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One of the biggest complaints about Mike Johnston’s system was how deep the centers played in the d-zone. That will be a change under Mike Sullivan as a focus is going to be on trying to score more off the rush and having the centers play higher.

Under Johnston everything was about defending the cycle and most evaluators point to that as a reason for Sidney Crosby’s drop off. For Johnston, though, he was always stuck in a tough spot as at the end of the season the GM was all about Sidney Crosby playing deep in his own end.

“I’m so proud of what he [Sidney Crosby] did in becoming that all-around player coming back in his own end deep and helping out”, - Jim Rutherford said at his end of the season press conference on April 28th.

Benz: What We Learned From Mike Sullivan’s Coaching Debut

ON MIKE SULLIVAN’S DEBUT BEHIND THE BENCH

Washington Capitals

Beau Bennett is hurt again. But that’s probably not a fair assessment as to whether or not anything will change with Mike Sullivan as the new coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Only a yet to be discovered alignment of the planets will likely change that fate.

As far as matters that can be controlled by the human beings running the team, Monday night’s box score also suggests that the Mike Johnston-to-Mike Sullivan swap won’t yield much of a difference. Another loss (4-1 to Washington) in which Pittsburgh struggled offensively. Another empty effort on the power play. Another night where the Pens gave the puck away more often than they took it away.

But a deeper look at the numbers infers some good may come from the coaching change. The Penguins did generate 45 shots on goal. They uncorked 34 more that were either blocked or missed the net. They also tallied 34 scoring chances.

And, on a more intangible angle, they actually looked like they were trying hard. That was something that general manager Jim Rutherford said was lacking from his team under Johnston at times. But on Monday, the Pens went hit- for-hit with the Capitals (37-36 Pittsburgh). They battled in the faceoff circle winning 54% of draws. And Nick Bonino even got into a fight, a rare occurrence at Penguin games of late.

“I thought we played with energy. I liked our aggression. I thought we were on the puck. Our feet were moving,” said Sullivan after the loss.

So, that stuff was good….right?! That was the sign for hope that this coaching change may help the club…perhaps?

But some unfortunately familiar issues continued to plague the Penguins in Sullivan’s debut. One of which, by the admission of the players, was still an inability to get the puck out of their own end and through the neutral zone with consistency.

“Execution wise, I think he (coach Sullivan) wants us to make a few more plays coming out of our end. I think he wants us to be more poised in that area. I thought we showed signs of that in different parts of the game. But it’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” said team captain Sidney Crosby.

This is something that could be fixed in part by last night’s acquisition of Trevor Daley from Chicago. With him coming in, and Rob Scuderi heading out, Rutherford is hoping that equates to a better Penguin transition game.

“Trevor can skate. He can move the puck. That’s something we have talked about. Trying to improve that…improve our back end by getting more puck movers. And he can certainly do that,” said GM Jim Rutherford.

The power play was also a disappointment as Sullivan admitted the team passed up some shooting opportunities that were present. Another area of frustration that seems to be carrying over for coaches, management, and fans alike.

But what may have been the biggest reason for Johnston’s undoing manifested itself once again in Sullivan’s debut. And as was the case with Johnston, this may be something Sullivan can’t fix. This was another evening when Pittsburgh’s alleged “high level talent” failed to cash in on numerous scoring chances.

Evgeni Malkin scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal on a deflection. But in a combined 16 other attempts Malkin, Crosby, and Phil Kessel failed to score. For being some of the most skilled players in the world, the Penguins sure do have a hard time burying chances. Pittsburgh is 24th in 5-on-5 shooting percentage at 6.5%.

“I think we need to do a better job of taking the goalie’s sight lines away,” Sullivan pointed out. “I thought we generated a lot of shots. But I thought he saw a fair amount of them. We need to make it more difficult on our opponents’ goaltenders by getting more people to the blue paint.”

That also can be a product of harder work. But now that the Scuderi/Daley trade has been made, all the answers are going to have to come from within for a while, as Rutherford has stated he wants Sullivan to get accustomed to the current roster before making any more deals.

“I’d like to give Mike a little time with this group and see how it settles in. And then we will take a look at it,” confirmed Rutherford. “I think our team is pretty good. But we need to get a few breaks around the net.”

So Rutherford is comfortable with the current roster and coaching staff for now. But if the Penguins are still on the outside of the playoffs looking in at the trade deadline, expect that notion to change. Because it may be the GM’s job that’s on the line by then.

Changing the Coach Wasn’t going to fix Penguins Biggest Problem — Perimeter Offense —

IMPROVEMENT ON GETTING PUCK OUT OF ZONE QUICKLY, BUT NOT MUCH ELSE

The Penguins 3-0 loss to the Bruins saw Pittsburgh have a 34-29 edge in shots, including a 59-37 edge in shot attempts at even strength. They ran into a hot goaltender again, right?

