Script a typical Penguins season, it would look a lot like the one they’re having — right down to their playoff-solidifying surge in March, an MVP-caliber performance from captain Sidney Crosby and a lot of games missed by Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
But something is different for these Penguins.
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It’s their power play, and not only their penchant for surrendering short-handed goals. Though the 14 they’ve allowed, which is tied for the league lead, is only one fewer than their total from the previous three seasons. And it’s a particularly big difference from last season when the Penguins’ three short-handed goals-against were fewest in the NHL.
The presumption, if not hope, has been that a more responsible approach by members of the top power-play unit would correct the short-handed struggles. And it’s mostly played out that way as the regular season progressed.
What hasn’t happened — and doesn’t figure to, given that only three games remain before the Stanley Cup playoffs — is a reversal of a troubling trend regarding power plays: The Penguins haven’t had nearly enough of them, earning two or fewer 38 times. (The good news? They are 20-8-10 in those games.)
“Maybe we (are) not taking enough pucks to the net?” Patric Hornqvist said. “It’s hard for the refs to call a hooking or a holding when you have the puck in the corner. But if you take it to the net, it seems more obvious to call those kind of penalties.
“We have to do a better job getting there.”
The Penguins’ 218 power-play opportunities ranked 23rd in the league before Monday’s games; they were seventh the previous two seasons, with 548 combined.
That means the Penguins have gone from averaging 3.34 power-play opportunities in coach Mike Sullivan’s first two full seasons to 2.76 in 2018-19.
“Yeah, there haven’t been a lot,” Sullivan said. “But it just seems like at this time of year there’s less penalties called; it becomes a more 5-on-5 game and, so, we’ve got to become a better 5-on-5 team.”
Nobody would argue against that point.
Likewise, nobody can argue with the Penguins’ results on their limited chances. Their success rate (24.8 percent) is not too far off the franchise-best — and NHL-leading — efficiency from last season (26.2 percent).
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When the Penguins do score on the power play, the result rarely is in doubt: They are 26-8-3 when scoring on the advantage.
Such success might not mean anything in the postseason. Conventional wisdom holds that teams overly reliant on power-play scoring generally don’t last long in a best-of-seven series, let alone the four of them required to win the Cup.
However, it’s possible that in the playoffs, the Penguins will present a collection of power-play personnel they rarely have this season. Which is what general manager Jim Rutherford envisioned when continuing to build around skilled players such as Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Phil Kessel and Justin Schultz.
Those three forwards and two defensemen have played together in only nine games, with the Penguins earning at least three power-play opportunities in four of those — an impressive rate of 44.4 percent.
For all the theories why the Penguins have been on a power (play) outage this season — they lack the edge in team speed they enjoyed in previous seasons; they generate most offensive chances off the rush; their power play has been so good that officials are subconsciously reluctant to reward them with opportunities — perhaps it really comes down to their lineup options.
Letang and Schultz are the Penguins’ two top puck-moving defensemen.
Malkin is one of the NHL’s premier penalty-drawing forwards. Only six players have drawn more than his 220 regular-season penalties over the past nine years, based upon records from the Icy Data website.
“We miss him a lot, for a lot of reasons. He’s a great player,” Sullivan said. “He’s good on the power play. He’s a dynamic player (at) 5-on-5. Teams have to pay a lot of attention to him. It changes strategies on our opponents and how they want to play against us from a match-ups standpoint. So, the impact he has on our team is significant.”
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Malkin’s historical impact on power plays is unmistakable. His 142 goals and 385 points on the power play each rank third among NHL players, dating to his rookie season, and the Penguins rank second and third, respectively, in power-play goals and percentage over that span.
They have scored 51 power-play goals in games played by Malkin this season. He has scored or assisted on 26 of them.
Here’s how Malkin’s absence from 13 games has impacted the Penguins this season:
With Malkin (66 games)
- Avg. Goals For: 3.48
- Avg. Power Plays: 2.90
- Power-Play Percentage: 26.5
- Phil Kessel: 24 goals, 46 assists
Without Malkin (13 games)
- Avg. Goals For: 2.61
- Avg. Power plays: 2
- Power-Play Percentage: 11.5
- Phil Kessel: 0 goals, 8 assists
Kessel has scored three goals since Jan. 30. Malkin missed the first of his games on Feb. 1. What’s more, Crosby has scored a goal in only one of the last 11 games. Malkin has missed seven of those.
The Penguins did not practice Monday. They play at Detroit on Tuesday, face the Red Wings at home on Thursday and close the regular season against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday. Malkin, who returned to practice in a non-contact capacity Saturday, said he would like to play in at least a couple of games before the playoffs.
Certainly, the Penguins will not dress him unless his injured ribs have healed. Malkin played through a similar injury in the 2008 playoffs, but his production declined from Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final until Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final — a span of 21 days and eight games, during which he recorded only a goal and an assist.
Malkin’s current injury was incurred on March 16, when he was cross-checked by Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo. If he plays in either game against the Red Wings, Malkin will have had either 17 or 19 days to recover — a time frame similar to the one he needed to regain his form 11 years earlier.
“It’s always better when you’re playing,” said Malkin, who has dressed for only 15 of the Penguins’ last 28 games. “It’s not easy when you miss 5-6 games, (come) back and (get injured) again right away. I’m always thinking, like, how my body feels, how my confidence feels. It’s a little bit, like, tough.
“I hope (to play in) one or two games before the playoffs. The team is playing really good right now. I want to be back and help the team be better.”
(Photo: Eric Hartline / USA Today)
