Цитата:
— The biggest development for the Penguins last two games is the third line winger play.
The Penguins are built where they need their third line wingers to create offensively and be factors, to off-set a less skilled group of bottom-6 centers in Riley Sheahan/Greg McKegg/Carter Rowney.
The level of play from Conor Sheary and Patric Hornqvist has been tremendous the last two games.
Vs Buffalo Sheary and Hornqvist were impacting the game in every facet. Sheary was on the ice for 20 shot attempts, 3 against, Hornqvist 16/2 and Riley Sheahan (20/4) had his finest game as a Penguin.
What was such a rarity for the Penguins 20+ games in now, was how Pittsburgh’s third line fared against Buffalo’s best line.
When Sheahan and Sheary were on the ice together, Pittsburgh controlled 100% of their shot attempts (8/0) against Jack Eichel.
The smarts of Hornqvist and Sheahan as fore-checkers saw the line punish Buffalo’s lower caliber defensemen, notably Jake McCabe and Taylor Fedun where the Penguins third line was at 80% when driving possession against that pairing, including a 17/4 edge in shot attempts when out against McCabe.
The Sabres are a team that wants to play with a quick pace under Phil Housley but they don’t have the D to play that style and that was a matchup where Sheahan’s hockey IQ was able to see him impact a game positively in the offensive end as Buffalo’s D lacks quick precise passes out of their own end.
Against the Senators was another matchup against a team that sits back and plays more of a patience style and they’re not a team that hounds you with speed.
It saw Sheary be able to use his speed really well again and Hornqvist was excellent again on the forecheck and around the net. Sheahan had a second straight game where he had stretches of offensive zone time, where previous games he has often been one and done in the offensive zone.
For Pittsburgh’s third line to become a serious factor this season on a consistent basis, it starts with the wingers being able to carry the line.
The last two games that played out in a big way with Sheary providing the speed/high-level ability to possess the puck on zone entries and Patric Hornqvist doing Patric Hornqvist things below the dots.
With Riley Sheahan, some of the hockey smarts shined vs the Sabres and Senators where he can be someone who can have some value to a team like the Penguins as the 4th line center.
For him to prove he can be the answer to the third line center situation, he needs to show he can adapt his game against teams that play a fast skating game, type of teams the East is littered with. So far the results have been very poor against those type of teams from his time with the Red Wings to his stint with the Penguins so far.
Coming off two pretty good performances vs Sabres and Senators, Saturday’s game vs a highly skilled Chicago team will be a good evaluation test for Sheahan and the step forward the third line took the last two games.
Инсайдер про третье звено.