By Kevin Gorman
May 3, 2018
Jake Guentzel #59 of the Pittsburgh Penguins slides the puck past Braden Holtby #70 of the Washington Capitals for a goal during the second period in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG PAINTS Arena on May 3, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
The one thing the Penguins could count on — perhaps the only thing they could count on — in these Stanley Cup playoffs was their top-line scoring.
Other than Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel or Patric Hornqvist, no forward had scored an even-strength goal since the Penguins were playing in Philadelphia.
As conventional wisdom would have it, that would be the one line that the Penguins should not touch.
Mike Sullivan decided to defy convention, taking his chances by tinkering with the trio that was toying with the Washington Capitals.
The Penguins coach dropped Hornqvist to the second line, reuniting the right winger with midseason linemates Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin.
Sullivan promoted Dominik Simon to skate on the right wing with Crosby and Guentzel.
It was a bold move, given that the Penguins were trailing the Capitals, two games to one, in the best-of-seven series. Bolder still because of how bad it would have looked had it backfired.
And it didn't work.
Yet it worked wonders.
The Penguins' only even-strength goal once again came from their first line.
But the inspiration for Sullivan's decision, pairing Malkin with Hagelin and Hornqvist to force Malkin “to play more of a straight-ahead game,” paid off for the Penguins in a big way.
Malkin got a Hornqvist-style winning goal to lift the Penguins to a 3-1 victory Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena and even the second-round series.
“We think that his presence on that line helps Geno play that type of game he needs to play in the playoffs to have success,” Sullivan said. “That was a lot of the discussion the coaches went through when we made that decision.”
It couldn't have been an easy decision, but Sullivan is no stranger to making controversial calls without hesitation or reservation.
Remember, Sullivan pulled Marc-Andre Fleury, who was spectacular in goal in the first two rounds last year, in the Eastern Conference final against the Ottawa Senators and replaced him with Matt Murray.
Such confidence and conviction has served Sullivan well in leading the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships.
But it's one thing to replace one Cup-champion goalie with another, something entirely different to tinker with the team captain.
Crosby, whose superstitions are well documented, had been on the ice for every one of the Penguins' goals this series. To risk disrupting that scoring trend could have been disastrous.
And Sullivan and his coaching staff took that risk into great consideration.
“It's one of those things where we liked how well Sid's line was playing, so it was one of those discussions: Do we tinker with that line or do we leave it as it is and try to move other people around?” Sullivan said.
“We chose to go this direction. It's not etched in stone. We'll look at the game, and we'll see what we like and we'll make decisions accordingly but I thought Geno's line for a lot of the game was good. I thought they had offensive zone time. I thought they were on the puck.”
Sullivan's decision not only showed immense faith that Crosby and Guentzel could continue to score but also instilled confidence in Simon. The rookie had two assists in five playoff games.
“It feels good,” Simon said, “when you see the trust.”
Simon reciprocated that trust by setting up Guentzel's goal for a 1-0 lead in the second period.
But it was the effect the line changes had on Malkin that proved pivotal.
Sullivan said that having Hornqvist on his line forces Malkin to shoot the puck more because Hornqvist wants to crash the crease.
On a second-period power play, Hornqvist nudged a rebound to Malkin, whose shot hit the post. But Malkin followed the puck, stretching out to tap in what proved to be the winner.
“It's not a great goal,” Malkin said. “It's a garbage goal for me. But I understand sometimes it gives me good confidence.”
The kind of confidence Sullivan showed in switching up his lines. The kind of confidence the Penguins showed in tying the series.
And the kind of confidence the Penguins will need for Game 5, knowing that they can continue to count on their top line while believing they just supercharged the star of their second.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.
No comments:
Post a Comment