Only paid team reporters and some fan blogs might be writing about that today.

There’s wasn’t much to like from the Penguins in the loss. Through two games under Mike Sullivan we’ve seen an improvement in the Penguins getting the puck out of their own zone quicker with less reliance on the defensemen carrying the puck out of the zone themselves.

That was better vs the Bruins and puck possession wasn’t the issue. But, when you’re a perimeter offense (that doesn’t get quality shots) like the Penguins are, puck possession numbers on a nightly basis becomes overrated.

Among the issues vs Boston was forwards supporting each other in the attacking zone, which has been very poor this season and it’s continued to be poor so far under Sullivan. The Penguins are often too spaced out or players are flat footed when receiving passes. The forwards are far too often caught in situations where they have to make a 1-on-1 play.

What it all comes down to is at the forefront of the Penguins inability to score is how they’re built.

Change coaches all you want but everything points to the Penguins remaining a perimeter offense. That’s who they are, while the Penguins who are willing to mix things up in front like Patric Hornqvist can’t make a skilled play if their life depended on it. It’s just a bad combination.

This quote from Mike Sullivan stood out last night.

“We can’t be kind of a one-and-done team,” Sullivan said. “We have to stay engaged. We have to become a next play team and constantly re-engaging in a battle.”

The way Sullivan wants his team to play, I’d venture to say he’d rather have the forward group from last year that included gritty players like Daniel Winnik, Blake Comeau, Steve Downie and Max Lapierre than this group that doesn’t engage much and has to rely so much on making perfect shots. Those are Tortorella/Sullivan type players.

Why do the Penguins miss the net so much?

Because they are so wired to pick corners and make perfect shots. Hard to envision that suddenly changing.

OBSERVATIONS

— Another concerning aspect from the loss to the Bruins — Boston’s top players, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron were much more impactful than Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby —

— You always have to weary of overrating small samples, especially games where a player is making his NHL debut or debut for a new team. Eric Fehr’s first two games as a Penguin he looked like the second coming of Jordan Staal.

That said, making his NHL debut, Conor Sheary provided the type of speed and youth the Penguins need. Sheary was quick on pucks and created space for his line mates. It had Mike Sullivan who called Sheary’s game afterwards “terrific”, bumping him up to the Malkin line mid-way through the second period. Likely to be a drop off sooner than later but Sheary certainly earned himself more of an audition.

— The odd Penguins setup on power play went about as expected. This power play has little chance of becoming a respectable unit until they find a power play QB who can walk the blueline. Don’t ask Ranger fans about Mike Sullivan and the power play….

— Sullivan has taken complete control of the forward lines. Around eight minutes left in the third and trailing 2-0, Sullivan went over to Rick Tocchet to see who he had up next, Tocchet points to Malkin line, Sullivan over-rides Tocchet and puts out the Cullen line. Cullen has seen an increased role at even strength, playing 12:22 5 v 5 against the Bruins.

Entertaining Hockey, No Results

The Penguins under Mike Sullivan have become much more entertaining. The system resembles Dan Bylsma’s to some extent and the forwards are releasing up ice much quicker leading to the Penguins playing with more pace off the rush.

Part of that is also because of a change in structure in the d-zone that has the centers exiting the zone higher. Under Johnston, there was a fixation on the center supporting the d-men down low and behind the net to defend the cycle at almost all times.

Now the centers’ are more in a read and react situation whether to provide support below the net or not, similar to a centers role under Bylsma.

We saw again tonight the systematic changes in place led to a more offensive brand of hockey.

What the Penguins are not getting is results under Sullivan, just two wins in eight games, no 5 v 5 goals last two games, and they’re playing dangerous hockey.

The Penguins were the chasing the game. Toronto jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, got the Penguins on their heels early and then it was back and forth from there.

The Penguins showed a good response and outshot Toronto 20-8 in the second period. A superior team like the Penguins are supposed to be should be building off that period and putting a team like the Leafs that is playing in back-to-backs away in the third.

It never happened in the third for Pittsburgh and situations like that this season are why the Penguins are currently not in a playoff spot.

Instead the Penguins were extremely sloppy with the puck, giving up two breakaways and several high danger scoring chances in the third period.

All season we’ve been waiting for this group to find another level and the third period was another example where it’s been missing more often than not on a nightly basis.

With the entertaining hockey and high shot totals, I’m sure some and maybe a majority will be looking at this game as a positive for the Penguins but the reality is there was more bad than good from the Penguins’overall play.

Bernier was really good but against one of the worst goaltenders in the NHL in being able to square up shooters and take proper angles, the Penguins were not consistent enough in taking away Bernier’s sight lines.

