Penguins notebook: Sidney Crosby gets double duty
No longer able to send something akin to the “HBK Line” over the boards for consistent third-line scoring production, the Penguins instead have tried to utilize their depth of gifted two-way wingers by offering opponents a double dose of Sidney Crosby.
The abundance of wingers familiar with Crosby — Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust, who started Wednesday's Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final with the captain, as well as Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist and Chris Kunitz — allowed coach Mike Sullivan to deploy the star center almost anytime an intriguing double-shift opportunity presented itself.
It happened in the opening minutes of Game 1 against Nashville, as Sullivan started Crosby with Kunitz and Sheary but sent the center back out 85 seconds after the opening puck drop to handle an offensive-zone draw with Guentzel and Hornqvist at his sides and the Predators' third defensive pair, Yannick Weber and Matt Irwin, also on the ice.
Crosby again briefly adopted Guentzel and Hornqvist as his wingers moments after the Penguins won the coach's challenge of P.K. Subban's goal seven minutes into the first period.
Sheary and Kunitz still garnered a sizable chunk of Crosby's five-on-five ice time. Each tallied 10-plus minutes, which Guentzel and Hornqvist finished with 1:39 and 1:25, respectively, according to naturalstattrick.com . But Sullivan, who also double-shifted Crosby early in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final, clearly noticed specific situations he considered opportune.
“We have a game plan as a coaching staff going in on certain things that we're looking for on the ice,” Sullivan said. “Sometimes they occur early in games. Sometimes they occur late in games.”
To see Crosby go over the boards with other linemates is never a cause for surprise or concern, Sheary said. Everyone on the Penguins bench recognizes the need for double-shifting the center to some degree.
“I think Sully has a really good sense of how the game is going and where things are going,” Sheary said. “Sid obviously deserves that ice time. He's a proven player. But, no, (Sullivan) doesn't let us know about (an upcoming double shift).”
Lineup tweaks
An optional practice Tuesday and an optional morning skate Wednesday allowed Sullivan to hide his lineup tweaks until about an hour ahead of Game 2's puck drop. The coach placed Bryan Rust with Crosby, bumped Kunitz down to Evgeni Malkin's line, and dropped Scott Wilson to the fourth line centered by Matt Cullen.
Carl Hagelin again served as a scratch.
Wing night
Nashville's blue liners command attention and headlines with their offensive gifts, but they're treated no differently by the Penguins wingers when the time comes to buckle down in the defensive zone.
Scott Wilson said pressuring the points is a point of emphasis no matter which defensemen set up shop out there.
“In this league, any ‘D' can make you look bad if you're cheating or looking the other way,” Wilson said. “I don't think it changes a great deal, but you do have to be on your toes a little bit with these guys.”
Be kind, rewind
Even after a particularly ugly performance in which his team generated just 12 shots on goal, Sullivan asked his skaters to consume no more than the usual amount of scouting video.
The Stanley Cup Final might demand an exceptional degree of attention to details, but it's not a reason to drown tired Penguins in analysis.
“We try to be as efficient as we can so that we don't waste our players' time,” Sullivan said. “We want to be as to-the-point as we can be as far as just giving them some ideas on how we can improve, where we can get better, any sort of adjustments we think we need to make in order to give these guys an opportunity to have success.”
Staff writer Jonathan Bombulie contributed. Bill West is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.
