NHL: Penguins

Staal fills big shoes in Pittsburgh

Chris Kober | Hockeytalk.biz

NOVEMBER 6, 2011 -- LOS ANGELES -- After a 3-2 shootout victory over the Kings Saturday, Pittsburgh winger Chris Kunitz called Jordan Staal’s six goals and ten points through 13 games this season a coming out party.  Kunitz must have been too busy with the Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim Ducks in 2007 to notice that as an 18-year-old, Staal (left) led the league with seven short-handed goals, three of which came in his first ten games before the decision had been made whether or not he’d go back to Junior. 

To put that into perspective, first consider how many 18-year-olds make the NHL, then consider how many of them are consistently trusted with penalty kill time; now think about how many are allowed to go on the offensive while down a man and finally contemplate how many of those chances actually go in. 

Sidney Crosby casts a long shadow, even when he’s not in the lineup.  One would expect a team missing the best player in hockey to struggle to stay afloat but after the win in Los Angeles, the Penguins have an astounding 32-16-8 record since Crosby was concussed on January 5. 

Head coach Dan Bylsma gets a lot of the credit for keeping the Pens competitive without Crosby, including being named the coach of the year last season and rightfully so.  However, at some point such a record has to be considered a testament to the depth of the organization.  And nowhere are the Penguins deeper than at center.

Only a team with two Hart Trophies, two Art Ross Trophies, a Rocket Richard, a Conn Smythe, a Calder and Olympic Gold racked up by its top two centers (in the last five years) could have a second overall pick centering its third line.  As superlative as Crosby and Malkin are, Staal is key to Pittsburgh’s success.

“Whoever you play with at center on our team,” said Penguins right wing Pascal Dupuis, “You play with Malkin, Staal, Crosby, and it doesn’t really matter.  Life’s pretty good for wingers on our team.”

Dupuis and Kunitz regularly flank Crosby when healthy.  So far this season it’s been Staal centering their line, and Dupuis claims there isn’t much of an adjustment.

“I’ve been working on his line for a little bit here, about ten games so it’s good,” he said, “Jordan is really strong out there.  He plays a two way game, he’s one of those ‘Selke style’ center men, you know, he’s big, he’s hard to get the puck from.  He’s a big body, wins some big face-offs, he kills penalties, plays on the power play.  He can pretty much do it all there.”

When asked about how the team has thrived so in Crosby’s absence, without mentioning any names, Bylsma reiterated all of the same traits.  Staal’s name did happen to come up when discussing each aspect of the game that led to the Penguins’ victory Saturday.  The 6’4” 220 lb pivot may not be the focus of every play or comment but his presence is ubiquitous. 

He ranks second in time on ice per game (20:35), third in short handed TOI per game (2:24) and sixth on the power play (3:21) this season among Pittsburgh forwards.  Staal has taken almost twice as many face offs as any other player on the team.  His ten points (6-4-10) trails only James Neal (14) and Kris Letang (13); his +4 ties him with Dupuis and Letang for the team lead; with 29 hits he’s forth on the team.  Just about the only thing he doesn’t do is participate in the shootout, with zero career attempts.

The Thunder Bay, ON native is only 12^th on the team with 6 blocked shots this season, but Bylsma may be able to accept that.  He missed two months of last season with a broken hand that he suffered in practice while preparing to return from off season foot surgery.  Prior to those injuries last season, Staal had only missed one game in his career.

Staal was out for two games with an unspecified lower body injury leading up to the game in Los Angeles.   Not even Pittsburgh’s depth could handle missing Crosby and Staal, they lost both games 4-3 to Toronto and San Jose, the latter in a shootout.

Upon his return Saturday night, Staal assisted on the game tying goal with just under three minutes remaining in regulation. Tapping the puck off the boards behind the net to Kunitz, just as Kings’ defenseman Rob Scuderi turned away, for his line mate to sneak in front to finish; it was the kind of deft, understated pass that exemplified his work ethic and on-ice savvy. 

While the NHL marketing machine may have you think that Crosby owns the key to the city of Pittsburgh, and Bylsma is the second coming of Scotty Bowman – and those things may be true – without the quality depth of Staal and his cohorts of the lower lines, the Penguins would not be where they are today.

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