The Dallas Stars don’t just score a ton because they are one of the NHL’s most skilled teams. They also score so often because they are one of the best teams in the league at taking a goaltenders sight lines away. It starts with Jamie Benn who is the closest thing to Eric Lindros over the last 20 years.

That comes back to how this Penguins’ team is built and why a coaching change might be a start to putting a better foundation in place in how they should be playing, but there’s a personnel issue at the forward ranks that is going to have the Penguins struggling to earn a playoff spot.

On Signature Wins, Turning point in Thursday’s game & more

LATEST PENGUINS BUZZ

The Penguins in Thursday’s 5-2 win over the Red Wings fell into another situation of chasing the game by falling down 2-0 in the first period and were lucky it was only 2-0 after twenty minutes.

What’s been obvious all season is the power play can hide a lot of issues for this club and where games can turn in a positive matter for this team is special teams and it wasn’t just the two second period power play goals that fueled Thursday’s win.

The key turning point in the game was the Penguins killing off two bad Kris Letang penalties early in the second period, a retaliatory slashing penalty at 2:35 of the second, minutes after the Penguins got back into the game on Patric Hornqvist’s power play goal, and then another Letang penalty at 8:28 of the period with the Penguins still trailing 2-1.

Those were two huge penalty kills by the Penguins as a fragile Detroit team that has lost seven of nine had every opportunity to swing the game by in their favor.

A 1:16 after the Penguins killed off Letang’s second penalty of the period, Letang scores a beautiful power play goal to tie the game at 2-2 and then it was the Malkin and Crosby show in the third.

Was Thursday’s win a signature one like the telecast was saying?

That’s a phrase way over-used after impressive wins in the fashion the Penguins won vs Detroit in scoring five unanswered goals, will have many react into believing it might become one.

Put together an impressive win tonight vs an Islanders team that caused Penguin fits last season, exposed Mike Johnston’s system, and split with the Blackhawks, then maybe the Penguins start truly turning this around and Thursday’s win turns into a signature one when we look back four to six weeks from now.

The Penguins have some positives to start being intrigued. The power play is playing with great confidence and it starts with Sidney Crosby, and the way the Penguins are pushing the pace on the attack continues to be a promising sign.

There obviously has to still be a pause with this group due to the constant inconsistencies. The schedule turns brutal this month and we’re going to find out if the coaching change ends up having a significant impact or not in the Penguins being able to turn the improved shot totals and possession numbers into results.

In nine games under Mike Sullivan, the Penguins have collected seven out of a possible 18 points. The local analytics crowd seem ready to crown the Penguins Stanley Cup Champions based on the improved advance stats under Sullivan.

In the past evaluating the Penguins was not always about wins and losses but whether they truly had the look of a Stanley Cup contender by playoff time.

Sullivan looks to be putting the right foundation in place on how the Penguins should play but now it’s all about results (wins and losses) from here on out. Huge month coming up starting tonight with the Islanders followed by a home and home with the Blackhawks.

То есть, результативная игра и победы при Салливане возникли не от того, что Кросби увеличил силу бросков на 30%, ему предшествовало значительное улучшение продвинутой статистики всей команды, т.е. пресловутая работа над деталями.

Adrenaline rush from players with new system and coaching change starting to take shape in a big way

PENGUINS 5 – ISLANDERS 2

As the Penguins hit game No. 10 tonight under Mike Sullivan, we’re now seeing that adrenaline rush from the players take shape with the coaching change the last two games.

It’s like the players realized the bull cutters work and the shackles from Mike Johnston’s system have been removed from their ankles. They have new found freedom in that they’re allowed to play offense first and boy are they loving it.

The Penguins’ looked like they came out of a cannon tonight in the first period, the faster and more aggressive team, winning almost every key puck battle and most importantly led 2-0 after twenty minutes with goals from Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel.

When the Islanders had their push early in the second period, Marc Andre Fleury came up with timely saves, and then the Penguins made Matt Martin pay for a bad boarding penalty to take a commanding 3-0 lead on Sidney Crosby’s second power play goal of the game.

The Penguins scored three special team goals, two power play markers from Crosby and a shorthanded goal from Matt Cullen.

“Power play gave us momentum, Mike Sullivan said.

There’s been many situations this season against quality teams and even teams with youth like the Coyotes where the Penguins looked like the slower and lethargic team on the ice. Adding Trevor Daley in place of Rob Scuderi has made the Penguins quicker on the backend but the Penguins often looking like a slow hockey team under Mike Johnston may have also been system oriented too.

That was one of the biggest developments tonight against an Islanders team that all last season the Penguins constantly struggled to match their speed and puck possession ability.

