byguistNHL Source: Penguins mulling options to add impact forward

The last two games for the Penguins in losses to the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues has highlighted some things of why the Penguins are trying to add a top-9 forward by the March 1 deadline and are also evaluating the market for a defensemen.

In two games vs the Bruins in a four day span, the Bruins out-attempted the Penguins 152-85, with a +23 advantage in shots, putting up 45 and 37 shots respectively against the Penguins.

5 v 5 the Penguins had just 13 shots in Thursday night’s loss, including 5 shots at even strength over the final 44 minutes of regulation.

What this game showed was how much the Penguins missed Evgeni Malkin.

Some 5 v 5 Shot Attempts For percentages vs the Bruins on 1/26/17

Sidney Crosby – 11/22, 33 CF%
Conor Sheary – 8/23, 26 CF%
Bryan Rust – 10/21, 32 CF%
Jake Guentzel – 3/11, 21 CF%

Pittsburgh’s top-2 lines were bleeding shot attempts all night.

When Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel lines were on the ice, the Penguins controlled just 30% of shot attempts, while the Bergeron and Backes lines gave the Penguins fits all night.

Mike Sullivan afterwards defended the use of Crosby’s line in not trying to get away from the Bergeron line much.

“Sid’s used to playing against that [oppositions top lines] night in and night out. He does it all the time. That’s what makes him as good as he is. When you look at that line (Marchand-Bergeron-Pasternack), that’s their top defensive line as well. So, we like that match sometimes too. I don’t think that was a huge strategy advantage on either side. There were some instances off of [icings], on occasion where we tried to free him [Sidney Crosby] up a moment to see if we could get some momemntum. Boston is a team that likes their matches and they go to the bench to get their matches.”

Stating the obvious, Evgeni Malkin was desperately missed in this one, especially with the HBK line on the decline this season as a whole. The line covered up so much when Malkin was injured last season and when Malkin was largely inconsistent in the playoffs. This season it’s a different story.

Phil Kessel has played over 270 minutes with Nick Bonino and has scored just 2 goals with Bonino as his center with a 44 CF%. Last season when Kessel and Bonino were on the ice together, the Penguins had a Goals For/60 percentage of 4.30. This season 1.75.

What Penguin management continues to weigh heading [hide] into the March 1 deadline is things like whether the production and dominance at times of the HBK line was nothing more than an outlier last season.  Other discussions internally the Penguins are said to be weighing in their deadline preparation is the fact that injuries have slowed Evgeni Malkin down the stretch which has been a problem in past seasons.

Jake Guentzel is also a factor. The organization thinks the world of him long-term but he’s still in that evaluation period for the next couple weeks in regards to whether the Penguins are fully confident he’s ready to lock down a top-6/top-9 role. If he struggles the next little bit, it will impact what they do at the deadline.

A new name to surface in recent days on the rumor mill?

NHL sources say the Penguins have discussed pursuing Red Wings winger Gustav Nyquist. The Red Wings are shopping for a defenseman and have put Nyquist’s name out there before his no trade clause kicks in on July 1, 2017.

The Penguins are looking to add even more speed and Nyquist is an amazing elusive skater whose numbers have dipped the last two years but has 30 goal ability in the right situation, scouts feel.

Nyguist’s career high in goals is 28 in 2013-2014 and had a career high 54 points in 2014-2015.

The negative?

Two years left on his contract with a $4.75 million cap hit. Lots of teams are interested, though. Carolina, Chicago among the teams with strong interest.

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