The Pittsburgh Penguins look to open up a 2-0 series lead over the San Jose Sharks in the Stanley Cup finals. Here’s what to watch for in Game 2, which begins at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday in Pittsburgh:
• Forward Bryan Rust skated during the Penguins' morning skate and looked good. Rust took a hit from Sharks forward Patrick Marleau in Game 1 and played only one shift after that.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Rust will be a game-time decision for Wednesday night.
“Feel good so far,” Rust said after practice. “Just going to take it through the afternoon and see what I feel come game time.” Update: Rust is in the lineup and playing Game 2.
Marleau wasn’t suspended for the hit, but Rust didn’t sound like he lost any sleep over the decision.
“They dealt with it, they did what they thought was right,” Rust said. “I didn't really take much time to look at it or think about it.”
The Penguins used their speed effectively to tilt the ice in Game 1, especially in the first period. Rust is a major part of that as one of Pittsburgh's better skaters. Having him in the lineup would help the Penguins maintain that edge.
“If he’s able to play, it’s huge,” said teammate Ian Cole. “We have a lot of fast guys on our team; he’s a guy who is just as fast as anyone. He can really stretch that neutral zone out for us. He’s a special player and adds to our team game for sure.”
• The Sharks are making a lineup change to help negate the Penguins' speed advantage, plugging in Matt Nieto, likely in place of Dainius Zubrus.
Nieto hasn’t played since suffering an upper-body injury against the Nashville Predators in Game 6 of the second round. He’ll add speed to the lineup and likely draw into the Sharks' fourth line.
“I think I can help out on the forecheck and back pressure,” Nieto said. “I think it’s important for us not to turn pucks over in the neutral zone. They feed off that. For me, it’s managing the puck well and making their D work. Back pressure is huge. This is a team that can create off the line rush.”
In 18 career playoff games, Nieto has eight points.
• The Penguins blocked 21 shots in Game 1, which effectively helped prevent the Sharks from getting the puck in deep beyond the goal line and working the offensive zone for long stretches.
So much of San Jose's success comes on tipped shots in front of the net, especially from a player like Joe Pavelski, who has made a living off deflections. By blocking shots early, the Penguins did a nice job of eliminating that option for long stretches.
Getting shots through in Game 2 will be important for San Jose.
“We’ve talked a lot about trying to get body position, trying to box out in front,” said Penguins defenseman Ben Lovejoy. “They have some huge players who sometimes you can’t do that against. I’m a firm believer in here that when there’s an opportunity to block a shot, you have to do it no matter who you are.”
Any hesitation when it’s Brent Burns winding up for a big one-timer?
“Not one bit,” Lovejoy said. “You are actively rooting for it to hit you because that means it didn’t go in the net.”
• In Game 1, the Penguins sent out the Nick Bonino line the most against San Jose’s top line of Joe Thornton, Tomas Hertl and Pavelski. They were effective, with the Sharks controlling just 43.8 percent of the even-strength shot attempts when Bonino was on the ice against Thornton in 5:20 of ice time (per war-on-ice.com). Thornton had much better success in smaller samples against theEvgeni Malkin line and the Matt Cullen line.
It’s worth watching how often Sharks coach Peter DeBoer can get his big line out there against Penguins other than Bonino, Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin.
“We chose to use [Bonino] a fair amount against Pavelski’s line and Thornton’s line because we think their line has awareness at both ends of the rink,” Sullivan said. “[Bonino] and [Hagelin] are penalty killers for us. They have very good defensive strengths, defensive skill sets. They have great awareness. They have good sticks. Bones is very good down low in the D zone. There's a lot that we like about that line.”
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