're giving up, but a Pens fans has to be content with seeing the team throw out a great, well-rounded effort. Probably the best game of the season.

Some overall notes:

• Ever since Bob McKenzie of TSN reported the Pens were actively looking for dealing for a goaltender (denied by the Penguins), Marc-Andre Fleury has stopped 67 of 68 (98.5%) shots in two games. And the only one that got by him was because he saw more of Ryan Whitney not clearing the crease then he did the puck.
• Sidney Crosby is now on a 7 game point streak.