Mark Madden: Penguins need to simplify power play, keep stars where they fit best

Mike Sullivan is the most accomplished coach in Pittsburgh Penguins history and very arguably the franchise’s best.

But even ABBA had their Waterloo, and Sullivan’s may be the Penguins’ power play.

The Penguins rarely got rhythm with the man-advantage during the regular season because of injury. The unit’s components were not often all available. The Penguins never found a suitable replacement for Phil Kessel on the left half-wall. Kessel wasn’t much good to the Penguins in the final year of his tenure but still excelled at that.

The result was a 19.9 conversion percentage for this season’s power play, a very mediocre 16th in the NHL.

When the Penguins reconvened for the restart, Sidney Crosby got hurt. Patric Hornqvist missed a week of drills because of potential secondary exposure to covid-19. Jared McCann got a shot at the Kessel spot, but that didn’t take.

The Penguins got three power plays in Tuesday’s exhibition vs. Philadelphia. They got just four shots and hardly even got set up. It was tough to tell who was where.

It looked like Crosby was playing the Kessel spot, which he rarely has manned. Crosby is arguably the NHL’s best player, but he’s no Swiss army knife. He’s a creature of rote who colors inside the lines. It’s nuts to put him in an unfamiliar spot, one made more difficult by him being a left-handed shot in a job that favors a right-handed shot.

Is there a potential upside? Absolutely. He’s Crosby, after all.

Crosby’s positioning puts him and Evgeni Malkin on opposite sides of the power play. That extends the foe’s penalty-kill. Crosby is set up to pass into Malkin’s wheelhouse for one-timers. That may be the lone edge to being a lefty in that spot.

Given time, his hockey IQ and his tireless work ethic, Crosby would figure it out.

But the Penguins don’t have time. They’re going from a short training camp (one that didn’t allow them to much practice this PP alignment) directly into a playoff.

Crosby’s switcheroo gets Hornqvist and Jake Guentzel on the top power play. Guentzel assumes Crosby’s usual spot down low. Hornqvist is the battering ram in front of the net. But it’s just not worth it. If Justin Schultz has supplanted Kris Letang at the top of the unit, it’s a potentially weak power play when it comes to zone entry.

Keep it simple.

Put your best players in their most familiar spots: Malkin on the right half-wall and Crosby down low, just off the post to the goalie’s left. Let Crosby get deflections and second bites of the apple.

Put Guentzel in front. He doesn’t absorb punishment like Hornqvist, but he’s sneaky. He moves in and out, taking foes with him. Guentzel’s touch and scoring instincts are brilliant. He’s also good at puck retrieval, perhaps better than Hornqvist.

If Sullivan likes Schultz up top because he’s a good pure puck distributor, I get it. He gets pucks to the net efficiently, too.

Put either Letang or Bryan Rust in the Kessel spot. Letang, as a second defenseman, safeguards after short-handed chances. He also upgrades zone entry. Like Letang, Rust is a right-handed shot. His 27 goals led the team. He got enough power-play time to score eight power-play goals, tops on the Penguins.

Rust might not be the most polished guy with the man-advantage. But it makes sense to use the player who led the team in goals and PPGs.

Tuesday was only one game, and an exhibition game at that. But the power play was an unmitigated disaster. The Penguins reportedly since have experimented with different looks in practice. Let’s hope so, and let’s hope they use one.

The Montreal series is largely experimental, though the Penguins can’t approach it that way. The Canadiens are the one team of 24 that truly doesn’t belong in the playoffs.

If the power play succeeds vs. Montreal, don’t be impressed. If Matt Murray doesn’t leak in many goals vs. Montreal, don’t be impressed. Assuming Murray gets the nod for Game 1, his short leash should apply going into the next round, too.

If you want reason to predict a lengthy series against Montreal, consider: The Penguins have played in three best-of-five series: 1980 vs. Boston, 1981 vs. St. Louis, 1982 vs. the New York Islanders. The Penguins were a heavy underdog in each, finishing 32 points behind the Bruins, 34 points behind the Blues and 43 points behind the Isles.

But they extended each series to the max, losing Game 5 to St. Louis in double overtime and Game 5 to the Islanders in overtime. The latter defeat was the only time the Islanders faced an elimination game during their four Stanley Cup years (1980-83).

Randy Carlyle of the Penguins won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s outstanding defenseman in 1981 but was responsible for the Blues’ winning goal in ’81, and for the Islanders’ tying and winning goals in ’82. Not to be critical.