LATEST PENGUINS BUZZ

TIOPS HIGHLIGHTS
*Game-by-Game Adjustments from Sullivan
*Poor practice habits for Murray frustrating organization?
*Easy Call can already be made for Justin Schultz
*Elite Level Offense, 1-on-1 Threat from Bryan Rust
*Staff counting the days for Galchenyuk in a Penguins uniform…

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— The microscope was going to be on Mike Sullivan this season on whether he’d go full Dan Bylsma and show little appetite to change or not. It’s been the ladder as Sullivan has done a phenomenal job in little tweaks to the system in defending zone entries and countering offensively, while the combination of a buy-in mentality 1-18 has been the perfect storm thus far.

Quick adjustments with personnel has also paid off like Tuesday night.

Kris Letang on the left side was a disaster defensively vs the Kings.

Sullivan has shown a willingness to throw the young players into uncomfortable situations and what do you know, Sullivan swaps John Marino and Kris Letang, moving Marino to the left side and Marino has a phenomenal game vs the Flames in playing 27 minutes.

— It’s still too early to really dive into whether Matt Murray is still in line to be a $7 million a year goaltender next season. There’s a lot of season to go but the facts are, Before the season, everything was setting up for Murray to land an 8 year contract in the $7-$7.5 million a year range without much negotiation.

The bigger story in the short-term for me is whispers around the league that the Penguins are not happy with Murray’s practice habits and a bit of arrogance that he needs to fix anything. And this isn’t a new thing……

 

Is Bryan Rust going to continue to score at a 50 goal pace (over 82 games) for the rest of the season?

No, but this feels much different than some of those hot stretches Rust has had in past seasons.

Rust had always been a very good north-south player.

What’s made him an elite offensive player this season is adding an east-west ability to create offense in 1-on-1 situations.

The instincts and a greater level of patience with the puck in creating individual offense is playing a big factor in not just seeing the results Rust is getting, but in that he’s a consistent threat in creating offense and this isn’t driving to the net and getting a bunch of lucky bounces off Sidney Crosby type passes.

Rust is creating highly skilled plays off zone entries, pushing defenders back with speed/patience with the puck and looking the part of a skilled 1-on-1 top-6 player.

Rust has always been a very useful top-9 player who coaches have held in higher regard than the front office. Anytime Rust’ name might have come in organizational meetings, the coaching staff has always gone to bat for him in how important he is beyond the scoresheet.

Now the Penguins are getting the contributions of all the little things Rust does on a game-by-game basis with the combination of now elite offense.

And these type of unexpected revelations is why the Penguins have kept their head above water and some with all the injuries.

— Beyond the emergence of John Marino, no matter what happens the rest of the way, the Penguins have been given an easy decision already on whether to make a commitment to Justin Schultz on a long-term contract or not. The inability to stay healthy and no signs that the 2016-2017 ‘Justin Schultz’ is re-emerging, has things setting up where the Penguins will use Schultz as their own rental and then (if they want) explore a short-term contract at a much lower AAV if it’s something Schultz will consider.

Off-season talk that Schultz will be a $6-$7 million a year defenseman on his next contract certainly isn’t coming from Pittsburgh.

— The coaching staff is just counting the days that they no longer have to put Alex Galchenyuk in the lineup……[/hide]