If the Pittsburgh Penguins want to win more games, they are going to need the first line to find its game.
PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Penguins may have kicked their losing streak, but things haven’t looked fully functional since the calendar flipped to November.
What was initially the Penguins most productive line, the grouping of Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust, and Jake Guentzel has lost a lot of luster.
This decline in production from the line was even more highlighted by Guentzel getting a -5 rating against the Toronto Maple Leafs; both Crosby and Rust were a -4.
This also isn’t the first time those three have been at least a -4 in the last two weeks.
In their loss to the Buffalo Sabres, all three of them were a -4, kicking off their trend of abysmal play.
“They’ve been such a good line for us for so long,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think the last few games have been a bit of a struggle for them. I know it’s not from a lack of effort, and we’re trying to help them through the process.”
The ‘effort’ Sullivan is speaking of may be there, but it isn’t resulting the way everyone would like it to.
Not only has the offensive production began to slip from the first line, but they have been getting crushed in their own end; their +/- ratings noted before are a key tell.
“I thought we generated some good chances tonight,” Crosby said. “But we gave up some good ones too.”
The expectations are always high for the first line; the trio of Crosby, Guentzel, and Rust was one of the top groups of the 2021-22 season.
“The standard is so high, the expectations are so high because they’ve been such a good line for so long,” Sullivan said. “They usually control the game for the majority of the time that they’re out there.”
For whatever reason, the top line hasn’t been able to control the game and have let plenty of opportunities go the other way.
“We’ve done it well at times,” Crosby said on his lines defensive performance. “Other times it comes down to mistakes.”
What used to be one of the most feared lines in hockey has begun to fall apart at the seams.
The Penguins could be in real trouble if their top guys don’t straighten everything out and come up big in every aspect of the game.
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