Cup of Joe: Starkey on sports in 400 words or less (sometimes more)
It’s one thing to move Evgeni Malkin to the wing. It’s quite another to move him to defense — yet that is where Malkin found himself too many times in the Penguins’ Game 1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday: disguised as a defenseman.
It didn’t go well.
If Malkin wasn’t fumbling pucks at the offensive blue line, he was late chasing down a partial breakaway, and his volatile performance — which was not entirely his fault — was symbolic of the Penguins’ problems in a 3-2 loss that might have been 13-2 if not for goaltender Stuart Skinner.
Seeing Malkin or any Penguins forward at the offensive blue line is not unusual. A huge part of the Penguins’ system, in fact, is encouraging defensemen to get involved in the offensive zone while forwards cycle back toward the blue line to protect them. They’ll use a third player up high as well.
It’s a key tenet of the effective approach coach Dan Muse brought to Pittsburgh — but Flyers coach Rick Tocchet identified it and exploited it big-time, unleashing his pack of lightning-quick forwards. The very area in which the Penguins had improved so much this season — the “high ice” — was precisely where Tocchet attacked.
The Flyers forwards — looking like the 2016 Penguins in how they swarmed all over the ice — pressured hard and high in their own zone, forcing mistakes, jumping on turnovers and sometimes taking off on fly patterns behind the Penguins.
The Penguins’ play in the neutral zone wasn’t terrific, either, but the issues began just inside the Flyers’ blue line.
Right after another Malkin turnover and another ill-advised, blue-line spin-o-rama from defenseman Sam Girard nearly resulted in yet another Flyers breakaway, SportsNet Pittsburgh color analyst Colby Armstrong spoke to Tocchet’s strategy:
“The Flyers, in their own zone, are pushing up to the blue line. The Penguins like to bring that extra guy up top, and the Flyers are waiting for that, (exerting) all kinds of pressure, picking pockets and going the other way.”
The key now is this: How will Muse and the Penguins adjust? Playoff hockey is all about adjustments. Losing Game 1 doesn’t have to be a big deal. The 2016 and ’17 Penguins rebounded after losing multiple Game 1’s. The ’91 Penguins lost four straight Game 1’s and won the Cup, swallowing their pride and radically changing their system in the middle of a series against the Washington Capitals.
You can’t be stubborn. Instead of doubling down on their approach, including all the east-west passes up top, the Penguins must simplify. They must enact one of the oldest cliches in hockey: Get it deep!
It’s time for the defense to play more of a stay-at-home, man-your-position game. That doesn’t mean Erik Karlsson shouldn’t still pick his spots, but instead of moving themselves toward the net, the defense needs to move the puck that way. Make the Flyers forwards turn back and support down low.
This should enable more of a behind-the-net game. The Penguins’ expert work down low resulted in Malkin’s goal Saturday. It marked one of their only extended-time situations in the Flyers’ zone.
That was a good Malkin moment. He had some of those, too. He seems pretty comfortable on the wing these days — certainly more comfortable than he does on defense.