{"id":57080,"date":"2025-12-10T07:55:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/57080\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T07:55:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T07:55:16","slug":"the-penguins-third-line-story-the-kids-talk-about-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/57080\/","title":{"rendered":"The Penguins Third Line Story; the Kids Talk About … Each Other"},"content":{"rendered":"

Their age is neither a selling point nor a concern to Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse<\/a>. The Penguins\u2019 third line is currently, and for a foreseeable future, comprised of three rookies, the oldest of which is Ville Koivunen at 22, Rutger McGroarty <\/a>at 21, and the youngest and most experienced of which is Ben Kindel at 18. <\/p>\n

The Penguins\u2019 kids line is not yet lighting up the scoresheet, though they are creating chances, and more impressively, they\u2019re not giving up chances. <\/p>\n

The glimpse into the Penguins\u2019 future is becoming a wide-eyed look, even if Muse sidestepped age as a feature or a bug.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was concern with the age. We thought that there was potential; the line, the way they play. It always helps when guys have spent some time together, you can go back on that,\u201d Muse said. \u201cAnd so, we use that as a starting point. But I think those guys have also done a good job on both sides of the puck. Yeah, it wasn\u2019t a concern about the age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Koivunen played on the top Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins<\/a> line with McGroarty and Tristan Broz<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That line clicked, just as the new trio with Kindel in the middle has at the NHL level. The advanced stats are pretty good, with an expected goals for ratio of over 72% and Muse has been able to deploy the line in high-leverage defensive situations. <\/p>\n

Digging a little deeper into the superficial advanced numbers over the nearly 27 minutes at 5v5, a 66% shot-attempt rate is bettered by actually owning 83% of the shots on goal when they\u2019re on the ice, and 61% of the scoring chances (All stats courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Perhaps the biggest change has occurred since McGroarty arrived eight days ago. In the three games since, Koivunen has noticeably elevated his game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing a lot with Rut\u2013Last year, and he came here now, so yeah, it\u2019s just felt pretty good right away,\u201d Koivunen said. \u201cWe just try to use our strengths when we have the puck, so I think that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

After struggling for much of this season, Koivunen looks like he\u2019s found a home. <\/p>\n

It is McGroarty who has unlocked Koivunen\u2019s fiesty, slick playmaking?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like Ville, he is just a really good hockey player \u2026 But I think the comfort factor is really just\u2013he\u2019s a year older than me. We\u2019re kinda going through this together, kind of going through it with Ben,\u201d said McGroarty. \u201cSo, we might as well just go out there and give it our best shot. So I think it\u2019s really cool. And it\u2019s just the comfort factor of talking to each other on the bench. And we know each other well, and we\u2019ve played with each other for a year now. So we can kind of read off of each other and know what we\u2019re going to do. And then when we get back to the bench, just being able to talk to each other, I feel like that is a huge thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGroarty sort of chuckled that we might be giving him credit for Koivunen\u2019s play. We weren\u2019t, but the chemistry on the line is undeniable. There is also a real chance that in a few years, it will become the Penguins\u2019 top line. <\/p>\n

When we told Koivunen that it can be fun to watch them, he responded simply. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: ben kindel<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> rutger mcgroarty<\/a> Ville Koivunen<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized: Penguins Locker Room<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Their age is neither a selling point nor a concern to Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse. The Penguins\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1064,73,75,74,1067,14656,5462],"class_list":["post-57080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-ben-kindel","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-rutger-mcgroarty","tag-ville-koivunen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}