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Therrien juggles Penguins’ lines yet again
by Tony on 10/29/08 at 07:24 PM ET
Comments (5)
One day after an absolutely putrid effort in San Jose, one in which his Pittsburgh Penguins only got 11 shots on goal, Head Coach Michel Therrien (known amongst Penguins’ blogs as HCMT, get used to it) has done yet again what he does best: He completely shuffled his top three lines.
In HCMT’s defense (which I don’t do very often, once again, get used to it), it’s not like he had much of a choice.
In the Penguins’ first 10 games, they have a mediocre total of 25 goals. Moreover, of those 25 goals, only 13 of those have come 5 on 5.
While the dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, naturally, has been at times sensational, everyone realizes that keeping them on the top line together is not the optimum solution. The Penguins need to have that hard-hitting 1-2 line punch to minimize the affect of the top defensive line. Make your opposition pick their poison, so to speak.
So now, HCMT has juggled the top three lines in an attempt to, once again, jumpstart this extremely underperforming offense.
On the top line, Crosby’s linemates (at least to start) for Thursday night’s game in Phoenix will be Pascal Dupuis and Ruslan Fedotenko. In what certainly isn’t a coincidence, those two have been among the very few that have actually gotten some decent scoring opportunities on net lately. Fedotenko has been placed on all four lines this season already, but lately he has increased his intensity and Therrien is obviously rewarding him for it. NOTE: Dan Potash reported on FSN Pittsburgh tonight that Dupuis only skated for half of the practice today. The team did not disclose if he’s injured, and if so, how badly. So it’s possible that this first line will have to be changed again.
Malkin will be bumped down to his normal assignment of centering the second line, where his linemates now will be the familiar Petr Sykora and the rugged Matt Cooke. Sykora, who’s been hurt for a few games this year, only has one goal so far, however Cooke not only is leading the team in hits along with Brooks Oprik, but has impressed the coaching staff with his offensive capability.
The biggest question mark continues to be the goose egg on the scoresheet for Jordan Staal. Not only isn’t he scoring, he’s barely hitting the goaltender. He was given a chance by Therrien to center the second line, but after that went nowhere, he’s back down to centering the third line again. Joining him will be Miro Satan and Tyler Kennedy. Satan actually leads the team in goals with four, but he wasn’t brought to Pittsburgh to be a third line winger. Kennedy continues to be the sparkplug of the team. I’m confident he could be placed on any line and he wouldn’t be a liability.
As any Penguins fan knows all too well, who knows how long HCMT will keep these lines as is. We’ll see tomorrow night in Phoenix.
Filed in: NHL Hockey | The Confluence | Permalink
Tags: NHL-Hockey, Phoenix+Coyotes, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
Comments
Dupuis really needs off that top line. He is terrible, he has had the most chances of anyone on the team and simply cannot finish. So the question becomes. who plays left wing? It has to be Pesonen, even if people think he isn’t ready yet, we have no other LW that has anything near top line skill.
And is it really HCMT’s fault that he has to juggle lines? I mean, he doesn’t have the players he needs. He doesn’t have a winger for Sid, his third line center seems to have completely lost his scoring ability, and to make that worse he complained all offseason that he is a top 6 forward on the team. Not to mention he is still trying to find who plays well together since we have a ton of new guys.
In his defense, when the Pens finally found a lineup that worked last season, he stopped juggling the lines. I think the whole key to it is finding a winger for Sid, and until they do that, you’re going to see a crazy rotation of the entire team onto and off his line.
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 10/30/08 at 07:51 AM ET
And forgot to say welcome Tony!! It’s great to have a Pens blogger here!
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 10/30/08 at 07:52 AM ET
Thanks for the welcome…
Dupuis and Satan are like complete opposites, when you think about it…. Dupuis will get his nose dirty, but has Rico Fata-like hands…. Satan has excellent hands, but isn’t exactly Mr. Forecheck, if you catch my drift….
I’m no HCMT, but they’ve really gotta dumb it down… Just throw pucks on net, for the love of Mike….
Posted by Tony F from Virginia Beach, VA on 10/30/08 at 08:30 AM ET
They really need to widen their search in this left wing experiment.
Which is why I really don’t understand why they don’t bring up Pesonen or Minard, especially when they waste roster spots on both Bissonnette and Godard. Their sole purpose is to fight in the first 5 minutes, which is pointless on the road and when they have done it at home they have killed good flow 50% of the time.
Granted Godard has surprised me and the guys in the booth with his skill set, but I think that is just because we were under the impression he didn’t have a pulse when he was signed. I don’t even think you can make a case that they are protecting Sid and Malkin.
Posted by Dan M from Ann Arbor, MI on 10/30/08 at 10:56 AM ET
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Yeah, I really get sick of how quick HCMT is to shuffle the lines when he gets worried. I agree that it is not the best solution to keep Sid and Geno together, but Fedotenko? Ugh, I guess there really isn’t much choice, and Satan is by far the softest player in the league. It pains me to watch him. He turns away from guys who still have the puck, and he seems to immediately fall down when another player makes even the slightest contact with him. Wow, I miss the Pens of last year…
Posted by NHLJeff from Pens fan in Chicago, IL on 10/29/08 at 11:11 PM ET