There's some bad news for the playoff contenders in the East. The defending conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins have found their way, winning six straight games, including all five on their just-completed road swing. And it gets worse: The Pens will play nine of their next 10 games at home.
With that kind of schedule, the Penguins still can play themselves into a No. 4 seed and home-ice advantage in the first round.
I see a couple of obvious reasons for the club's turnaround.
For me, the biggest reason is the return of top defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who missed the first 56 games after having preseason shoulder surgery. Gonchar is a vital cog and his return puts the other Penguins defensemen in their proper slots in the lineup. The Russian-born veteran is a legit No. 1 defenseman. Those kinds of players are hard to find and impossible to replace.
Now that he's back on the ice, Gonchar is skating the puck out of trouble in the defensive zone, making that important first pass to start the attack, working against the opposition's top offensive players, quarterbacking the power play, killing penalties, using his experience to break up plays around the net, and is on the ice in the first and last minute of a period and all important situations. He's also making megastars like Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby (as well as everyone else on the roster) better just by his presence. That's a lot of good things, right?
Gonchar's return also has allowed interim coach Dan Bylsma to feel comfortable asking his team to push the pace. Former coach Michel Therrien worked without Gonchar for all but one game and opted for a much more conservative approach. He likely believed it was his only chance to win. Those Penguins weren't attacking. They were sitting back in the neutral zone. That was probably good news for opponents. Who wants to see Crosby and Malkin constantly buzzing around their net? When you have players like those two guys, you have to be an attacking team. It's hard to attack when you're stuck in your own end.
The additions of Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin have been big, too. They made perfect sense for the Pens. The club clearly needed an upgrade on the wing after the offseason departures of Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone. GM Ray Shero knew it. He would have liked to better address it before the season, but the moves just weren't there. When the right opportunities presented themselves, he acted. Kunitz and Guerin aren't Hossa and Malone, but they're definitely an improvement to the lineup. And, again, they push down some other wingers to where they can be more effective in the lineup, as role players. That's important. Let's face it -- you really can't expect Matt Cooke to suddenly be a scoring winger.
The Penguins also are benefiting from improved goaltending. Marc-Andre Fleury has been much better during the past month. Playing behind a lesser roster in the first half of the season, Fleury was much too inconsistent. He also missed time due to injury. That didn't help. Now, Fleury has been coming up with the big stops when his team needs them. He might have been the difference in the club's 4-3 shootout win in Washington on Sunday afternoon.
Finally, the coaching change seems to have had the desired effect. Personally, I think that Therrien could have succeeded with the current roster, but I'm not in that dressing room day after day. Maybe, despite Therrien's success, it was time for a new voice. Bylsma seems to bring a more upbeat style. Through his first 10 games (8-1-1), his approach is working.
Right now, if the playoffs started today, the Penguins would be matched against the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins. Based on what I've seen in the past 10 days, that wouldn't be good news for Boston. I have a feeling the Penguins are going to be a little better than eighth when the regular season ends April 12.
Big performances
I have to give a shout-out to a couple of players for their exemplary work over the weekend.
• Hurricanes star center Eric Staal piled up six points, including four goals, during the club's 9-3 rout of the Lightning in Tampa on Saturday night. It tied the club record for goals and points in a single game. Staal also cracked the 30-goal mark for the fourth straight season. According to the sharpshooters at the Elias Sports Bureau, Staal is just the fourth player in franchise history to accomplish that feat. The others? Former Whalers Blaine Stoughton, Pat Verbeek and Geoff Sanderson.
• Blue Jackets winger Rick Nash netted an interesting hat trick during his team's shocking 8-2 blowout win in Detroit on Saturday (the eight goals were a franchise record for Columbus). Nash's hat trick was different because all three goals were unassisted. According to a report in The Columbus Dispatch via the Elias Sports Bureau, it's the first time a player recorded such a feat since March 14, 1948, when hockey icon Maurice "Rocket" Richard turned the trick with no recorded assistance. That's nearly 61 years to the day. That's a pretty damn impressive hat trick, Mr. Nash. Congratulations!
One last thing ...
The Red Wings, who were the on the wrong end of Nash's historic hat trick, were brutal in defeat. I don't remember a night in recent memory when the Wings, as a team, were so careless with the puck. When somebody hangs an eight spot on you, the goalie usually gets the blame. In this case, I can't blame starter Chris Osgood, who allowed seven of the eight goals. If you watch the goals, I think you'll agree.
E.J. Hradek
