Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Buffalo SabresMar 13, 2021

FinalSaturday, Mar 13, 2021· KeyBank Center

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Goals	1	2	3	T		Shots	1	2	3	T
PIT	0	1	2	3		PIT	10	12	12	34
BUF	0	0	0	0		BUF	6	12	6	24

: PIT 53BUF 45
: PIT 4.82BUF 1.78
PP goals: PIT 1BUF 0
Hits: PIT 8BUF 24
Blocks: PIT 9BUF 10
PIM: PIT 4BUF 4
: PIT 51%BUF 49%

Fantasy takeaways

Generated from the play-by-play, shifts and season context. No opinions, just what changed.

Pittsburgh Penguins beat Buffalo Sabres 3–0

Pittsburgh Penguins beat Buffalo Sabres 3–0 at BUF. Kris Letang (PIT) led the scoring with 0G 2A. PIT's first power-play unit (Malkin, Crosby, Letang, Rust and Guentzel) scored 1 power-play goal on 4 attempts in 1:38 together.

Points
Kris Letang had 2 assists (2 points) on 5 shots in 24:51.Letang
PP1
PIT's first power-play unit (Malkin, Crosby, Letang, Rust and Guentzel) scored 1 power-play goal on 4 attempts in 1:38 together.Malkin Crosby Letang Rust Guentzel
New line
New look for BUF: Sheahan–Hall–Reinhart skated 11:11 together at 5v5 as the L1 trio (30.8% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.Sheahan Hall Reinhart
New line
New look for BUF: Staal–Rieder–Olofsson skated 9:17 together at 5v5 as the L3 trio (61.1% of the shot attempts), a combination not used in the team's last 5 games.Staal Rieder Olofsson
Luck
BUF scored 0 goals on 1.78 expected goals (45 attempts), well short of its chances.
Luck
PIT scored 3 goals on 4.82 expected goals (53 attempts), well short of its chances.
Shots
Jake Guentzel (PIT) led everyone with 8 shot on goals, scoring once.Guentzel
Cats
Rasmus Ristolainen (BUF) threw 7 hits and blocked 1 shot, a night for hits leagues.Ristolainen

Shot map

Both teams on one rink, filtered by strength and period.

Shot map

Every attempt, sized by expected goals. Goals are rings, shots on goal dots, misses hollow, blocks crosses.

Strength

Period

Team

← PIT attacks left (bottom on phones)BUF attacks right (top on phones) →

BUF
PIT
Goal
Shot on goal
Missed
Blocked

Showing 98 of 98 attempts · BUF 45 · PIT 53

Game flow

Cumulative expected goals and shot attempts, with power plays shaded and goals marked.

Cumulative shot attempts

BUF
PIT
Goal
Power play (shaded)

Pressure Index

BUF pressure
PIT pressure
Goal
Control (|PI| > 0.25)

: descriptive only, the team with more pressure scored the next goal about half the time. In control: PIT 43% of the game, BUF 26%.

Shift chart

Every shift, grouped by line and pair; bars are coloured by strength state. Click a player to highlight.

Shifts

BUF

PIT

goals / penalties

Even strength
Power play
Penalty kill
Goal
Penalty

Sequence card

5-on-5 possession-chain numbers from the sequence engine (Draw Equity and control cover all situations).

Sequence card
Stat	PIT	BUF
	52	49
	2.82	1.94
	2.63	1.85
	11	8
	2	2
	4	12
	+0.014	−0.014
	43%	26%

Definitions: sequence xG, transition attempts, Draw Equity, control and the Pressure Index.

Lines used

Detected from who actually shared the ice, with time together. Percentages are the unit's share of shot attempts.

Pittsburgh Penguins

L1Crosby – Rust – Guentzel
14:2667% CF
L2Malkin – Kapanen – Rodrigues
12:5157% CF
L3Blueger – Tanev – Aston-Reese
10:2956% CF
L4Sceviour – Jankowski – Angello
5:3920% CF
D1Letang – Dumoulin
18:4263% CF
D2Matheson – Ceci
16:1838% CF
D3Ruhwedel – Pettersson
12:4647% CF

PP1Malkin – Crosby – Letang – Rust – Guentzel
1:38100% CF
PP2Malkin – Crosby – Guentzel – Kapanen – Pettersson
0:08100% CF
PK1FBlueger – Tanev
1:56
PK2FJankowski – Aston-Reese
0:58
PK1DDumoulin – Ceci
1:56
PK2DLetang – Ruhwedel
1:03

Current PIT line combinations →

Buffalo Sabres

L1Sheahan – Hall – Reinhart
11:1131% CF
L2Skinner – Lazar – Mittelstadt
9:5850% CF
L3Staal – Rieder – Olofsson
9:1761% CF
L4Okposo – Eakin – Thompson
9:1456% CF
D1Ristolainen – Bryson
16:4048% CF
D2Montour – Dahlin
15:5354% CF
D3Davidson – Miller
13:0658% CF

PP1Hall – Reinhart – Olofsson – Mittelstadt – Dahlin
2:3833% CF
PP2Staal – Skinner – Miller – Ristolainen – Thompson
0:54
PK1FSheahan – Lazar
1:09
PK2FEakin – Rieder
0:37
PK1DDavidson – Ristolainen
1:20
PK2DMontour – Bryson
0:39

Current BUF line combinations →

Scoring summary

Every goal with the skaters on the ice for it.

