The Pittsburgh Penguins introduced that they’re going to “half methods” with head coach Mike Sullivan. Sullivan had been the pinnacle coach of the Penguins for almost a decade, stepping within the function again in December of 2015. The Penguins gained a pair of Stanley Cups below his information however had missed the playoffs for 3 straight seasons and never been previous the primary spherical of the playoffs since 2018. How a lot is on him or on the roster is the query, however given the preponderance of teaching vacancies, it is unlikely he is and not using a teaching job for very lengthy.
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The Florida Panthers scored two targets 11 seconds aside with below 4 minutes remaining of their Sport 4 matchup at dwelling to Tampa Bay to take a 3-2 lead, after which Carter Verhaeghe sealed the win with an empty-netter a pair minutes later to present the Panthers 3-1 lead within the sequence. It was a really poor ending for Tampa Bay who had scored two targets 11 seconds aside themselves again within the second interval to take the lead, after which squandered a five-minute energy play.
Each Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones scored for the Panthers, whereas Anton Lundell had a aim, an help, three pictures, a block, and a success within the win. Brad Marchand assisted each the Lundell and Jones targets, including a block and two hits alongside the way in which. Marchand has but to attain within the sequence however he does have three assists in 4 video games.
Sergei Bobrovsky held off the Lightning simply sufficient, stopping 18 of the 20 pictures despatched his approach.
Mitchell Chaffee and Erik Cernak had the targets for Tampa Bay. Cernak completed with three pictures, three blocks, and 5 hits total.
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed three targets on 22 pictures for the loss.
Brandon Hagel was injured within the second interval, and didn’t return, as Ekblad launched a forearm immediately into his jaw, plain as day. This being the 2025 NHL Playoffs, there was no name on Ekblad from the referees. They’re probably sending Ekblad a pleasant bottle of whisky to congratulate him.
Niko Mikkola was given 5 minutes and a sport misconduct for making an attempt to interrupt Zemgus Girgensons‘ neck. Girgensons was on his knees dealing with the boards as Mikkola drove Girgensons head-first into the boards. The most recent phrase was the Division of Participant Security was contemplating suspending Girgensons for getting the again of his head in the way in which of Mikkola’s shoulder.
Sport 5 is Wednesday night time again in Tampa Bay.
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Final week, these Rambling began reviewing my preseason projections and what went proper or improper. We checked out forwards whose aim totals underperformed projections, those that scored far more than anticipated, and attackers with remaining aim numbers (or tempo) very near the preseason projections.
In the present day, we’re staying with forwards and who underperformed their projected level totals. We’re going to restrict the pattern to forwards with not less than 41 video games performed and who have been projected for not less than 20 factors, which supplies us a pattern of 292 forwards. We’re additionally extrapolating games-played totals to an 82-game season so that everybody is on even footing. Season information is from Pure Stat Trick.
The largest miss had a degree complete almost 65% decrease than their projected level complete, and we had 9 forwards between 50-65%. These are these 9 forwards:
What’s noticeable instantly is these are middle-6 forwards who simply had unhealthy seasons. These aren’t top-line guys going inside the highest 50 picks of a fantasy draft. Allow us to undergo just a few of them.
Philipp Kurashev (Chicago Blackhawks)
Kurashev is a participant I do not assume brings a lot to the desk apart from playmaking. However, given the dearth of expertise Chicago had, there wasn’t a lot challenge with penciling him in alongside Connor Bedard for a lot of the season and having a modest enchancment on his 2023-24 marketing campaign. That clearly did not occur as his function was obliterated (over 5 minutes per sport lower than the yr prior) and he was usually a wholesome scratch in calendar 2025.
This summer time shall be an attention-grabbing one for Chicago, and Kurashev particularly, as he is an RFA. He additionally turns 26 years outdated in October and actually hasn’t proven something on the NHL degree apart from modest playmaking expertise. Possibly he is given one final probability on a one-year deal, however he additionally may simply be outright launched. If he could make some enhancements, perhaps he generally is a Mikael Granlund-type, however that’s his upside, and he has an extended technique to go to even method that degree.
