Sidney Crosby’s tenure as Penguins captain is guaranteed to go down as the most accomplished in franchise history. His Penguins have earned more titles and reached more consecutive postseasons than those captained by Mario Lemieux.
Nobody is suggesting Crosby is a better player than Lemieux. Or that Crosby has surpassed Lemieux as the iconic figure for the Penguins (if not among Pittsburgh’s professional athletes).
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It’s just that, well, there is not a lot left for Crosby to chase when it comes to team achievements with the Penguins.
Still, with the Penguins on pace for 112 points after a 5-1 thumping of the Detroit Red Wings at home Sunday afternoon, it might be time to contemplate whether this particular squad could set the franchise record for points.
The Penguins are 36-15-6 through 57 games. Let’s compare their record with the 57-games mark for the top five regular seasons in franchise history:
It’s important to remember that in 1992-93, the NHL’s regular season lasted 84 games compared with the 82 the Penguins have played in their Nos. 2-5 best finishes. Also, the 1992-93 Penguins played in an era during which teams were not guaranteed a second point merely for reaching overtime.
The rules under which the 1992-93 Penguins played make their 119 points all the more impressive. Most impressive? Their 17-game winning streak before wrapping that season with a tie.
The Penguins would need to claim 42 of 50 available points to set the franchise record. That would require a ridiculous closing run, somewhere between 18-1-6 and 21-4-0.
Possible? Sure.
Likely? Not really.
Also, it’s not as though more than two of the five best regular-season Penguins squads are remembered. Only the 2016-17 Penguins, who won the Stanley Cup, at least reached the conference final from that group. Had they not set the NHL record for consecutive victories in a single season, the 1992-93 Penguins perhaps would be as forgettable as the three squads from the beginning of the last decade.
So, while history is potentially there for the taking, the guess here is Crosby and company are a lot more interested in the 16 wins the Penguins will need after this regular season than the 18 (or more) that would be required to finish it with bragging rights.
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Tricky business
If you were at PPG Paints Arena on Sunday afternoon or watched the NBC broadcast, you probably recall seeing fans toss hats (and Pittsburgh gold-colored towels that were promotional giveaways) after winger Patric Hornqvist midway through the second period.
Third goals from players tend to entice fans to show off their throwing arms.
Patric Hornqvist with his third hat trick. He was the last #Pens player to get an HT at home (12/4/18 v. COL), when he scored three goals in 2:27 for the fastest natural hat trick in team history. https://t.co/fjL4NY9aU8 pic.twitter.com/5QjUD62qd1
— PittsburghHockey.net (@PghHockey) February 16, 2020
But just as Hornqvist had been credited during the first intermission with a goal originally awarded to forward Sam Lafferty, he had it taken away before arriving in the dressing room to meet with reporters. That decision — to re-award the first-period marker to Lafferty — was made by the NHL and not officials scorers on-site in Pittsburgh.
Hornqvist was thus denied a third career hat trick, even though he was adamant that Lafferty’s shot hit him on the leg before the puck eluded Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.
It’s not uncommon for the NHL to change the decision reached by on-site scorers. It’s unusual, though, for the decision to be made as late as this one was Sunday.
Without knowing he wouldn’t receive credit for the goal, Hornqvist might have taken a different approach in a third period when the Penguins clearly tried to show some professional courtesy to an inferior opponent. Coach Mike Sullivan opted against deploying his first- or second-team power plays with Red Wings winger Dylan Larkin serving a roughing minor penalty late in the game. Hornqvist is on the first power-play unit.
There is no guarantee Sullivan would have used the first unit for that power play had the Penguins been aware Hornqvist’s first goal had been re-awarded to Lafferty. But Sullivan’s history has been to reward players with two goals a late-game opportunity to complete a hat trick.
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Kind of a bummer for Hornqvist.
Matt Murray: Very good again
If there’s a better goalie since the calendar turned to 2020 than Matt Murray … well, there aren’t many, actually.
Murray stopped 27 shots by the Red Wings, including 14 of 15 in a first period of which Penguins skaters should not have been proud. In fact, for the entire game, the Red Wings’ 22 scoring chances were only one fewer than those by the Penguins — and 10 were of the high-danger variety (as charted by the Natural Stat Trick website).
