Penguins forward Ryan Poehling is producing as a left winger
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In recent weeks, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ryan Poehling has been playing some of the most productive hockey of his career as a left winger.
Also, he has been playing some of the first hockey of his professional career as a left winger.
Listed as a center, Poehling primarily has been deployed in that position throughout his four years in the NHL, the first three of which were spent with the Montreal Canadiens.
And after being traded to the Penguins in July, Poehling spent the first 15 games of his first campaign in Pittsburgh as the team’s primary fourth-line center.
By the 16th game, he was bumped to the left wing.
With the team’s incumbent fourth-line center, Teddy Blueger, having recovered from an undisclosed injury he suffered during training camp, Penguins coaches opted to test Poehling on the left wing and formed a line of Poehling, Blueger and right winger Josh Archibald.
“When Teddy Blueger came back into the lineup, we had to move somebody to the wing,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We thought we’d try Ryan on the wing. What we really like about that line is the ability to have two center icemen who are comfortable taking faceoffs, that are comfortable playing downhill … and I think that’s a huge competitive advantage for us.”
For the most part, that has been the case in the seven games this trio has been together.
According to Natural Stat Trick, Poehling, Blueger and Archibald have logged 54 minutes, 25 seconds of common five-on-five ice time together and are in the black in terms of puck possession. They have been on the ice for 57 shot attempts for and 49 against.
As for Poehling, he has collected four points (three goals, one assist) in seven games on the port side.
By his estimation, Poehling played a “few games a couple of years ago at the wing.” Left wing is a fairly novel deployment for him.
“The biggest adjustment is just wall battles and stuff like that, which I’ve done a good job so far,” he said. “Just need to continue to get better at that. In our system, there’s a lot of switches that go on and stuff where you end up being the wall guy. That’s nice, too.”
Having two centermen on the same line is especially nice for the one who has to take faceoffs.
“He’s been great,” Blueger said. “He’s very easy to play with. He’s smart. It obviously helps that he’s a center, too. It gives me a little bit more freedom as far as being able to cheat (get a quicker jump on faceoffs), or maybe he can take some faceoffs for whatever reason. … Obviously, it’s only been a few games, so I think we can only build some more chemistry from here.”
That chemistry was evident during a 4-1 road win against the rival Philadelphia Flyers on Friday when this line combined on three goals, two by Poehling and one by Archibald.
“For our line, we played direct and kind of beat them down low at their own (zone),” Poehling said to media in Philadelphia after that game. “We recovered pucks well, and once we got it low to high, we spread it out well and created plays off of that. That’s what was clicking.”
It’s anyone’s guess as to how long Poehling, Blueger and Archibald will remain teamed. In some ways, it simply has been an experiment. But it has produced some fantastic results.
Especially for Poehling.
“Systematically, just sticking to that process,” Poehling said. “And it ends up when you do that, the game gets a little easier. Not just for yourself but your teammates, too.”
Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off on Sunday.