Anthony Duclair (New York Islanders)
Duclair’s first 5 video games of the season noticed him submit two targets, one help, and 1.1 anticipated targets per 60 minutes. It was a reasonably stable begin. Then he suffered a groin harm, missed two months, and was by no means the identical after his return. He even took a depart from the workforce and performed his remaining sport on April 1st.
It appears apparent that the groin harm hampered him from the second he returned. Utilizing the skating information at NHL Edge, we are able to see how the variety of instances Duclair had a pace burst of not less than 20 MPH, on a per-game foundation, was lower in half from 2023-24:
That’s the reason I do not really feel so unhealthy about lacking on this one. Had Duclair stored performing wherever close to the place he was earlier than the groin harm, he has a really productive season. However he did not, so he did not, and right here we’re.
Matias Maccelli (Utah Utes)
Maccelli’s first NHL sport was on March 3rd, 2022. From that time till the top of the 2023-24 season, a span of 169 video games, Maccelli posted 1.42 assists per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. That was within the 91st percentile of standard forwards (not less than 1250 minutes) and better than names like Tim Stutzle, Mathew Barzal, and Mark Stone. With Utah re-tooling the blue line within the offseason, Maccelli going into his age-24 season, enhancing shot quantity, this excellent playmaking throughout 169 video games, and having a 60-point tempo each 82 video games throughout the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, it appeared as if Maccelli was able to take a step ahead and be an enormous a part of the Utah offence.
In that context, this was an enormous disappointment. Maccelli had simply 18 factors in 55 video games and, like Kurashev, was usually a wholesome scratch over the ultimate three months of the season. Right here is the attention-grabbing half: in response to monitoring information from AllThreeZones, Utah (then Arizona) was a slightly-above-average workforce at producing offence off the frenzy at 5-on-5 in 2023-24, rating close to the center of the league. In 2024-25, Utah led the league, and it fully modified the way in which Maccelli created offence:
A few of Maccelli’s underlying playmaking information from 2024-25 wasn’t wholly totally different from his first three years, however the method through which he created offence was like a completely totally different participant. It’s plausible he struggled below a brand new offensive system than what he was used to as a result of gamers usually do not carry out as fringe top-line forwards for 2 years of their age-22 and age-23 seasons after which grow to be so unhealthy they’re unplayable. The purpose projection for 2024-25 was an enormous miss, however that is nonetheless a participant primed for an enormous rebound in 2025-26, whether or not in Utah or elsewhere.
And now, a have a look at a pair veteran forwards that have been huge misses:
Charlie Coyle (Boston Bruins/Colorado Avalanche)
After all, all of it fell aside for the Bruins. Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak had wonderful seasons however nobody else did. Coyle had 15 targets in 64 video games with the Bruins, which is near a 20-goal tempo, however he had seven assists. Cale Makar began the season with seven assists in his first 4 video games and Charlie Coyle had seven assists by early March. It’s fairly one thing.
Coyle goes into his age-33 season so he might have had his first and final 60-point marketing campaign already. It’s exhausting to see him going someplace subsequent season and getting sufficient ice time to assist that degree of manufacturing.
Chris Kreider (New York Rangers)
It is not as if Kreider is a good playmaker, however he had managed not less than 10 assists in each season the place he performed not less than 25 video games, and his 82-game tempo from 2021-2024 was for 27 assists. In 2024-25, he managed eight (!) assists in 68 video games. From 2021-2024, he figured into 57.7% of Rangers targets scored with him on the ice. In 2024-25, that quantity was a career-worst 44.8%.
There have been murmurs that Kreider was preventing a again harm throughout the season and that was confirmed, in addition to a bout with vertigo and a hand harm suffered on the 4 Nations Cup. He’s going into his age-34 season, so we all the time should watch out about age-related decline, however a wholesome Kreider with a (hopefully) improved roster is perhaps draft worth when September rolls round.
