Math Problems

Plus-minus tells the Pens postseason story
By Tony DeFazio

Despite the fact that the Penguins lost in the second round of the playoffs this season, a vast majority of regulars actually posted better offensive numbers this past spring than they did a year ago when they won the Stanley Cup.

Several players had a marvelous postseason. Sidney Crosby averaged more points per game this postseason than last, though most of that came during his 14-point outburst in the first round and not his one-goal effort in the Montreal series. He was a solid +6 after an outstanding +9 last year.

Chris Kunitz scored 11 points in 13 games after tallying 14 in 22 last year, and had a +3 rating; Pascal Dupuis put up eight points this postseason and had a dramatic 10-point turnaround on the positive side in plus-minus; and Matt Cooke had 4 goals and six points in 13 games this year after scoring only once with 7 points in 24 games a year ago.

Sergei Gonchar, who took plenty of criticism for the Pens' power-play struggles, had his highest point-per-game total in the postseason in 14 years and turned in a better plus-minus rating than a year ago.

Brooks Orpik was probably the team's best defensive defenseman and improved his plus-minus four points.

The differences, though, are glaring in one area – plus-minus.

Kris Letang's offensive output was almost exactly the same as a year ago—and he certainly scored some timely power play goals—but he had a major problem with turnovers and saw his plus-minus fall 6 points to a -5.

Mark Eaton's fell eight points to -4.

Among the other forwards, Max Talbot again scored some big goals but fell seven points from an excellent +8 in the Cup season to a +1 this past spring. Bill Guerin also was active in the offensive end but dropped 5 points in plus-minus. Despite Cooke's clutch scoring and fine all-around play, he was a -4 in these playoffs.

Egveni Malkin—last season's Conn Smythe winner as playoff MVP—was the lone Pens' skater to suffer a sizeable scoring fall-off, producing just .85 points per game after scoring 1.5 a season ago. His plus-minus also fell three points.

Tyler Kennedy, who missed three games to injury and was never completely healthy, failed to score this postseason. More importantly he was a whopping -6 in just 10 games. Similarly, Ruslan Fedotenko, after a +9 and 14 points in his 24 games last spring, also failed to score and dropped a dozen points to -3 in just six games.

A great goalie in Jaroslav Halak, tons of blocked shots by the Habs, poor offensive performances by Malkin and Crosby… all of those things contributed to the Penguins' demise, but it was poor defense—suspect play in their own zone by youngsters Letang and Alex Goligoski, and the noticeable absence of Hal Gill and particularly Rob Scuderi—and highly inconsistent play by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that cost the Pens a chance to repeat.