{"id":556409,"date":"2026-04-20T00:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556409\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:45:23","slug":"penguins-practice-same-team-muse-pushes-adjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556409\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins Practice: Same Team, Muse Pushes Adjustment"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY, TWP., Pa. \u2014 It seems the second verse will be the same as the first for the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> lineup. Same Penguins lines, same rotation as Game 1. The players will remain the same, but their game may not.<\/p>\n

In advance of Game 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, Penguins coach Dan Muse<\/a> did not put the players through a high-intensity workout Sunday but focused on a couple of the pressing issues which sunk the Penguins\u2019 effort in Game 1. <\/p>\n

Muse, with assistant Todd Nelson<\/a>, watched closely as they worked the top power play units for a significant portion of the 30 minute practice. The Penguins were 0-for-2 on the power play with just one shot on goal. <\/p>\n

During practice Friday, the team worked on a high-zone cycle. It did not work well in practice against the Penguins\u2019 aggressive penalty kill, and it was equally ineffective in the game. The play did not figure prominently Sunday as the Penguins are trying to figure out how to exploit the Flyers\u2019 lowly ranked PK (22nd). <\/p>\n

However, coaches put the Penguins through drills with line rushes designed for a simple tactic with many names, usually referred to as chip-and-charge or dump-and-chase. The line rushes didn\u2019t focus on controlled zone entries and pretty finishes on the rush. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a big part of their game for a long stretch now. Especially since (the Olympic) break, they\u2019ve been a top defensive team in the league. (What they did) shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. There are some things that we could have done better in terms of just working through that. And we\u2019ve seen it. We saw it there last night. We\u2019ve seen with other teams throughout the (season),\u201d Muse said. \u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to play a little bit more of a patient game. And by patient, I don\u2019t mean a smaller game. You can\u2019t get frustrated or surprised that they had those numbers back. They\u2019ve been doing this
for a while now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nay, the Penguins\u2019 line rushed up the ice and dumped the puck into the zone. Nothing pretty. Nothing fancy. They worked on where to dump the puck, chasing it, and the subsequent puck support. <\/p>\n

However, despite the continuation of the same lineup, Muse doesn\u2019t seem to do so out of habit but trying to get certain players, such as Egor Chinakhov and Sidney Crosby, to mesh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously didn\u2019t generate as a team (in Game 1). If you go back before, I thought we had good offensive depth throughout the lineup, a balance that all lines were chipping in, creating, and creating in different ways. Anytime that you mix the lines up, each guy has personal strengths that they can bring, and some of those strengths are different from others,\u201d Muse said. \u201cWith Chinakhov, where the question comes from, I think that his speed and his ability to push the (other) team back a little bit, or push the defense back and create space underneath. He\u2019s also a guy that on the defensive side, he does a really good job in terms of the ability to track and bring pucks back in the offensive zone and keep it on the offensive side of the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Muse makes changes, especially if it involves Chinakhov, or as some fans have posited, reuniting Rickard Rakell with Crosby, there would be a cascading effect of other changes as well. In short, one change would beget more.<\/p>\n

And it appears that Stuart Skinner<\/a> will remain in the Penguins\u2019 net. He exited practice well before Arturs Silovs. Even though Skinner stopped only 17 of 20 shots, far too many of those were breakaways, odd-man rushes, and Grade A scoring chances. <\/p>\n

Penguins Lines<\/p>\n

Egor Chinakhov-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Tommy Novak-Rickard Rakell-Evgeni Malkin<\/p>\n

Elmer Soderblom-Ben Kindel-Anthony Mantha<\/p>\n

Connor Dewar-Blake Lizotte-Noel Acciari<\/p>\n

Defense<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon-Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Sam Girard-Kris Letang<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea-Connor Clifton<\/p>\n

Newbie Struggles<\/p>\n

The Penguins had several players make their Stanley Cup Playoffs debut in Game 1. Ben Kindel and Chinakhov were the forwards who had never experienced the heightened intensity and pressure. <\/p>\n

Perhaps not coincidentally, neither forward earned high marks in the postgame PHN report card. Chinakhov especially seemed to be blunted by the Flyers\u2019 neutral zone trap and will have to adjust his game because the Flyers\u2019 strategy is specifically designed to limit the speed game and puck control at which he excels. <\/p>\n

Echoing many of the players\u2019 postgame laments and eagerness to correct, Chinakhov knew exactly what he needed to change for Game 2. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think more simple plays, and then just play in our structure,\u201d said Chinakhov<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Penguins lines<\/a> Penguins Practice<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized:Penguins Notebook<\/a> Penguins Practice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY, TWP., Pa. \u2014 It seems the second verse will be the same as the first for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,16008,30961,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-556409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-penguins-lines","11":"tag-penguins-practice","12":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434273817454630","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}