Panthers 4, Penguins 3 (SO): A Second Look

The simple story

The Penguins came into Sunrise to sweep the home-and-home series from the Cats after getting thoroughly outplayed in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Despite the Panthers‘ inspired play, the Pens took a 3-1 victory.

The first period last night would see Patric Hornqvist continue his strong play with his 12th marker of the season in the first period. Most of the second period would elapse before Jussi Jokinen pulled Florida even with his fourth goal of the year.

The third period would see Jimmy Hayes score his eighth and ninth goals of the campaign in the first five minutes of action – and Florida’s 3-1 lead would hold up until five minutes remained in regulation. That’s when Nick Spaling scored his sixth marker of the season on the power play, and Evgeni Malkin added his 16th of the year to make the score 3-3 with three minutes left in the game.

After a scoreless overtime, the Panthers and the Penguins traded shootout chances for six rounds with nary a puck beating a goaltender. The bottom of the seventh would see Aleksander Barkov end it with a sneaky backhander. Florida 4, Pittsburgh 3.

The Panthers owned an edge in each of the three 20-minute periods, although they were out-shot, 5-3 in overtime. The Panthers led 19-to-16 in the first, 23-to-19 in the second, and 17-to-13 in the third.

* the following stats reflect even-strength ice time

Name	TOI	Corsi For	Corsi Against	Corsi Diff	Corsi%	ZS%	C/ZS
Willie Mitchell	17:29	17	8	9	68	25	43
Dave Bolland	14:56	20	13	7	61	22	39
Jussi Jokinen	14:53	18	12	6	60	29	31
Dmitry Kulikov	14:29	14	10	4	58	33	25
Jimmy Hayes	13:16	12	8	4	60	38	22
Brandon Pirri	10:35	11	7	4	61	40	21
Sean Bergenheim	13:42	13	11	2	54	38	16
Dylan Olsen	17:19	21	16	5	57	46	11
Aleksander Barkov	14:03	11	9	2	55	44	11
Jonathan Huberdeau	13:21	13	10	3	57	57	0
Erik Gudbranson	16:21	17	15	2	53	55	-2
Vincent Trocheck	12:10	13	11	2	54	57	-3
Nick Bjugstad	13:50	14	12	2	54	57	-3
Aaron Ekblad	17:52	13	18	-5	42	50	-8
Scottie Upshall	10:45	9	14	-5	39	50	-11
Derek MacKenzie	7:48	4	7	-3	36	50	-14
Brian Campbell	18:46	14	20	-6	41	56	-15
Tomas Kopecky	8:53	3	9	-6	25	50	-25

• Mitchell’s total ice time was second on the club only to Brian Campbell, 22:27 in all situations. He played over half of the overtime period. He was on ice for 25 Corsi events in total, 17 of which were of the positive variety. All this, despite starting only 25% of the time in the offensive zone. He tops the chart with a 43 C%-ZS%. Dave Bolland and Jussi Jokinen enjoyed similar results.
• Dmitry Kulikov, Jimmy Hayes, and Brandon Pirri were nearly as good, with Corsi%’s near 60% despite positive zone starts of 40% or less, and of course, Hayes scored twice, so there’s that.
  
• Sean Bergenheim, Dylan Olsen, and Aleksander Barkov each graded out slightly ahead of average on the night, with combined 43% positive zone starts and a corresponding 55% Corsi.
• Jonathan Huberdeau was precisely even, with 57% zone starts and Corsi.
• Erik Gudbranson, Vincent Trocheck, Nick Bjugstad, and Aaron Ekblad were all in the negative, but nothing to write home about, less than 10% difference from Corsi to zone start.
• Tomas Kopecky had the hardest luck night at even strength, with only three corsi events directed toward Fleury in his presence (of 12 overall). His 25% Corsi did not match up well in reference to his 50% positive (and negative) zone starts. Scottie Upshall and Derek MacKenzie also suffered in the category, but like Kopecky, may have been suffering from small sample size.
• Brian Campbell had no such excuse, with a minus-15 C-ZS in a team high 18:46 at even strength.

Name	TOI	Corsi For	Corsi Against	Corsi Diff	Corsi%	ZS%	C/ZS
Bryan Rust	11:53	5	9	-4	36	14	22
Brian Dumoulin	14:39	5	7	-2	42	30	12
Rob Klinkhammer	10:18	6	11	-5	35	25	10
Marcel Goc	11:00	5	13	-8	28	23	5
Derrick Pouliot	16:55	11	21	-10	34	38	-4
Scott Harrington	12:38	20	13	7	61	70	-9
Rob Scuderi	17:31	8	22	-14	27	38	-11
Simon Despres	14:44	7	11	-4	39	50	-11
Nick Spaling	14:33	19	10	9	66	78	-12
Kris Letang	19:40	28	18	10	61	79	-18
Blake Comeau	13:20	22	13	9	63	83	-21
Patric Hornqvist	15:51	11	13	-2	46	67	-21
Evgeni Malkin	18:18	29	16	13	64	88	-24
Taylor Chorney	6:06	7	5	2	58	83	-25
Chris Kunitz	17:57	8	15	-7	35	62	-27
Sidney Crosby	17:04	15	19	-4	44	73	-29
Bobby Farnham	7:41	1	8	-7	11	50	-39
Andrew Ebbett	10:17	3	13	-10	19	60	-41

• Bryan Rust, Brian Dumolin and Rob Klinkhammer scored similar in C-ZS, due to roughly identical reasons. Rush was on-ice for 14 Corsi events, only five of them positive for a 36% Corsi. His shifts accomplished this despite only starting in the Panthers half of the playing surface 14% of the time (three times in 21). The other two also had unfavorable Corsi%, made more understandable by an even less favorable Zone Start%.
• Marcel Goc, Derrick Pouliot, and Scott Harrington all graded out in standard deviation between C% and ZS%. Harrington was the only one to have a positive Corsi Diff.
  
• Rob Scuderi, Simon Despres, Nick Spaling, and Kris Letang had similar results, despite differing circumstances. For example, Scuderi was on ice for 30 Corsi events, but only eight of them directed at Florida’s net for a 27% rating. Still, he only started 38% of the time in Florida’s zone, so his low rating is somewhat less egregious. In contrast, Letang was present for 46 Corsi events, 28 of them positive for a 61% Corsi – which should have been higher considering his 79% positive zone starts.
  
• The rest of the Penguins had marginally less favorable evenings, the worst of which were by Bobby Farnham and Andrew Ebbett. Farnham was only present for one positive Corsi event in nearly eight minutes, against eight negative ones. This resulted in an 11% Corsi, despite his 50% Zone Starts. Ebbett started in Florida’s zone 60% of the time, but his efforts resulted in 19% positive Corsi Events for a game-low minus-41 C-ZS.
  

Thanks for reading more about Florida’s last game. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever floats your boat this season. And to all a Happy New Year.