PHILADELPHIA — The Penguins switched their forward lines Sunday for the first time this postseason, making some moves at right wing to try to bounce back from their Game 2 loss.
The moves, evidently, worked out, as they took Game 3, 5-1, and staked a 2-1 lead in their first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Patric Hornqvist moved back up to Sidney Crosby’s top line opposite Jake Guentzel, and Phil Kessel was reunited with Evgeni Malkin. Bryan Rust, who had been playing with Crosby, moved down to the third line with Conor Sheary and Derick Brassard. Only the fourth line of Zach Aston-Reese, Riley Sheahan and Tom Kuhnhackl remained the same as Games 1 and 2.
“It was more of a general shake-up a little bit,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “They’re not any combinations that we haven’t used in the past. Sometimes when we just tweak a little bit, we get a positive response from people.”
Sullivan specifically talked about reuniting Malkin and Kessel. The two played 567:51 together this regular season, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. That’s the second-most time Malkin spent with any winger, behind only Carl Hagelin.
“They have some chemistry, they can be dynamic when they’re playing,” Sullivan said. “We thought that might be an opportunity to reunite those two guys. As I always say, nothing’s every etched in stone. We thought we would go with what we went with this game here. We thought the lines played well.”
Given Sullivan’s reluctance to change line combinations after victories, it’s probably a safe bet the lineup will look similar Wednesday in Game 4 at Wells Fargo Center.
Good night on PK
The Penguin’ penalty kill held the Flyers scoreless on all six of their power-play opportunities Sunday, after allowing two power-play goals Friday in Game 2.
Even though the result was better, though, Sullivan has liked what he has seen from his penalty kill all series.
“In the first two games, we gave up two scoring chances on our penalty kill, in two games,” Sullivan said. “But both of them went in the net. The optics make the penalty kill look bad, but when you drill down into the details of the penalty kill and you look at the overall process and the decisions they made and their commitment, we felt as though they did a lot of really good things in the first two games.”
Staying silent
Sullivan will often offer expansive answers on hockey-related topics or even his team’s mindset in approaching a particular game.
He’s considerably less chatty when discussing officiating.
Sullivan always has been that way, too. Never has he been one to publicly lobby for a suspension or criticize officials.
“I’m not sure it’s productive,” Sullivan said. “I’m not sure it’s effective. I think it’s a distraction from what our team is trying to accomplish. We’re going to focus on what we can control, and that’s our team, our effort, our execution. That’s where all is our focus is. It starts with me.”
Game-time decisions
Once again, Sullivan went into the game Sunday saying all of his players would be game-time decisions, with one exception.
Carter Rowney still was not yet ready to return from an upper-body injury, despite joining the Penguins Saturday in practice. Sullivan did say that Rowney is getting close.
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG.
First Published: April 15, 2018, 11:36 p.m.
