Odd-man rushes remain thorn in Penguins' side as regular season nears end

Pittsburgh Penguins rookie defenseman Jack St. Ivany, through all of 10 career games played in his young NHL career, has cracked the code with regards to the best way to prevent odd-man rushes by opponents.

“Probably first and foremost is to not give any up,” he said.

Easier said than done.

“It happens, part of hockey,” St. Ivany quickly continued.

Odd-man rushes do indeed happen and have been a recurring thorn in the side of the Penguins during their up-and-down 2023-24 campaign.

While not a statistic that is readily available after every game, Penguins fans probably wouldn’t need to think back too far in recalling a specifically egregious odd-man opportunity that the club allowed on a given night.

Opposing teams have been particularly successful in generating such looks with the Penguins on the power play, as evidenced by the 11 shorthanded goals surrendered by the club to date, second-most in the NHL.

St. Ivany found himself in the unenviable position of trying to defend a 3-on-1 odd-man rush March 28 in an eventual 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets at PPG Paints Arena.

After fellow blueliner Erik Karlsson pinched in the offensive zone and lost an ensuing puck battle along the boards with Columbus’ Alexandre Texier, St. Ivany was left alone to float backwards and defend against Texier, Ivan Provorov and Cole Sillinger, who quickly gained the zone.

His efforts were in vain, as Texier and Sillinger sent a few passes back and forth before the latter ripped a snap shot past Alex Nedeljkovic.

St. Ivany was unsuccessful in quelling the threat, but he did manage to keep Provorov excluded from the action, as the Blue Jackets’ defenseman did not touch the puck on that particular play.

In an attempt to disrupt that particular sequence, St. Ivany laid out on the ice, hoping to give Nedeljkovic an opportunity to get in the best position possible.

“I think the biggest thing, 3-on-1, is keeping (the puck) to one side,” St. Ivany said. “They’re going to get a good shot off, most likely, with players’ skill levels in this league. … You don’t want to (allow) a full cross-ice pass through. Those full cross-ice passes cause the goalies to go post to post and that’s when, statistically, the most shots go in.”

For defensemen, odd-man rushes require a great deal of split-second decision-making, with many factors playing a role in determining how they act.

“There’s always going to be an element of instinctive play there and decision-making involved,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think at the end of the day, the biggest thing is trying to understand who’s the most dangerous guy — (that’s) the major decision that defensemen have to make when they’re in those situations, and then try to defend against the greatest threats first.

“… More often than not, you’re probably going to give up a shot of some capacity. The question is, what shot do you want to give up and how can you be predictable for your goaltender?”

In terms of strategy, defending against odd-man rushes is highly situational.

Unsurprisingly, identification of the opposing players on the rush, combined with an understanding of their strengths and habits, is significant.

“If you’re playing the Washington Capitals and Nick Backstrom has the puck and (Alexander Ovechkin) is on his one-time side, you probably don’t want to give that up and just let Nick take the shot — it’s stuff like that,” Karlsson said.

“You’ve just got to try to give them the least dangerous chance or make them make a decision that they don’t want to make. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not.”

The Penguins, presumably like every other NHL club, refrain from publicly advertising the specifics on their team strategy when it comes to defending odd-man rushes.

As Sullivan alluded to, predictability between goalie and defensemen is key.

A netminder’s ability to anticipate whether their teammate will opt to try to take away a passing lane as compared to focusing on the puck handler can make all the difference.

“The way I look at it is, from a goalie’s standpoint, your first priority is the shot,” Nedeljkovic said. “If the puck carrier’s coming in and he beats you, it’s on you. If he makes a pass across, you’ve got to trust your defenseman to break it up or make it difficult, which gives you a chance to get over, reset and get square on the puck. … Your job is to stop the first shot and then you do what you can to make up for that pass if it gets through.”

At this late juncture of the regular season, with only a handful of (immensely important) games remaining, it wouldn’t be unfair to conclude the Penguins have failed to prevent odd-man opportunities from occurring night in and night out.

With their postseason hopes still alive, albeit precariously, the emphasis will remain limiting those chances and when they do (inevitably) happen, enacting as much damage control as possible.

“We have strategies, whether it be a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-1 or when the defensemen work in tandem as opposed to a 3-on-2 or 4-on-2, that type of thing,” Sullivan said. “We have strategies that we’re trying to relay to these guys so that we can be somewhat predictable for one another and also be predictable for our goaltender, because they’ve got to work hand-in-hand.”

Notes: The Penguins had a scheduled off-day Tuedsay. … Rookie forward Sam Poulin was quietly assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League Monday.