EDMONTON, Alberta — With Sidney Crosby lining up against Connor McDavid for much of Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers and Teddy Blueger tasked with neutralizing Leon Draisaitl, the second-line trio of Jason Zucker, Jeff Carter and Kasperi Kapanen had an opportunity to make its mark on the game.
But even with about half of their ice time coming against Edmonton’s bottom-sixers, you had to check the score sheet after to confirm that they had played.
That line got doubled up in shot attempts, didn’t have a single high-danger chance and had an expected goals percentage of 27.0%, per Natural Stat Trick.
And once again, they couldn’t produce a goal together at 5-on-5. While not a new development, it’s become a big problem for a Penguins team that at times has had difficulty scoring. They had two or fewer goals in six of their last 10 games.
“It’s hard to win games if you’re scoring one or two goals every night,” Crosby said generally about the scoring woes of the Penguins, who have lost three games in a row. “We’ve got to find a way to put a few more in the back of the net.”
In theory, the current second line looks like it should be doing that. Zucker is a feisty forward with scoring instincts and speed. Kapanen is a terror in transition with size and a formidable wrist shot that the Penguins too seldom see. And Carter scored his 400th career goal in October and, at age 36, still has plenty of game.
The three have been together since Crosby returned from his bout with COVID-19 on Nov. 14. Wednesday’s loss marked 10 straight games as linemates. This season, that trio is one of the team’s most commonly used lines, logging more than two full games of 5-on-5 action, which is a pretty large sample size.
They have just one goal with all three on the ice. We could get into all the fancy stats like xGF% and high-danger chances. But we will just repeat the fact they have tallied just one goal with all three on the ice. The opposition scored four.
Now, individually, each has gotten on the score sheet in a different situation. Carter got a goal at 6-on-5. Zucker scored just after a power play ended. Kapanen buried one off a pass from Crosby in last Friday’s victory in New York.
Together, they aren’t threatening as much as they should given the talent on the line. They are averaging 8.28 high-danger chances per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play, per Natural Stat Trick. Each individual Penguins player has a higher rate.
Yes, that includes guys like Brian Boyle, Sam Lafferty and Chad Ruhwedel.
After the loss in Edmonton, coach Mike Sullivan acknowledged that the Penguins are looking for more 5-on-5 scoring from Zucker, Carter and Kapanen.
“I just think collectively they can be better at hunting pucks and just working collectively to control territory and give themselves an opportunity to create offense in different ways,” he said. “They get a number of chances off the rush, but I think that line can do a little bit of a better job in the offensive zone.”
Sullivan noted he would like to see them create more via the cycle game. They have generated just 14 total chances off the cycle in the last 10 games, per Sportlogiq. And overall, they have mustered only 11 shots from the inner slot.
“They’re very capable. They have good size and they have good strength. They’re a gritty line. So they have all the attributes to have a very effective down-low game,” he said. “That’s an area where they haven’t been quite as consistent.”
When Evgeni Malkin returns to the lineup in the next few weeks, this line figures to get split up. Kapanen is expected to be reunited with Malkin. We will see if Zucker goes with Carter to the third line and Danton Heinen gets bumped up.
But in the meantime, with the Penguins again struggling to tread water in a strong Metropolitan division, they need this talented trio to start making an impact.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: December 2, 2021, 6:44 p.m.
