Random Thoughts on the Pens

Okay, so I am a hockey loser trying to fill in the time between games during a very long break in the NHL action. Attached are some random thoughts and notes on the Pens:

Jordan Staal played in his 277th game on Monday, the second longest streak in team history. He also has looked absolutely dominant at times on the ice.

How good is Sidney Crosby and what kind of leader is he? Well, as of yesterday Crosby was led the league in goals with 37, was third in the league in scoring with 71 points, was a plus 10 overall, and was 9th in the league in faceoffs winning 57.2% of his draws. The thing that impresses me the most about these numbers is the fact that there were two areas of Sid's game that were in need of improvement to help the team; goal scoring and faceoffs. So Sid puts in the time to work on both, and now with 25 games left he is only two goals shy of his career high, and he is a top 10 face off guy in the NHL. Most players would think, hey, I score 100+ points per year, get off my back. Sid spent the time to make himself even better. Gotta love that kid.

How good are the Pens, really? Well, the jury is still out on that, but as of yesterday, the Pens were 4th in the entire league in wins with 35. Out of the top 12 teams in the league the Pens were fifth in goals per game with 3.04 trailing only Washington, San Jose, Vancouver, and Chicago. Conversely, their goals against of 2.82 had them 12th out of the top 12, with the best being the New Jersey Devils. When you see that number, it makes you think that an additional stay at home defenseman is more of an issue than another winger. In a related statistic, Marc Andre Fleury was not highly ranked in either GAA or save percentage. Fleury was 21st in the league in GAA and 25th in the league in save percentage at .908. Eastern conference goaltenders with a better save percentage include Miller (Buffalo), Vokoun (Florida), Halak (Montreal), Rask (Boston), Lundqvist, (New York), Brodeur (New Jersey), Thomas (Boston), Niitymakki (Tampa),Elliott (Ottawa) and Hedberg (Atlanta). So, other than Emery in Philadelphia, about every other reasonable Eastern Conference contending goaltender has a better save percentage. I think that the Pens can and will tighten up and improve this goals against number during the stretch and playoffs, and Fleury will again elevate his game to help in that regard.

The Penguins lead the NHL in hat tricks this season with 6. Crosby has 3, Malkin has 2, and Mike the Rupper had 1 as well. Vancouver is second with 5.

After the Sidney Crosby who is on pace for 54 goals, the Penguins have an impressive list of goal scorers that shows balance. They have 11 players who will likely have 10 or more goals, one (Crosby) who could hit fifty, one more (Malkin) who will land around 30, two more (Staal and Guerin) who should hit twenty. In addition Dupuis has 12, Rupp 11, Cooke 11, Kennedy 9, Fedotenko 8, Gonchar 8, and Goose with 6, all of which came in October/November. Goose will pass 10 trust me.

The Penguins plus/minus leaders are Staal at +13, Cooke at +12, Crosby at +10, and Kennedy at +8. This makes 3 of the top 4 plus/minus leaders on the team +33 and on the same line centered by Jordan Staal.

The plus/minus "losers" thus far are Ruslan Fedotenko at -10, Craig Adams at -8, Gonchar at -4, and Skoula at -4. Gonchar and Adams surpised me.......the others did not.

With the talent the Pens have they still only have 4 teams, Ottawa, Florida, Toronto and Nashville with a lower power play percentage. The Penguins lead the league in power play chances with 238, and they have as many power play goals against (38) as they have power play goals for.