The Pittsburgh Penguins enjoyed a rare lull in an otherwise cramped 2013-2014 season playing only one game in eight days, and the break could not have come at a better time for the battered team. While the Penguins are currently five points ahead of the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, they also lead the NHL with 289 man-games lost to injury heading into their game tonight against the Florida Panthers.
The most notable injury has been to goaltender Tomas Vokoun who has missed all forty-eight games to date with blood clots, and may be out for the remainder of the season. The Penguins acquired Vokoun on June 4, 2012 after they were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for the second straight year. Vokoun finished the 2012-2013 season with a 0.917 save percentage and a 2.55 goals against average; however, he really shined in the playoffs, taking over from Marc Andre Fleury in game 5 of the first round against the New York Islanders and finishing with 0.928 save percentage and a 2.01 goals against average. In Vokoun's absence, the Penguins have been relying more heavily on Fleury and have been using Jeff Zatkoff from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins as their back up. Zatkoff has been playing well this season with seven victories in ten games. He is currently on pace for seventeen games this season, but the big test for him may come during the post-season. Fleury has had fairly epic collapses the last three playoff series' and last season the Penguins were able to ride Vokoun to the Conference Final; if Fleury is once again unable to perform in the playoffs, and they don't get Vokoun back from injury or acquire a new goaltender at the trade deadline, the pressure and responsibility might fall to Zatkoff, a heavy burden for the rookie netminder.
The Penguins blue line also took a fairly significant beating this season when their top four defensemen were out, all at roughly the same time.
The Penguins had a busy off-season last year re-signing Kris Letang to an eight year deal and bringing Rob Scuderi back as an unrestricted free agent for four years. The plan was to play these two defencemen together, with Kris Letang playing a more offensive role and jumping up into the play, while Scuderi would play more of a stay at home defensive role. Unfortunately, due to injuries, the Penguins have been unable to use this combination very often this season. Letang missed the first nine games of the season, making his debut on October 25 in a 4-3 loss to the Islanders. Luck was not on their side though as Scuderi was injured the following day in a 4-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Scuderi would miss twenty-nine games and make his return on December 29 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. In the meantime, Kris Letang went down with another injury on December 13 and would miss ten games, making his second return to the lineup on January 5 against the Winnipeg Jets. Tonight, for just the eighth time in forty-nine games, coach Dan Bylsma will be able to play Scuderi and Letang as his top defensive pairing.
Veterans Brooks Orpik and Paul Martin form the Penguins second defensive pairing, and are our next discussion for injuries. After a disappointing performance in the 2011-2012 season, Paul Martin rebounded and, over the course of the last two seasons, has become one of the Penguins top offensive defenseman, earning time on the top power play unit. Martin suffered a fractured tibia in a 3-2 overtime loss to Boston on November 25, 2013. Martin has not played since the injury, though he has practiced with the team during this eight day break, and may be set to return to the lineup tonight against Florida. Orpik, the team’s best hard-hitting shutdown defencemen, was injured in a controversial 3-2 loss to Boston on December 7 when Shawn Thornton grabbed him from behind, threw him to the ice and punched him in the head. Orpik was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion; he was released later that evening and traveled back to Pittsburgh with his teammates. Orpik returned to the lineup twenty days later on December 27 for a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. With Martin still out of the lineup, Orpik has often been paired with either Simon Despres or Robert Bortuzzo, two young defencemen who have been splitting their time this season between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre Scranton.
The Penguins have been able to survive the injuries to their blue line in large part because of the consistent play of both Matt Niskanen and Olli Maatta, the team’s third defensive pairing. Niskanen was traded to the Penguins in 2011, along with fellow Dallas Stars teammate James Neal. He was plagued with trade rumors at the start of the season, but, with injuries to many of his teammates, his ice time and responsibilities have increased and he is on pace for a career high with forty-two points this season. For the better part of December Niskanen was the Penguins most veteran defenceman with 458 NHL games; however, the Penguins experienced quite the scare on December 21 when he was absent from the bench for long periods of time. During his absence, Simon Despres became the most senior defenceman on the ice with sixty-three NHL games under his belt. Despite their inexperience on defence, the Penguins were able to squeak by with a 4-3 win over Calgary.
