Penguins Implement Major Lineup Change After Horrible Start to Season
Photo credit: Post-Gazette
The two biggest players on the team were part of a significant forward line shuffle for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
Early in the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins have lost five straight games and have fallen to the bottom of the National Hockey League's Metropolitan Division standings. The team's lineup appeared to undergo some significant changes on Monday, as the Philadelphia Flyers, their intrastate rivals, are currently ranked lower in the Metro.
Both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby were on the team's starting lineup on Monday. Head coach Mike Sullivan moved Malkin from the second line's center position to Crosby's wing. Now, to be fair, this might be the result of Bryan Rust, a forward, missing practice because of an injury, but it could also be Sullivan's desperate attempt to revive his faltering team.
Bryan Rust was the only player missing Saturday's 4-3 loss to Vancouver due to a lower-body injury. Canucks forward Nils Hoglander angled the star winger into the boards, causing him to jump off the ice and require assistance down the runway. He didn't come back to play.
«Rusty is being evaluated as we speak,» head coach Mike Sullivan said. «We'll have more clarity once he goes through the process with the doctors.»
The Penguins welcomed a couple of fresh faces to the team for the first time this season.
Blake Lizotte, who played for Los Angeles for the first five or more seasons of his career before signing a two-year contract in free agency, took part in a no-contact fashion. He had been hit by a puck while sitting on the bench during the Hockeyville preseason game, resulting in a concussion.
After having successful reconstructive MCL surgery on his left knee on May 2, Matt Nieto was fully functional. The 31-year-old, who also signed a two-year contract in the 2023 offseason, has had a long journey to get here. On November 22, 2023, almost a year ago, he played his last game.
"Yeah, it's not easy when you're not playing and kind of on a different schedule from the guys, you don't feel part of the team in a way,» Nieto said. «So, yeah, just extremely tough and difficult. But everyone here's been awesome with me, the staff, the guys. Put a lot of work in this summer to be in this position. Just happy to be back out there. It's an exciting day.»
The coaching staff chose to line up Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin during rushes because the Penguins are 3-6-1 on the season and only managed one point during their four-game road trip to Canada.
"They're pretty dynamic players. We're trying different combinations to see if we can create a spark for the group,» Sullivan said. «We've had a number of different combinations here the first little while in the early part of the season, and given the circumstance we're in and where we are right now, we thought we'd give it a try in practice today and see what it looked like.»
"I mean, whatever's going to translate into wins. I think that's whatever the combinations are,» the captain said. «So, yeah, I don't think we change anything other than hopefully with losing some here, we find another level of desperation, urgency and find a way to get back in the win column."
In addition to losing five straight games, the Penguins have a -13 goal differential through their first ten games of the season. If they hope to have any chance of making the playoffs this year, they will need to change that.
Here are the lines and D-pairs:
Malkin-Crosby-Rakell
Beauvillier-Hayes-Puljujarvi
O'Connor-Eller-Acciari
Bunting-Glass-Puustinen
Pettersson-Letang
Grzelcyk-Karlsson
Graves-St. Ivany
Malkin-Crosby-Rakell
Beauvillier-Hayes-Puljujarvi
O'Connor-Eller-Acciari
Bunting-Glass-Puustinen
Pettersson-Letang
Grzelcyk-Karlsson
Graves-St. Ivany
«We've got to establish more structure on both sides of the puck and for me, that's been our challenge,» Sullivan said. «Our coaches are committed to trying to provide that structure on both sides of the puck to set players up for success. I just don't think we've had enough sufficient structure, on either side of the puck, to set all of our players up for success. That's where we've got to get to. That's what we're trying to work towards."
Previously on Hockey Trade Rumours
| POLL | ||
28 OCTOBRE | 58 ANSWERS Penguins Implement Major Lineup Change After Horrible Start to Season Will this lineup change make a difference for the Penguins? | ||
| Yes | 28 | 48.3 % |
| No | 30 | 51.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
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