2nd period

16:37
PITJake GuentzelPP (Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang)wrist0.04 xG
PIT: Malkin, Crosby, Letang, Rust, GuentzelBUF: Sheahan, Lazar, Montour, Bryson
PIT 1 – 0 BUF

3rd period

19:07
PITSidney CrosbyEN (Kris Letang)wrist0.40 xG
PIT: Crosby, Letang, Rust, Matheson, GuentzelBUF: Staal, Hall, Reinhart, Montour, Olofsson, Dahlin
PIT 2 – 0 BUF
19:44
PITMark JankowskiEN (Teddy Blueger, Brandon Tanev)snap0.85 xG
PIT: Jankowski, Blueger, Ruhwedel, Pettersson, TanevBUF: Okposo, Skinner, Miller, Thompson, Mittelstadt, Bryson
PIT 3 – 0 BUF

Box score

Skaters grouped by the line they played on; CF% is the 5v5 share of shot attempts while on the ice.

Pittsburgh Penguins

PIT skaters
Skater	Line	G	A	P	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Jake Guentzel C	L1	1	0	1	+1	8	0.75	0	0	0	20:09	—	—	58	68
Bryan Rust R	L1	0	0	0	+1	0	0.00	0	1	0	19:16	—	—	62	70
Sidney Crosby C	L1	1	0	1	+1	2	0.54	1	1	0	19:04	—	—	65	75
Evgeni Malkin C	L2	0	1	1	0	1	0.12	0	0	0	17:49	—	—	46	53
Kasperi Kapanen R	L2	0	0	0	0	3	0.37	0	0	0	16:31	—	—	45	50
Evan Rodrigues C	L2	0	0	0	0	1	0.01	1	1	0	15:09	—	—	50	54
Teddy Blueger C	L3	0	1	1	+1	2	0.30	0	0	0	16:38	—	—	50	67
Brandon Tanev L	L3	0	1	1	+1	1	0.89	1	0	0	15:23	—	—	53	79
Zachary Aston-Reese L	L3	0	0	0	0	1	0.16	1	0	0	13:14	—	—	52	71
Mark Jankowski L	L4	1	0	1	+1	2	0.85	0	0	0	9:53	—	—	25	8
Colton Sceviour C	L4	0	0	0	0	1	0.01	2	0	0	7:43	—	—	20	5
Anthony Angello C	L4	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	1	0	2	6:56	—	—	33	15
Kris Letang D	D1	0	2	2	+1	5	0.16	0	1	2	24:51	—	—	63	75
Brian Dumoulin D	D1	0	0	0	0	4	0.26	0	1	0	23:43	—	—	61	71
Cody Ceci D	D2	0	0	0	0	2	0.36	1	3	0	20:53	—	—	32	38
Mike Matheson D	D2	0	0	0	+1	0	0.00	0	0	0	17:39	—	—	40	42
Marcus Pettersson D	D3	0	0	0	+1	0	0.01	0	1	0	16:17	—	—	50	64
Chad Ruhwedel D	D3	0	0	0	+1	1	0.03	0	0	0	14:52	—	—	47	52

PIT goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Casey DeSmith(start)	W	24	24	0	.1000	1.78	60:00

Buffalo Sabres

BUF skaters
Skater	Line	+/-			Hits	Blk	PIM		PP	SH
Sam Reinhart C	L1	-1	1	0.12	0	0	0	18:42	—	—	42	40
Taylor Hall L	L1	-1	1	0.07	1	0	0	18:30	—	—	37	26
Riley Sheahan C	L1	0	1	0.10	1	0	0	14:20	—	—	29	31
Casey Mittelstadt C	L2	-1	0	0.00	0	0	0	17:26	—	—	62	36
Curtis Lazar C	L2	0	0	0.11	3	1	0	16:07	—	—	35	19
Jeff Skinner L	L2	-1	1	0.03	0	0	0	15:40	—	—	45	34
Victor Olofsson L	L3	-1	3	0.17	0	1	0	16:27	—	—	55	26
Eric Staal C	L3	-1	1	0.07	0	0	0	15:29	—	—	58	31
Tobias Rieder L	L3	0	4	0.11	1	0	0	13:43	—	—	56	34
Tage Thompson C	L4	-1	2	0.49	2	0	0	12:31	—	—	52	65
Kyle Okposo R	L4	-1	1	0.13	0	1	0	11:54	—	—	52	68
Cody Eakin C	L4	0	1	0.05	1	0	0	11:09	—	—	52	68
Rasmus Ristolainen D	D1	0	3	0.13	7	1	0	22:06	—	—	46	18
Jacob Bryson D	D1	-1	0	0.00	1	1	0	19:58	—	—	41	15
Brandon Montour D	D2	-1	0	0.02	0	4	0	21:17	—	—	44	48
Rasmus Dahlin D	D2	-1	2	0.04	0	0	0	20:36	—	—	54	63
Colin Miller D	D3	-1	2	0.13	4	0	4	18:12	—	—	54	56
Brandon Davidson D	D3	0	1	0.02	3	1	0	15:31	—	—	56	55

BUF goalies
Goalie	Dec	SA	SV	GA			TOI
Carter Hutton(start)	L	32	31	1	.969	2.90	58:09

Methodology

Shot locations come from the NHL play-by-play, normalised so each shooter attacks the same way, then flipped so the home team attacks right. On-ice stats and lines come from the shift charts: a unit is the exact set of skaters sharing the ice, and CF% is the share of all shot attempts while they were out. Head-to-head cells are 5v5 time against each opponent. Expected goals and the Pressure Index appear as their models are released.