Proposed fixes seem to be running thin for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The rollercoaster 2015–16 season continued last week with a pair of 4-3 wins over the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche capped with a 3-1 loss to the San José Sharks on Saturday night.
Quite simply, the Penguins lack jump.
Outlasting opponents works sometimes. So far, 12 out of 20 times to be exact, but something needs to be done to get the team to play with a higher level of intensity.
The top six group of forwards, notably Evgeni Malkin and David Perron, showed some real signs of chemistry in the wins, but the majority of the bottom six–the “energy” guys–contributed almost nothing offensively.
One potential solution for bringing up the level of play–inserting some youth into the lineup.
Speaking of youth, Daniel Sprong, the 2015 second rounder, deserves to dress for a game or two, especially considering Eric Fehr extended a pointless streak to eight games on Saturday night. Why keep Sprong in the NHL to be a healthy scratch?
And the lack of production goes far beyond Fehr. During the same stretch, Sergei Plotnikov and Matt Cullen boast one point apiece while Nick Bonino boasts two.
Plotnikov looks lost on the ice. Instead of playing with the advertised physicality, the KHL import merely eats minutes for the Penguins. Sometimes effectively, often times not. Plotnikov needs to be sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for at least a few games to try and gain some confidence.
Look at bringing up Wilkes-Barre/Scranton leading scorer Scott Wilson as a replacement. Wilson currently ranks second in the AHL with 10 goals in only 14 games. Though the odds of Wilson producing at the same rate at the NHL level come in at slim to none, a player with some momentum and some extra jump hopefully infects the rest of the team and Penguins a slight boost.
At 39 years old, Cullen looks in need of a game or two off. Fehr mostly played center the past seven seasons between the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets and, quite frankly, looks better in the middle. Fehr needs to be experimented with at center on the third or fourth line, while Bonino centers the other bottom six line and hopefully reaps the benefit of playing with either Sprong or a hot Wilson.
Admittedly, tweaking the bottom six probably appears near the bottom of the list of potential fixes for the Penguins, but inserting one or two players guaranteed to play with a high level of intensity hopefully breathes some life into the sluggish Penguins.
