With 20 years on his odometer as an NHL superstar, Sidney Crosby has butted heads with plenty of defensemen.
One strain of blueliner seems to be the most common in Crosby’s encounters.
A shutdown defenseman. A pair of them, in fact.
Earlier in his career, Crosby would duke it out with stout, heavy defensemen who would try to batter him into a quiet night on the scoresheet.
Perhaps most famously, he tangled with the Ottawa Senators battleaxes Chris Phillips (6-foot-3, 219 pounds) and Anton Volchenkov (6-1, 220).
“I would say that pair is up there,” Crosby said in Cranberry on Tuesday. “There was two pairs there that were pretty tough (earlier in his career). I want to say it was Brad Stuart and (Niklas) Kronwall (with the Detroit Red Wings). There was a couple that were pretty physical.”
Crosby still draws plenty of attention from seemingly any and every opposing player he steps on the ice with. But that classic idea of a big, tough, physical shutdown pairing seems antiquated in today’s NHL in which puck possession is seemingly the most valued asset for all 18 skaters in a lineup.
Do shutdown pairings — like the Penguins used to employ with Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi 15 years ago — still have a place in the modern NHL?
“Every team has it differently, depending on their make-up and how they’re built,” Crosby said. “For having played as long as I have, I probably am typically used to seeing that type of third pair when you look at teams across the board. I would think there’s still that element there.”
He only has to look to his left within the Penguins’ dressing room to see the composition of such a pairing.
Through three games of the regular season, the Penguins have teamed Ryan Graves (6-5, 222) and rookie Jack St. Ivany (6-4, 205) on their third pairing.
While no one is going to confuse them Gill (6-7, 243) and Scuderi (6-1, 216), each vital components of the Penguins’ 2009 Stanley Cup championship, the duo of Graves and St. Ivany is expected to take some of the duties of a traditional shutdown duo.
“For us playing together, we’re two shutdown players,” St. Ivany said. “We have a lot of reach, a lot of size. Just killing plays and making it hard for everyone in our own end.”
But how valid is the idea of a “shutdown pair” in the modern possession-centric NHL?
“It’s still valid,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think it depends on what the makeup of your group is and how you’re going to deploy those guys. For example, if you’re going to deploy a shutdown pair that’s going to play against another team’s top line, what’s your forward group that’s going to play with them? Are they going to be your top guys? If they’re your top guys, do you want players behind them that have offensive instincts, that can make outlet passes and join the rush and be active off the offensive blue line and things like that. There is a place for that. It all depends on what the strategy or game plan is of your group.”
In his final year with the New Jersey Devils, Graves and former Penguins defenseman John Marino were deployed as that type of pair within that team’s strategy and often drew assignments against the opposition’s top forwards.
“We’re both defensive-minded,” Graves said of Marino. “We just played against top lines all year. Not worried about offense. Just being hard (defensively). It’s a little bit of a different animal. You’re playing tough minutes. That’s my role. When you’re playing with (Penguins All-Star defensemen Kris Letang or Erik Karlsson), you’re kind of doing a bit of both, where you’re feeding offense but you’re trying to manage the risk. Whereas when you’re playing with like Jack, you’re sole focus is playing hard (defense).”
Through three games, Graves and St. Ivany have logged 34:55 of common five-on-five ice time together according to Natural Stat Trick. And they are decidedly in the red as far as possession figures go as they have been on the ice for 28 shots attempts for and 35 against.
Their direct competition — which lines they have drawn assignments against in even-strength situations — have been mixed. In Wednesday’s 6-0 home loss to the New York Rangers, Graves and St. Ivany primarily worked against a third line of Will Cuylle, Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere. One night later, during a 6-3 road win against the Detroit Red Wings, they saw a lot of a second line composed of J.T. Compfer, Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko.
And during a 4-2 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, they primarily skated against a fourth line of David Kampf, Steven Lorentz and Ryan Reaves.
Perhaps the most concrete thing that can be said about Graves and St. Ivany at this stage is that they are an experiment that intrigues management.
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“A pair like (Graves) and Jack St. Ivany could potentially be a group that is hard to play against, that’s good in their own end, that’s strong at the net front, that defends the rush well with their size and their range and their reach and their mobility,” Sullivan said. “And they have the ability to chip in on the offense, whether it be off the offensive blue line or making an outlet pass, things of that nature.
“That’s part of the skillset, if that tandem actually stays together, that could be the role that they play.”
While neither is ever going to be confused with former Penguins defensemen such as Ulf Samuelsson or Darius Kasparaitis when it comes to physical play, each are tall and blessed with long limbs. That attribute can lead to being a nuisance to the opposition with their stick play.
“You have to have a good stick,” Graves said. “You have to be in good position. Your angles are good. You’re just frustrating (to the opposition). You just take up space. I’m not as pretty of a skater as (Karlsson or Letang), but I can cover a lot of space. I have a long stick, I’m a big guy. So I can cover space that way. It can be effective and it can be effective against top lines.
“You want a stick that is in guys’ faces. It’s stick-on-puck. That’s hard to play against. You’re not stabbing at things. You’re not trying to knock things down all the time. You’re just big and long and have it there and it’s hard to play against. It’s just simple and it’s effective.”
St. Ivany, who has all of 17 games on his NHL resume, is still learning the details of how to use his stick effectively.
“Something that (assistant coach) David Quinn has worked a lot with us this year is knowing when to have one hand versus two hands on your stick,” St. Ivany said. “Obviously, defending rushes, the more you can have one hand on your stick, the more room you take up. Then obviously in the corner, you get two hands on your stick, you can really crosscheck someone, get in there, get body positioning.”
Unlike shutdown defensive pairings of yore, using tactics such as lariat clotheslines or hip-drop tackles isn’t permitted under the NHL’s modern rules.
“There (aren’t) too many defensemen in this day and age who are only just tackling guys and doing that,” St. Ivany said. “You have to be able to grow your game and be able to play both sides of the puck.
“Today’s game, you can’t just be a shutdown guy. You have to be able to handle the puck, make plays and make good outlet passes and also hold your own in the offensive zone. While we’re not just strictly shutdown guys, you have to be able to play both. For me, personally, that’s just something that I like to take pride in and make sure that I’m doing to the best of my ability. Everything else, that’s just stuff that you’ve got to continue to work on. You have to get better at that. Today’s game, it’s so quick, so fast. So you have to be able to do all that stuff.”
It remains to be seen if Graves and St. Ivany are a true shutdown pairing, against any context. But all parties involved seem to think they can serve that function, albeit in a modern fashion.
“Oh, definitely,” Crosby said. “Both big guys. Good reach. They’re tough to play against. And they can create offensively too. … They’re definitely guys who will take that opportunity with the way they play.”