Penguins power play has been not great, not terrible
TAMPA, Fla. — Evgeni Malkin sounded more like a hospital admissions coordinator Wednesday than superstar.
When asked about the Penguins’ inconsistent power play, Malkin opened up by naming a who’s who of teammates who have missed games because of various ailments.
“First off, injuries,” Malkin said after practice at Amalie Arena. “(Sidney Crosby) out. I’m out. (Kris Letang didn’t) play a couple of games. (Justin Schultz) out. (Bryan Rust did) not play, too. It’s a little bit tough when (Patric Hornqvist does) not play, too.”
That group doesn’t include forward Jake Guentzel, likely sidelined for the remainder of the season because of a right-shoulder injury.
Even in a more finite realm — let’s say, two games — the power play has been either hot or cold.
During Friday’s 4-3 overtime win at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Penguins were perfect with the man advantage, going 2 for 2 on goals by Rust and Letang.
Then, in Sunday’s 4-3 road win against the Washington Capitals, the Penguins went 0 for 6, including a brief four-on-three sequence that lasted 23 seconds.
“We’re working,” Malkin said. “It’s hard to say what’s wrong. One game, we score two goals. Our power play is crazy good. The next game, we (do) not score … We’re working.”
The Penguins focused on the power play during practice Monday in Brandon, Fla., and devoted the typically allotted time toward it Wednesday.
For the season, the Penguins’ power-play conversion rate of 19.9% (30 for 151) ranks 14th best in the NHL entering Wednesday’s games.
To borrow a phrase from HBO’s “Chernobyl” miniseries, “not great, not terrible.”
“I just didn’t think we executed,” coach Mike Sullivan said of Sunday’s game. “We had some chances early in the game on our first couple of power plays. We had a couple of high-quality chances. But as the game went on, I just don’t think we executed as well, and as a result, we didn’t score.
“We’re spending time with them. We had a fairly lengthy film session with our power-play guys. I like how engaged the group is at trying to problem-solve and making sure we all get on the same page. When they execute, they’re a dynamic power play. The game before, they score a couple of goals for us. Sometimes, that’s just the nature of power plays. Our hope is they can get some traction, and they can be the difference for us in games.”
The Penguins seem to want to use their final 30 regular-season games to refine the power play before the postseason.
“We have time before playoffs,” Malkin said. “I hope now (mostly) everyone back. We watch 30 minutes of video on the power play today. The coaches (were) tough. We see our mistakes. We need to support each other more. We need to shoot more from (defense). It’s small things, but we fix it, for sure, before playoffs.”
Extra work
The Penguins also devoted time toward their six-on-five attack at the end practice.
It’s a fairly unique situation almost exclusive to delayed penalties and toward the end of games when a team is trailing by a goal or two.
With the benefit of three days between games, Sullivan opted to work on the scenario.
Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Hornqvist and Rust were steadily on the ice, and Schultz and forward Jared McCann mixed in.
“We’ve worked on it the last couple of days,” Sullivan said. “One of the reasons is, is we’re trying to make sure that we get guys repetitions in those aspects of the game where it doesn’t happen very often. When you do get it, you’ve got an opportunity to tie the game or … potentially salvage at least a point.
“Those are important scenarios. So we’re trying to make sure we’re prepared for it. We’re trying to look for windows of opportunity during practice and throughout the schedule to make sure we get repetitions for our guys in certain aspects of the game that maybe we don’t practice all the time but are important situations and important circumstances.”
No updates
Sullivan did not provide updates on injured forwards Nick Bjugstad (core muscle), Dominik Kahun (concussion) or defenseman Brian Dumoulin.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.