I am not saying that to scare you, but just to bring the "easy pickings" crowd back to reality. I will say that one major difference off the top for this version of the Penguins, is that they are coming off of three disappointing outings out of the past three post seasons as opposed to back to back Stanley Cups, which should make this team a lot hungrier and less prone to assuming all they have to do is to show up to win the Cup. Add to that, the Penguins added two former captains in Brendan Morrow and Jerome Iginla who are playing great hockey, and both see this as likely their best chance to live a childhood dream and hoist the Stanley Cup. Both players are tough, gritty leaders who carried their respective teams in Dallas and Calgary. When added to the nucleus already in place in Pittsburgh, along with the physical Douglas Murray, and versatile, faceoff demon, Jussi Jokinen, the Penguins sure do look like a team that SHOULD come out of the Eastern Conference. This does not mean that they will, but I will give my summary of the upcoming series below. First, the Penguins sit atop the Eastern Conference with a record of 36-12, second only to Chicago for the President's trophy and tied for the most wins in the NHL. They face the Islanders who are 24-17-7 and eighth in the East. The Penguins lead the league in goals per game at 3.38 goals more than half a goal per game more than the Islanders at 2.81 goals per game. The Penguins are 12th in goals against at 2.48 goals against per game, and that is also better than the 2.83 goals per game allowed by the Islanders. Special teams are always key in the playoffs, and if you had to look at an area that could come back to haunt our flightless birds, it is in the penalty kill area, where the Penguins 79.6% PK is 25th in a league of 30 teams, and only Washington has a worse PK of all of the Eastern Conference playoff teams! The good news is that the Islanders are not much better, with a PK of 80%, good for 21st in the league. The Penguins power play is clicking at 24.7% for the season, good for second in the NHL, while the Islanders are clicking at 20.4%, good for 11th in the league. This gives the edge on special teams to the Penguins based on a superior power play, and a very similar penalty kill. One area to watch is that the Penguins have given up three short handed goals, while the Islanders have not surrendered any. In the five matchups against the Islanders in the regular season, after losing the first game in January, the Penguins won the next four games by a combined score of 16-5. Goaltending is critical in the playoffs as well and the Islanders netminder is Evgeni Nabokov who posted a 23-11-7 record, with a 2.50 GAA and .910 save percentage. Nabby played in 41 of the 48 games the Islanders played, while Fleury and Vokoun split the season with Fleury going 23-8, with a 2.39 GAA and .916 save percentage, while Vokoun was 13-4 with 2.45 GAA and .918 save percentage. The edge in goaltending goes to Pittsburgh slightly based on an ability to use either goaltender in a tough series, both of whom have slightly better numbers than Nabokov, but Nabokov is more than good enough to steal some games here. The difference for Pittsburgh to win should be the superior firepower and depth of scoring. The Islanders have three players with more than 30 points including John Tavares, Brad Boyes, and Matt Moulson, with Tavares leading the way with 47 points. Michael Grabner is always dangerous, particularly against the Pens, while Josh Bailey and Kyle Okposo add some nice grit and secondary scoring. Mark Streit and Lubomir Visnovsky anchor the blue line, while former Penguin Brian Strait plays a depth role for the Islanders as well. The Penguins meanwhile have six players with thirty or more points, with Crosby and Kunitz both netting more than 50 points, while Letang, Neal and Malkin would have also had 40 plus had they played a full season. Crosby was running away with the scoring race prior to a broken jaw, while Kunitz added 52 points, Dupuis 38 points, Letang 38 points, James Neal 36 points, and Geno with 33. Brandon Sutter added 11 goals and 8 assists in his third line role, with many of his goals of the clutch game winning variety. On top of this core of the Penguins, at the deadline, they added four players that have been huge for them, with three of them, Jokinen, Morrow and Iginla scoring at nearly a point per game pace, and Murray adding a crease clearing monster that the Penguins had lacked for years. Jerome Iginla played in 13 games for Pittsburgh, scoring 5 goals and 6 assists, with 4 of his goals coming on the power play. In addition to the goals, Iginla adds a toughness and leadership to this team that will come in handy for the Penguins. Then, Brenden Morrow in 15 games added 6 goals and 8 assists, while hitting everything that moves. His grit in the corners will be like body punches taking a toll in a 15 round fight during the playoffs. Then, Jussi Jokinen, who will come in handy taking last game faceoffs to protect a lead, or to win an offensive zone possession while trailing late also added 7 goals and 4 assists in his ten games played. If the Penguins play their game, this is where the difference will come in for Pittsburgh.
The Islanders also have very little playoff experience, and may tighten up under the pressure cooker of their first post season trip in years. For the Penguins, they look to redeem themselves for three subpar post season runs since their 2009 Stanley Cup. Their depth of scoring, toughness and leadership should allow Pittsburgh to handle this series rather handily IF they avoid penalty troubles that will put their wobbly PK on the ice too often. The Penguins are rounding back to good health and the depth options for Pittsburgh should make them a tough assignment for the Islanders to survive, but please remember a Turgeon less Islanders team in 1992-93 was told the same thing. I will take the Penguins in five. Go Pens!!
No comments:
Post a Comment