Isn’t it amazing how much quicker a team looks when it’s playing offense first and it’s players are not asked to leave the defensive zone together as a five man unit. It’s also something that the Penguins look the best they have all season in their last five periods of hockey when Sidney Crosby is playing his best hockey of the season.

Crosby pre-concussion is likely never returning but this is what you get when you’re not trying to make him be Paul Gaustad. Crosby is also taking it upon himself in being a consistent force in around net once again.

You can also put Kris Letang into the discussion there. When the Penguins are rolling like they were tonight, Letang is often playing at an elite level and he surely was tonight.

Letang had 3 assists in the win and it was his decision making in the transition game that might have been most valuable. What a slick play he made below the goal line leading to Cullen’s shorthanded goal.

Maybe these last five periods are just a mirage but maybe the Penguins were really playing a junior system under Johnston.

If anything Sullivan is putting the right foundation in place in how the Penguins should be playing and two of the Penguins most important players, Crosby and Letang, are starting to find their game.

“I’m thrilled for them that they’re getting rewarded for their efforts,” Sullivan said of his top guys starting to breakout. “They’re playing the right way. Most part making pretty good decisions…..They’re buying in.”

On the Penguins: Lack of young legs for in bottom-6 continues to be a problem against elite level teams

PENS TAKE A BEATING FROM BLACKHAWKS IN ALL FACETS

Mike Sullivan’s decision to start Marc Andre Fleury Wednesday night kept the Penguins from having the type of disturbing loss the team had against the New Jersey Devils in November.

As Sullivan stated after the game, the Penguins play in the first period was the worst he’s seen since becoming Penguin head coach and you can argue it was the Penguins worst period of the season.

It was a Chicago onslaught, outshooting the Penguins 15-3 in the first period. Chicago would go on to outshoot the Penguins 37-18, including 33-14 in 5 v 5 situations. Facing backup Scott Darling, Pittsburgh had just five high danger scoring chances in the game.

The Blackhawks played a flat game in Pittsburgh Tuesday night and they knew it. They took their game to another level Wednesday night and the Penguins didn’t have a prayer of being able to match them.

The Hawks came at the Penguins with a much more aggressive forecheck than Tuesday night and through the neutral zone the Blackhawks were also more aggressive in their defensemen stepping up. The Penguins struggled mightily getting out of their zone, especially handling pucks along the wall, and gaining the offensive zone was a nightmare for the Penguins. The blame can’t all go on the Pens D for their struggles to exit the d-zone. The forwards were also not doing a good job in finding open lanes on the breakout, a credit to the Blackhawks.

Chicago was a step ahead of the Penguins in almost every area and the Blackhawks overall talent trumped Pittsburgh’s on this night.

Stunningly, though, because of Marc Andre Fleury who was magnificent, on the scoreboard at least the Penguins were in the game until the final minute of the game when Ben Lovejoy, who for some reason was on the ice with the Penguins trailing, tripped over himself at the blueline leading to an empty net goal.

Close score aside this was a beating the Penguins took.

The Penguins are a middle of the pack team that can only be competitive with the few truly elite teams like the Blackhawks, Kings when the stars are having dominant nights and they didn’t Wednesday night.

Malkin, Crosby and Kessel combined for three 5 v 5 shots.

In a game against a very good team where the stars are being neutralized, I still look at this as a situation where the Penguins not having those young legs in the bottom-6 is a big problem. That was a type of game where you need an energy line to go out and have the ability to change momentum for a few shifts.

Mike Sullivan calls it a mindset problem on the Penguins looking tired last night, I see it as a personnel problem.

“For me back-to-backs is a mindset and finding ways to win,” Sullivan said. “Chicago was in same situation tonight.”

Positives for the Penguins, the bottom-6 came to play. While Kevin Porter and Oskar Sundqvist will never be known as speed demons down the middle as the third and fourth line centers, the Penguins speed on the wings in the bottom-6 was a factor in providing the Penguins energy throughout.

That’s where the difference has been with the AHL guys coming over the last month. Their speed is forcing the opposition to expend energy defensively. When the stars start to cool off along with the power play, which is bound to happen, then the lack of secondary scoring will start to pop back up as a glaring problem but for now that has been on a backburner due to other areas of the team carrying the group, notably the stars and special teams.

The working hard, providing energy narrative that has been looked at as such a positive will eventually turn into “this bottom-6 group doesn’t score enough”.

One takeaway from the Penguins fast start was the line of Scott Wilson - Kevin Porter - Conor Sheary setting the tone on the forecheck. One scout noted what stands out most with some of the AHL guys in Pittsburgh is how well coached they’ve been (in the minors) and it “shows with the angles they take on the forecheck,” the scout noted. Lots of praise in the organisation for the work John Hynes did last season with most of this group. Bill Guerin is also getting lots of praise around the league for the excellent job he’s done in teaching the little things.