the Underlying Numbers: Penguins vs. Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks came to town to face the Penguins, and the Penguins unleashed hell on them, primarily in the form of Sidney Crosby

By Mike Darnay@MikeDarnay Feb 9, 2016, 7:00am EST

Six goals. For the second time this season, the Penguins scored six goals. It looks like Mike Sullivan has finally gotten the Penguins turned into the offensive juggernaut we expected to see from them in October.

The Penguins have scored five goals in 5 different games under Sullivan, plus six goals in 2 games. Under Johnston, the Penguins scored five goals one time.

Lines and Pairings

Here is your #Pens lineup for tonight's Monday night matchup vs. Anaheim. pic.twitter.com/K6u18Krj7R
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 8, 2016

Highlights

The Penguins also had a little tribute for Sidney Crosby's 900th point

For all those asking, here's the in-game video to congratulate Crosby on recording 900 NHL points in Florida.https://t.co/OQcx1KZmIm
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 9, 2016

Positives

Sidney Crosby. That's all.

He's superhuman.

Replay: https://t.co/iyY0qNek2D pic.twitter.com/B325F8fp0Z
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 9, 2016

Said best by good friend Jesse here:

Watching Sidney Crosby play like this is the greatest thing. Tough to put into words. He's declared war on the rest of the league.
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) February 9, 2016

Marc-Andre Fleury looks like he is back on track after two blunders of games against Ottawa and Tampa Bay.

The AHL line of Conor Sheary, Scott Wilson, and Kevin Porter had a great shift with Kris Letang that led to a goal. Felt like a full-minute of zone time cycling the puck and wearing down Anaheim before getting the goal.

Kris Letang right now is just ridiculous. Probably the best we have ever seen from him. Offensively, one of his biggest criticisms has been his inability to find shooting lanes, and he is doing that ridiculously well right now. Simple point shots through traffic finding teammates sticks for redirects. Two goals as a result last night.

Carl Hagelin's speed is still shocking to see. When he broke away for the goal, I was stunned.

Oskar Sundqvist quietly doing a good job. Logging 4th line minutes, but not glaring or sticking out in a bad way. He probably isn't here when everyone else is healthy, but him being a question mark for the future is much less so.

The same goes for Derrick Pouliot. It looks like he has gotten more comfortable with each game since his call-up.

Negatives

Late first period goal. Somewhat negated by Hagelin's goal that followed, but still.

Late second period goal. Goals late in the period when you've played well up until that point are frustrating, because another minute or so, and things have an entirely different vibe going into the intermission and into the start of the next period.

Stats

	Ducks	Penguins
Goals	2 (Getzlaf, Maroon)	6 (Kunitz, Sheary, Hagelin, Crosby, Crosby, Maatta)
Shots on Goal	38	35
5v5 Corsi For Percentage	51.4%	48.6%

Analytics

Even Strength Shot Attempts

HOLY NET FRONT PRESENCE, PENGUINS. This is amazing.

Power Play Shot Attempts

Either each team had a mediocre power play or a good penalty kill. Or both. I'm not sure.

Shot attempt charts provided by War on Ice.

Expected Goals

A refresher of the key for these charts:

More information and description/analysis of Expected Goals can be found here on Hockey Graphs.

In the previous post here using these charts for the first time, I mentioned how it factors in things like shot quality. A more detailed list of what factors into that shot quality is below:

Expected Goals map provided by Don't Tell Me About Heart.

Head-to-Head Shot Attempts

The eye-test matches the stats here, seeing as how the game really felt close in terms of shots and shot attempts, but the Penguins finished their chances, and there wasn't really any domination in terms of one line against another or one pairing against a certain line.

A basic description on how to read these charts: Cross reference a player from each team, and that box shows how many shot attempts each team had while those two players shared ice time. The + and - are from the home team's perspective.

For a refresher on how to read these charts, a write-up with descriptions of what colors mean, which lines to read, and more: H2H Corsi Chart Primer

H2H Chart via Muneeb Alam from Japers' Rink