No one better exemplifies the Penguins depth at defence than nineteen year old Ollie Maatta. The defenceman was drafted twenty second overall in 2012 and is playing in his first NHL season. He is currently ranked sixth among rookie defencemen with sixteen points on the year and is second with a +8 rating after forty-seven games. The young defenceman was not expected to stay on with the Penguins this season, but his poise and patience with the puck have made him an invaluable addition to the team. He once again proved his value on January 15 when he scored the game winning goal in the dying minutes of a hard fought battle against division rivals the Washington Capitals. He finished the night with as a +2, with three shots, a goal, an assist, and praise from his teammates for yet another strong performance.
With injuries to their key blue-liners, the Penguins have had to recall four defencemen from Wilkes-Barre Scranton so far this season, with two of these players, Brian Dumoulin and Philip Samuelsson, making their NHL debuts. What is particularly impressive about all this is that, despite their inexperience on the blue line, the Penguins have only allowed five or more goals against four times this season, winning two of those games 6-5, and have only lost by three or more goals five times this season. They are also currently in sixth place averaging 27.7 shots against per game, proving that, more often than not, they have been winning because of smart, tight, defensive play and not because Marc Andre Fleury has standing on his head and bailing them out.
Many of you are probably saying that of course the Penguins have been winning this season, they have players like Sidney Crosby, James Neal, Evgeni Malkin and Chris Kunitz, and, with that much skill up front, you are expected to win almost every night; however, the Penguins offense hasn’t been immune to the injury bug.
The Penguins top line took a beating on December 23 in a 5-0 loss to the Senators when Pascal Dupuis injured his ACL on a hit from defenceman Mark Methot. With surgery scheduled for February 12, Dupuis is expected to miss the remainder of the season, leaving the Penguins with a hole to fill on Crosby’s right wing.
The second line hasn’t fared any better with injuries to Neal, Malkin and, second year player, Beau Bennett. Not counting his five-game suspension, Neal has missed sixteen games this season due to injury, including the most recent game against the Capitals, while Malkin missed eleven with a lower body injury sustained during the 4-1 win against Detroit on December 14. The most notable absence to the second line is winger Beau Bennett, who will be missing his thirty-seventh game tonight. Bennett missed the first eleven games of the season with a lower body injury, before a broken wrist, sustained during the 4-3 win over the Islanders sidelined him for eight to ten weeks. Bennett has not yet returned to the lineup, though he has resumed skating with strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar. Bennett is expected to replace the injured Pascal Dupuis when he makes his return to the lineup.
With injuries to character players like Chuck Kobasew and Tanner Glass, Jussi Jokinen moving up to the second line, and the acquisition of Taylor Pyatt from the New York Rangers, Brandon Sutter, centre for the Penguins third line, has had a constant rotation of wingers so far this season. Sutter has battled through and, despite the constant change in his wingers, he has been quite productive this season with seventeen points in forty-eight games.
The injuries to the Penguins top three lines means they have recalled seven players from Wilkes-Barre Scranton so far this season, five of whom were making their NHL debuts. These players are expected to be versatile, sometimes playing on the third or fourth lines with minimal minutes, and other times playing on the top lines with Crosby and Malkin. The injury bug was not done yet though and skilled players Jason Megna and Brian Gibbons, who had been recalled from Wilkes-Barre Scranton to replace injured players, have also been sidelined with injuries. This meant that on January 15, when the Penguins faced off against the Washington Capitals, forwards Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond and Nick Drazenovic became the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth players to dress for the Penguins so far this season.
While is it undeniable that the Penguins have talent in their lineup, this season has demonstrated, more so than ever before, that this talent exists throughout the entire organization, from the AHL to the NHL and in a busy, injury filled season, with a two week Olympic break, this depth will likely be more important than ever before. We may never know why the “Baby Penguins” in Wilkes-Barre have been so successful when they have been called up to the big leagues, but one thing we do know, even with half their roster injured, even when they are missing their top four defenseman, the Penguins are a force to be reckoned with in the NHL, proving that our AHL palyers are often better than most in the NHL.
UPDATE: I realize this post was very poorly timed as the Penguins lost 5-1 to the Florida Panthers, but one bad game after a four day break, with a slew of players returning to the lineup, does not change the fact that up until now the Penguins had been playing well and winning games.
UPDATE: I realize this post was very poorly timed as the Penguins lost 5-1 to the Florida Panthers, but one bad game after a four day break, with a slew of players returning to the lineup, does not change the fact that up until now the Penguins had been playing well and winning games.
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