Murray’s high-danger save percentage at five-on-five play is .917 since the NHL’s Christmas break. That rates fourth among all goalies. His 9.32 high-danger saves per 60 minutes at five-on-five play ranks second over the same time period.
Despite starting three fewer games, Murray has faced an average of over 3 more shots and high-danger chances than Tristan Jarry over a period of almost two months. That discrepancy does well to explain how it is that Murray’s expected goals-against per 60 minutes — again, at five-on-five play — is 2.57, compared with 2.1 for Jarry.
The strong performances from each of the Penguins’ goalies surely explain why Sullivan seems to have adopted an every-other-game strategy regarding Murray’s and Jarry’s starts.
The Penguins feel Jarry’s emergence has pushed Murray to rediscover a level of consistency similar to his early seasons. Perhaps by no coincidence, Murray was also pushed in those seasons by Marc-Andre Fleury.
Some goalies (Fleury, for example) do not respond well to being challenged. Others appear to benefit from the push, and Murray might be one of those goalies.
“Umm, yeah he has, for sure,” Sullivan said. “But I’m not sure there’s anyone at any position, when they’re at healthy competition, that it doesn’t help players be at their best. That’s just been my experience in being around the game.”
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Sullivan’s experience — at least since joining the Penguins organization — has been to be rewarded by showing confidence in Murray. The All-Star level reached by Jarry this season could have provided Sullivan an opportunity to deviate from that previous approach and hand the reins to an upstart (if inexperienced) goalie, as he did with Murray when Fleury was injured late in the 2015-16 season. Instead, Sullivan has set up the Penguins with arguably the league’s best 1-2 goalie tandem, which is what they might have had with Murray and Fleury in the 2016-17 seasons.
Both of those seasons ended with Cup parades in Pittsburgh, so Sullivan had enough evidence to feel good about going in either direction. But it’s hard to argue with how the direction he’s gone in has played out.
After finishing 18th, 20th and 14th each of the last three seasons, the Penguins are sixth in overall goals-against average in 2019-20.
Not Pittsburgh (not yet?)
Colleague Sara Civian broke the news Saturday that an outdoor game is headed to Raleigh, N.C., next season. Read here for full details.
No less a Penguins authority than our own Josh Yohe speculated about the Hurricanes’ potential opponent for that outdoor game.
Penguins would seem to make a lot of sense. Two good teams. Penguins are a big draw. Tons of Pittsburghers live in Raleigh. The GMJR factor. https://t.co/NbRlIRPDjU
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) February 16, 2020
Yohe’s thought made sense. The Penguins are an outdoor games staple, having played twice in the Winter Classic and three times in the Stadium Series. Also, it’s not as though NBC Sports has lost its love for Crosby and/or the dependable Pittsburgh television audience. Three of the Penguins’ last nine games have been Sunday afternoon national TV broadcasts, as will a game in Washington next Sunday.
Given their profile and drawing power, and also considering that North Carolina’s Triangle region is home to a lot of Western Pennsylvania transplants, the Penguins becoming the Hurricanes’ outdoor opponent is a reasonable presumption.
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It would also be news to Penguins CEO David Morehouse.
“We haven’t been asked,” Morehouse told The Athletic on Sunday.
To be clear, the NHL wouldn’t ask so much as inform the Penguins they would be participating in Carolina’s outdoor game next season. Also, for what it’s worth, the Penguins would prefer to participate in an overseas series next season — or any future season — than a fourth time as the road team in an outdoor game.
In the end, the call will not be theirs to make.
Enough sticks here
Coronavirus has most NHL equipment managers sweating, but Dana Heinze and his staff reported no stick and/or equipment shortages for the Penguins.
CCM and Bauer, two of the league’s biggest stick suppliers, have factories in China. The coronavirus has reduced travel from and work in China since January.
As of Sunday, Penguins players who use CCM and Bauer sticks have not had to follow the lead of Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin, whom colleague Sean Shapiro reported as having plucked sticks he didn’t use last season from his mother’s garage.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that for Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, whose parents’ garage in Magnitogorsk, Russia, isn’t exactly a hop, skip or even a short flight from Pittsburgh.
(Photo: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)
