Pittsburgh Penguins left wing Bokondji Imama (top) gets tangled up with Utah Hockey Club center Liam O’Brien (bottom), during the first period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Egan)
New coaches. A few new players. How might that affect how aggressive the Pittsburgh Penguins could be on the ice this season, and how much does that really matter even in a contact sport?
Interesting questions raised by a study and report on NHL teams from RotoWire.com.
First, the results from last season as they pertain to the Penguins. No, they were not a very aggressive team, according to the method used. They finished in a three-way tie for 29th with the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers. Only the Dallas Stars finished below those three.
You may have noticed that Edmonton and Dallas did pretty well last season.
The Boston Bruins ranked first in the league in aggression on the ice, but like the Penguins missed the playoffs.
So here’s the formula Rotowire used. They ranked the teams based on total number of hits and fights. It was that simple.
Of all the questions surrounding the Penguins with training camp starting this month, perhaps being aggressive has not been top of the mind. All teams want to be hard to play against. That can include beating teams down physically with hit after hit, and perhaps it can include fighting.
It can also include speed and skill, but those were not part of this study.
The guess here is that a lot of fans would prefer their teams to be at least moderately aggressive for a variety of reasons — they like the heavy checking and physical parts of the game, they get excited about fighting, etc.
But here’s a really interesting part of the Rotowire findings: Being more aggressive did not necessarily correlate to success.
The Florida Panthers led the league in hits and tied for fourth-most aggressive in this study, and they won the Stanley Cup. However, the Vancouver Canucks, who ranked second in hits, the Bruins, who ranked third, and the New York Rangers, who ranked fifth, all missed the playoffs.
The Nashville Predators, Bruins, Utah, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the San Jose Sharks had the most fights last season. Not one of those teams made the playoffs.
Conversely, after finishing last in this study, Dallas made it to the Western Conference final, and Edmonton, one of the teams tied for nearly last with the Penguins, made it to the Stanley Cup final.
Will the Penguins be more aggressive this season through the lens of this type of study? That’s unknown. New coach Dan Muse and his staff will let us know what their expectations are in those areas in due time. Boko Imama, when he’s healthy, and newcomer Justin Brazeau, if he cracks the lineup, could help raise the Penguins’ aggression profile.
Will that help make the team better or harder to play against? We will see.
Tags: Dan Muse Pittsburgh Penguins Shelly Anderson
Categorized:Penguins