Younger, faster, harder to play against.
That's been the oft-expressed goal of the Penguins' offseason, first from Jim Rutherford, then from Mike Sullivan. And they've taken at least a couple strides in a couple of those regards with the acquisitions of Alex Galchenyuk, Dominik Kahun and Brandon Tanev, in addition to the subtractions at hand.
But with Galchenyuk, specifically, they'll either have to settle for two of those three listed traits, or Mike Sullivan will be a unanimous selection for the Jack Adams Award.
Because that dude, barring a total transfusion of personality, will most decidedly not be hard to play against.
Sorry, but that's the truth. Galchenyuk can score and, in fact, should score far more than he does, as I detailed in Part 1 of this two-parter. But the next opponent he concerns for any other reason will be the first, based on both his advanced analytics and on some intensive video breakdown I did on the Coyotes' two meetings in 2018-19 with his new employer.
Get ready to cringe ...
That up there is from the Penguins' 4-0 shutout Nov. 10 at PPG Paints Arena, where the No. 17 sweater barely absorbed a bead of sweat. Nothing more than one-handed, half-hearted swipes at the puck. No points, one shot, minus-1 rating, 2-10 on faceoffs.
Want to see one of the latter?
That's the only defensive-zone faceoff Galchenyuk took, and even that wasn't Rick Tocchet's choice but right off an icing. He gets cleaned by Sidney Crosby, then proceeds to do everything else incorrectly, chief among them being following one's center after a lost draw. He instead just ... drifts away from everyone.
Examples abound, but this next one's two full minutes, and I dare say they're mandatory viewing for anyone seeking the complete of what to expect:
Oh, yeah. That's real. All 99 seconds of one of the worst shifts any opponent had on local ice all winter long. From passively backing off Kris Letang exiting the Pittsburgh zone to being beaten to every 50/50 puck to standing and watching as the Penguins pummeled Darcy Kuemper relentlessly, that's the defensive conscience of this player. It probably took all of Tocchet's will to keep from jumping the boards and throttling him.
Oh, but there was another game, too:
Galchenyuk generally skated a good bit harder in the other meeting, the Penguins' 3-2 overtime win Jan. 18 in Glendale, but he again wound up with no points and one shot, and the play away from the puck was equally dispassionate:
Joe Blandisi vs. two defenders isn't the NHL's most threatening scenario, but never mind that. Watch Galchenyuk's body language. He's waiting for someone else to do the work. He does that a lot.
On this one, he has the puck come his way on a cycle deep in the attacking zone, he has the angle on Letang ... and he's effortlessly muscled off the puck, needing to be bailed out by a teammate.
It's all just so la-de-da, you know?
Wait, this one's the worst, or at least it would be in his new coach's eyes:
Sullivan counts sticks in these settings. He wants to see two, even three of the Penguins' sticks fighting for the possession. Here, Galchenyuk watches Jordan Oesterle, a defenseman, make an aggressive pinch four-on-four. He then watches Letang pounce on Oesterle. He then watches Bryan Rust jump in to double-team Oesterle. He then has a sandwich. He then watches the entire opening season of 'Sopranos.' And only then does he opt to get involved, just to be blown off the puck again by Letang.
I don't mean to pile on. If anything, with all the reams of reels like these, I might be taking it easy on him.
In Part 1, I asked how a player with this much speed, this much skill could ever score fewer than 20 goals, as he's done with 19 each of the past two seasons. Well, the answer is that he doesn't have the puck nearly enough for that speed and skill to matter. The footage doesn't lie and neither do the deeper figures: Galchenyuk's 60.1 Fenwick Against per 60 minutes -- measuring all unblocked shot attempts -- was second-worst among all of the regular Coyotes' forwards.
Plain and simple, anytime the Coyotes got pinned, Galchenyuk did precious little to help them escape.
In fairness, everyone can change:
Soon...⏳? ? pic.twitter.com/lC3H7BXdEG
— Alex Galchenyuk (@AGally94) July 12, 2019
Contrary to popular misperception, it was Sullivan, not Tocchet, who eventually got Kessel more engaged in this regard. So now, it'll obviously have to be Sullivan, not Tocchet, attempting the same with Galchenyuk. And judging from all this, the scope of the challenge might be frighteningly similar.
