Tim Benz: Ways to fix the Penguins and end their 6-game slide - TribLIVE

About an hour ago

Penguins fans certainly have spent a lot of time in recent days trying to figure out what’s wrong with their favorite hockey team.

I know I have.

I imagine those fans came to the same conclusion I did.

Everything is wrong. Nothing is right.

And that’s not an overreaction.

Look at the six-game losing streak the Penguins are currently enduring. Show me where the club is performing at an acceptable level.

I dare you!

Keep in mind, faceoff for their next game is at 7 p.m. Tuesday night against Ottawa. So you don’t have much time to concoct an answer.

In the meanwhile, I’ll try to be constructive and avoid the lazy analysis of listing everything that’s wrong with the team.

Goal scoring. Goal prevention. Goaltending. Power play. Penalty kill. Injuries. Line chemistry.

You know, that kind of list.

Rather, let’s be proactive and try to come up with ways the Penguins can fix some of these problems at every level on the ice.

Defense

Get healthy.

Hopefully that starts Tuesday night as John Marino and Brian Dumoulin could return. Head coach Mike Sullivan said they were both game-time decisions. It’ll be great to see Dumoulin paired with Kris Letang again. And Marino’s return will also eat up ice time so that the likes of Justin Schultz and Jack Johnson will no longer have to be overtaxed.

Also, Chad Ruhwedel and Juuso Riikola can return to a reserve capacity.

I just hope Dumoulin can handle the load of dealing with all of Letang’s ice time at even strength. Hopefully Sullivan can buy him some rest on special teams.

A word of caution, though. The pending returns of Marino and Dumoulin are being treated as a magic cure-all. That’s a stretch.

The Pens won four of the first five games after Marino got hit in the face with a shot back on Feb. 2.

Prior to this six-game skid, the team was 23-7-2 since Dumoulin injured his ankle early in a game against the St. Louis Blues back on Nov. 30.

So it’s not like the Penguins haven’t had success without those two. It just appears the weight of the minutes may have eroded the depth of the blueline to the point that their return is essential.

Goaltending

The cry right now is for Sullivan to stop rotating the goalies. Stick with either Tristan Jarry or Matt Murray.

Yeah. Sure. Great. Go ahead and do that, coach.

Now then, which of the two goalies that have each lost their last three starts should he choose?

Right.

Well. When I put it that way…

Look, when both goalies were playing great about a month ago, picking one over the other would’ve been hard.

Now that both aren’t on the top of their games, it’s an even tougher decision.

Let’s say Sullivan sticks with Murray. How many more points does he forfeit before he turns to Jarry if Murray underperforms?

Or vice versa?

As soon as one gets hot, I say stick with that guy to help the team turn around its fortunes.

Getting that goalie hot streak started is easier said than done, however. Jarry has given up 12 goals in his last three starts. Murray’s save percentage in February was only .899 in seven appearances.

Start Murray versus Ottawa. But if he bombs, go back to Jarry and hope for the best in Buffalo against the Sabres Thursday.

Forwards

Sidney Crosby needs to figure out how to play with whoever he is assigned and do it quickly. He’s got to start scoring (just one goal during the six-game losing streak) and get that rare minus next to his name (minus-9 on the season) back to even.

Evgeni Malkin has to stay out of the penalty box. Conor Sheary has to be stout on pucks. Jason Zucker needs to get comfortable in the system. And Bryan Rust (just two goals in February) better go back in time to figure out how he turned himself into Brett Hull for half the season.

How are we doing so far?

Brandon Tanev’s hands have to catch up to his hustle (one goal in 19 games). Patrick Marleau better be Bill Guerin and not Brenden Morrow. Jared McCann (goalless in 17 games) has to snap his slump. And Nick Bjugstad must — at some point — actually suit up and play.

Because now he is nothing but Lonnie Chisenhall on ice.

Special teams

Be special again.

Finally.

If the forwards and defense and goalies start doing what we just outlined, the special teams will magically follow suit.

But that’s a key point to emphasize. The two special teams units aren’t entities unto themselves. The individual players on them need to play better.

I don’t think the man-up and man-down units are failing because of Sullivan’s scheme. I think they are failing because of Sullivan’s players.

The 1-18 total on the power play during the six-game slide was about a lack of execution. It was not about the formation on the power play.

The five goals allowed on the penalty kill over six games was about how and when the penalties were taken — and an inability to kill them off — more than it was about Sullivan needing to reinvent the wheel on the white board.

The bench

Can Sullivan do a better job?

Of course.

He can figure out the goaltending. He can iron out some line combinations even if they may make the players involved unhappy. He can motivate and “press all those buttons” properly as he did his first three years in Pittsburgh.

Some of the lineup decisions should get easier with Dominik Simon getting sidelined and Dumoulin and Marino returning.

In December, we couldn’t give Sullivan the coach of the year award fast enough.

Kinda like how we did for Mike Tomlin when his Steelers were 8-5.

How’d that end up?

Sullivan’s team is in better shape than that. And unless they get down to a third-string goalie named “Duck,” I think they’ll stay in the playoff bracket.

But best to stop flirting with that scenario as soon as possible.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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Tim Benz: Ways to fix the Penguins and end their 6-game slide - TribLIVE

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