Who?
I said Chris Kunitz.
You remember him, don't you?
The LW acquired from Anaheim last season in the Ryan Whitney trade?
The guy who was supposed to provide Sidney Crosby a scoring, physical presence on the wing?
One out of two isn't bad, I suppose.
I've been poised to bring up Kunitz for about a week now, and there's no better time, given that he delivered the Penguins a shootout victory last night in Carolina when he scored on the Pens' 6th shot against Hurricanes' netminder Cam Ward.
Kunitz made a nice little drop fake and stick deke before wristing a shot through Ward's 5-hole for the winner.
It was a deserving goal for Pittsburgh, since they had a 2-0 lead in the game going into the third period, before Carolina LW Ray Whitney got the Hurricanes back in the game with back-to-back markers to tie the score.
Whitney's first goal was especially tricky, as he took a pass from the far boards toward the slot and one-timed a shot he got just enough mustard on to squeeze by Pens' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. What was unique about that play was that Whitney was cutting towards the center of the ice from the near wall and, by the time he got the puck, he was past the half way point, which meant that his right handed shot had to cut across his body somewhat -- in the same way the pass was traveling -- to get on the goal.
Whitney's second goal also was nice -- a deflection that sailed over Fleury at the half-way mark in the final frame.
Earlier in the game, the Penguins' had staked their 2-0 lead on the strength of goals by 4th liner Mike Rupp and center Evgeni Malkin.
There couldn't be a greater difference between those two guys, but last night, Rupp sure looked like Malkin scoring his goal. He led a 2-on-1 rush down the near boards before cutting toward the goal with authority, going on the edge of his blade to change direction as he deked right in front of Ward, then roofing the puck top shelf on the backhand past the stunned Hurricanes' netminder to give the Pens' a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Malkin's goal in the 2nd period left Ward in the same position on the ice as he was after Geno's hat trick backhander in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
That is, on his knees begging for ...
Okay. Not quite.
Not quite begging, anyway, but definitely on his knees.
Malkin took a shot from the lower circle and roofed it near side past Ward to up the Pens' lead to 2-0.
After Whitney's 3rd period heroics and a scoreless overtime, Fleury and Ward starred in the shootout.
Actually, Ward starred a bit before that when he made a sparkling, 10-bell glove save on Guerin who was alone at his doorstep trying to finish off a tic-tac-toe passing play from Crosby to Kunitz to him. Guerin got nice wood on the shot but Ward, out of position after having committed to Kunitz, just lunged back with his glove to snag Guerin's shot before it crossed the goal line.
Replays from above the net showed part of Ward's glove over the line, but it was impossible to determine where the puck was in there.
In the shootout, both Crosby and Carolina wing and shootout stud Jussi Jokinen scored in the 2nd round, and nobody else could put a puck in -- for the Penguins' that included Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski, Bill Guerin and Malkin -- before Kunitz' winner.
Which brings us full-circle back to #14.
Kuntiz still hasn't scored a regular season marker this year, and, if you include last year's playoffs and the final 10 contests of 2008/2009, Kunitz has only 1 goal in about 40 games -- a beyond-miserable rate of production for a guy who spends time playing with the best passer in the game.
I'm not sure why Kunitz can't get on the board more often. He has good hands, as he showed in the shootout last night, and is physical enough to create space and get in scoring position, but he's not getting it done for some reason.
There's no doubt that Kunitz brings other things to the table besides putting the puck in the net, and that he adds an element to Crosby's line that #87 needs and benefits from.
There's also no doubt that Sid is becoming a better scorer in his own right, and that the Penguins' success since Kunitz arrived has masked his inability to light the lamp.
And there's no doubt that the Pens don't have an automatic replacement they can easily plug right into Kunitz' place on that wing. At least not yet. Maybe Eric Tangradi -- the top prospect who came with Kunitz from Anaheim in the Whitney deal -- will push Kunitz out of that position one day, but we're not there at this point.
Regardless of all that, Kunitz can't continue putting up a zero in that position. Period. The Penguins aren't paying him 3.5 million dollars a year just to be physical and create space.
The Penguins have had 11 different goal scorers this year. He isn't one of them. He has to step up his game.
With last night's victory, Pittsburgh finished its 4-game road trip undefeated, and set a franchise record for the most road wins to start a season (5).
They also continue to hold the top spot in the Atlantic and NHL with a 6-1 record, but are tied with the Rangers, who have won 6 straight under coach John Tortarella after dropping their opener to us.
The Penguins' next game on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Mellon Arena will mark their season debut of their power blue retro jerseys.
More tomorrow or on the weekend.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment