Bolstered by new faces, Penguins aim for improved penalty kill down stretch

Less than two weeks after the NHL trade deadline, the nightly lineups utilized by the Pittsburgh Penguins continue to reflect the team’s new-look composition.

Gone are the likes of Teddy Blueger, Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen, whom general manager Ron Hextall traded or waived before the deadline. They have been replaced by recently acquired forwards Mikael Granlund and Nick Bonino and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton call-up Alex Nylander.

The influx of new faces has allowed coach Mike Sullivan to tinker with his lineup cards, resulting in different forward and defensive groupings in games against Philadelphia and the New York Rangers over the weekend.

Sullivan and assistant coach Mike Vellucci also needed to drastically modify the team’s penalty kill, as Blueger, McGinn and Kapanen all were heavily used in short-handed situations.

Granlund, Bonino and Hextall’s other deadline acquisition, defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, were all regulars on the penalty kill for their previous teams, and the Penguins quickly incorporated them onto their PK unit.

“From what I saw (on) video and how the team is playing, it’s an aggressive (penalty kill),” said Kulikov, who played on 11 penalty-kill situations in four games. “I’m also trying to be aggressive on the penalty kill. Hopefully it plays right into my game.”

Granlund played more than seven short-handed minutes combined March 2 against Tampa Bay and March 4 against Florida, and Bonino saw 4:36 worth of penalty-kill time against the Panthers, his first game with the Penguins.

Kulikov had already set a career high in short-handed ice time (192 minutes, 25 seconds) this season with Anaheim, per NaturalStatTrick. On March 7 against Columbus, he played 1:47 on the penalty kill in his Pittsburgh debut.

The new personnel did not immediately correlate to an improved penalty kill: in four games between March 2-9, the Penguins allowed five power-play goals, posting a kill rate of 68.8% (11 of 16).

“We’ve given up some goals, so we don’t feel good about that, but we also feel like these guys are smart players. They’re trying to learn a different type of a kill from what they were accustomed to on the teams that they were (previously) playing on,” Sullivan said. “We understand there’s going to be a bit of an adjustment process there.”

Kulikov said there are similarities and differences with the Penguins’ penalty kill compared to Anaheim.

For the Penguins’ new penalty killers, the best opportunities to get familiar with a different scheme comes in games, where each skater’s learning curve can have significant implications.

Take last Thursday’s overtime loss to the Islanders. Plenty of reasons exist for how and why the Penguins blew a 3-1 third-period lead, but allowing a power-play score to the Islanders in an eventual one-goal game was significant.

“It’s just a matter of watching some video, getting familiar with the system,” forward Josh Archibald said. “I think throughout the league, a lot of the systems are the same, or bits and pieces are the same. So, they come in and they’ve got an idea of what we’re doing.

“ … I think they’ve picked it up pretty quickly. The personnel is a lot different, but I think we’ve got a good core group here and we’re looking to go forward.”

While the Penguins’ penalty kill was dealt a blow by the recent injury to Bonino, who is out week-to-week after having surgery for a lacerated kidney, recent short-handed results have been encouraging.

They were perfect against Philadelphia’s three power-play tries Saturday, which included suppressing two Flyers man-advantages in the third period when the Penguins led by only one goal.

On Sunday, the Penguins killed off both of the Rangers’ power-play opportunities.

“The biggest thing is really how you forecheck and where you post in the neutral zone,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “That’s maybe different from team to team, but as soon as you get a couple practices in, a couple games in, you adjust pretty quickly. We want to have a (high) pressure (penalty kill), and I think it starts with that.”

Entering Monday’s games, the Penguins’ penalty kill was tied with Tampa Bay for 14th-best in the NHL at 79.7%.

Of the top 10 teams in the Eastern Conference vying for a playoff spot, the Penguins and Lightning share the worst penalty-kill percentage.

Bonino may be out after playing just three games with the Penguins, but Sullivan has other options.

Forward Bryan Rust is seeing his most penalty-kill minutes in four seasons, and Jeff Carter, despite offensive shortcomings, ranks third among the team’s active forwards in short-handed time on ice (69:48, per Natural Stat Trick).

Another potential injury to monitor is that of Kulikov, who left Sunday’s game against New York in the second period and did not return. Sullivan did not have an update on him postgame, and the Penguins had a planned off-day Monday.

“We’re getting better,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got a lot of new personnel in that group. That’s been a work in progress also. … Our guys, they’re getting more familiar with the scheme. And hopefully, the fact that we’ve had a few consecutive kills in a row here will give them a boost of confidence.”