Whether sophomore slumps are an actual thing for budding National Hockey League defensemen, John Marino seemed to have had one last season by any measure.
Marino didn’t become a detriment to the Penguins’ success or an undeployable pariah in his frustrating second year, but he couldn’t recapture the two-way success he boasted in his rookie season. He regressed in some areas and plateaued in others. His results tempered some of the lofty expectations that came with his initial campaign.
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When I imagined the ceiling for Marino heading into his second year, a great strong puck-moving defenseman like Paul Martin came to mind; players capable of driving the bus offensively but playing confident shutdown hockey. I sensed Marino could be a presence in all three zones.
While that two-way seed may have taken a bit longer to mature than expected, it’s showing its first signs of bearing some real fruit through the early portion of 2021-22. Marino has been passing a lot of the eye and analytics tests he failed last year. He’s playing on the Penguins’ second pairing with Marcus Pettersson, a role not entirely unfamiliar to him. Assistant coach Todd Rierden was straightforward and frank in his assessment of that pairing last season and the challenge it faces moving into a new year.
“Both of them understand that there was better in their game than they showed last year and they’ve responded thus far,” Reirden said.
The fix for Rierden and Marino came via working together in the offseason and having a few frank discussions. One area of focus for those discussions was the accrual of additional mass. The coaching staff wanted Marino to bulk up.
“We both did a little bit of homework together,” Rierden said. “That involved him and the commitment level he has off of the ice. He put on some strength and some size this summer. He put some work in. All the credit goes to the work that he put in this summer to prepare himself.”
While our sample size this year is still extremely small, there are identifiable behaviors behind Marino’s positive results that not only explain his strong start but, if maintained, bode well for Marino’s results the rest of the year.
Let’s start with the quantifiable. I prefer Game Score as a way to answer the question of who had the best performance on any given night. Because we’re so early into the season and because Game Score combines a lot of the important events in a hockey game into a singular, appropriately weighted statistic, I’m heading there for our first glimpse into performance this season. A great place to access this information is via Hockey Stat Cards.
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Marino’s average Game Score this season is 1.75 — first among Penguins defensemen and second on the team overall (Drew O’Conner leads at 1.80). While Marino leads the way defensively, his performance is clicking at the perfect moment. Some of his peers haven’t had as boisterous a start to the year.
Marino and Pettersson getting off to a strong start is welcome. The Penguins’ top pairing of Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin hasn’t really had the strong impact we’re used to seeing in these early games. Marino’s start is a nice buffer to Letang and Dumoulin righting the ship to some of their more traditionally dominant performances.
I think there’s been a touch more confidence in Marino’s game, which we’ve seen in all three zones. It was on display for his goal against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night that saw him take the puck for a stroll across the blue line and down into the offensive zone. From there, Marino lost himself in the fray, made his way to a goal-scoring area uncontested and put home a right-place-right-time chance that doesn’t happen if he doesn’t take the initiative in a dangerous area.
That kind of play only comes from someone who’s feeling pretty good about their game. Any mistake made in that circumstance is off to the races in the other direction. A pinch can create a scoring chance, like Marino’s, or leave you chasing down an odd-man situation in the other direction and buying your goalie a steak dinner later in the week to make up for your blunder at the blue line.
“His read and his feel in that situation, the hockey sense, he felt the play was coming to that spot,” Reirden said of the goal. “He wouldn’t have been wrong if he was to leave the zone at that time and make a smarter choice but that’s when feel and hockey sense kicks in. Clearly, John has some gifts there that we’re trying to maximize to help him grow as a defenseman in this league.”
You can find Marino’s confidence in plays like that one, or these nifty passes to get out of a jam at the same area of the offensive blue line.
These kinds of plays don’t show up on every highlight reel, but they add up over the course of the game and season. Marino has been contributing to the offense with his ability to keep these pucks alive and extending the offensive zone time as a result.
Marino’s zone exits have had an enhanced element this season. Last year, per Corey Sznajder’s data for the All Three Zones Project, Marino had the lowest rate of failed zone entries for any Penguins defenseman. There was almost a sense that Marino wasn’t doing enough puck-carrying for how wildly successful he’d been with it throughout the year.
This season, we’ve seen a concerted effort from Marino to maintain his success rate with zone exits without sacrificing volume. I’ve seen Marino more confident in his passing, but I’ve also seen him take the initiative and just skate the puck out of danger himself.
The standout clip of that bunch is the final one. Marino takes a huge hit to make a play and subsequently beats his checker up ice in transition to join the rush and steal a scoring chance with an aggressive pinch. Going back to Rierden’s comment about gaining size and strength, Marino’s ability to eat a check and make a play is really rooted in bulking up.
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Marino also knows when the play calls for an extra layer of puck support. A great instance of this happened in the season-opener against Tampa Bay. Marino has a refined sense of when to join a rush and can identify these opportunities right away. In this clip, he swings behind the net to support the play and immediately realizes he has a sheet of open ice and the opportunity to take this play over offensively.
All these elements that keep the play alive on offense have helped Marino keep his shots against, expected goals against and actual goals against low through the first four games. Of defensive pairings that have played at least 40 minutes together this season, Marino and Pettersson’s even-strength shot attempts against per hour are the lowest in the league, per MoneyPuck.com.
Then there’s Marino’s improved defensive work. Bulking up has benefitted his game in the battle areas and in the net-front area especially, but Marino’s biggest strength defensively is still tied to his mobility. It enables him to keep a strong defensive gap and funnel the play to the outside, as we see in the next set of clips.
Signs are pointing toward the Marino-Pettersson pairing getting an extended run together, giving the chance for these early returns to gain more momentum. There’s chemistry developing that allows the defensemen to play off of each other’s strengths in the defensive zone and in transition.
Marino has gotten this season off on the right foot. His bigger frame, aggressive mentality and strong decision-making have him and his partner set up for future success — and the potential to live up to the hype that came with his rookie season. Keep an eye on how often Marino is activating and joining the rush and you’ll get a sense of just how confident he’s feeling.
(Photo: Joe Sargent / NHLI via Getty Images)
