With just a game or two left in the hockey season, the time for analysis and breakdowns have passed. A moment of reflection seems appropriate. Many of you will love this, but I must admit, I was wrong, the Pittsburgh Penguins are about to change the NHL.
A fast team without physicality can indeed win the Stanley Cup. That is a line I wouldn’t dare write, until today. It goes against everything I’ve learned in hockey, everything I know to be true and everything that many around hockey knew to be true.
Tampa Bay thought they had things figured out after their success in 2004. The team instituted a fast, skating scheme in their minor league affiliates because they wanted an aggressive, forecheck system, and thought they were changing the NHL. They almost did, but were unable to sustain their success, for various reasons, including increasingly lax officiating and the newly instituted NHL salary cap.
Dan Bylsma and the Penguins thought they, too, had things figured out after their Stanley Cup win in 2009. The Penguins cast aside grinding role players and slow defensemen who helped them win the Stanley Cup, in exchange for a more mobile, skating defense.
It’s been 7 years and a complete reboot for the organization to recover.
This time, the Penguins success is according to plan. And replicable. Stars who play both ends of the ice. Role players. Leaders. Mobile, puck moving defensemen who are also able to defend.
The Penguins without much physicality still win puck battles, still keep a clean crease and manage to protect themselves via puck possession. In that sense, they are effectively physical without being traditionally physical. They don’t wear teams down by hitting them, the Penguins wear teams down who try to keep up with them.
I predicted the Penguins would win the Eastern Conference. I also predicted they would lose to the heavy, playoff tested L.A. Kings because the big, heavy, grinding, physical Kings, who would score just enough to win. Even in the Western Conference playoffs, the Kings fell to the faster, more aggressive team; the San Jose Sharks.
For a team to win in the playoffs, it must have a few rugged warriors who are able to play on the bad ice against angry opponents and thrive. Or so most hockey people have thought. Or so I thought.
Yet, here stands the Pittsburgh Penguins, which have been outhit, sometimes drastically, one win away from the Stanley Cup.
It’s tough to say, “I was wrong”. Especially since I encountered so many incorrect arguments and personal attacks for trying to explain hockey culture, which was true…until now. It is tough to admit that it is indeed possible to win without some heavy shoulders or snarl.
Now, it isn’t a far cry to wonder how fast the Penguins would have run through the Capitals, or if they would have been pushed to seven games by the Lightning if the Penguins had someone to run opposing defenders. Or if they had someone to reciprocate the beating they took.
I still think the Penguins could use a Tom Wilson, who skates well, kills penalties and the kills the health of opposing teams. A player like Ryan Callahan, who skates well, scores and impacts games with a physical pop. Those players did more to almost derail the Penguins Stanley Cup run than any talented player.
Ian Cole’s and Brian Dumoulin’s transition to add strength and tough defensive skills to their game have helped more than most fans realize. Dumoulin, especially, took it upon himself to push back against net crashing teams in March. Until Dumoulin stepped forward, the Penguins were getting squashed by long goals through screens and deflections by unmoved players in front of the net.
Dumoulin began working on his technique. He began getting between his goaltender and burly forwards. Then he improved his leverage and began pushing those players away from the net.
And here stands the Penguins, one win away.
These Penguins aren’t ordinary. They are changing the NHL. The Penguins, with shot suppression (read: shot blocking), extreme puck possession, and shot attempts are an advanced stats dream come true.
The Penguins speed allows them to play a more aggressive forecheck style, without worrying about yielding odd-man breaks.
It’s all according to plan, which other teams will be able to copy. Though having Sidney Patrick Crosby does help a great deal.
The Penguins also possess something which doesn’t show up on paper and the reason I picked them to win the Eastern Conference: Heart. Miles and miles of heart (See Gene Hackman in The Replacements).
This summer, General Managers around the league will be minimizing defenders like Roman Polak for skating D-men like Trevor Daley. Forwards with giant Corsi scores will get giant paychecks while forwards with giant hands will get less.
Speed will also make the trap more difficult to maintain, as players are able to skate through quickly, and the players trapping them are smaller.
That is the upside of the Penguins changing the NHL; defensive schemes will also have to change.
The downside is that I still have humble pie left to eat.
It’s been a wild ride. For that, I’ll have a second helping.
