Best offense a good defense - 4-27-09
We're not sure about you, but the idea of Mark Eaton (above with Darroll Powe) and Rob Scuderi combining for a total of three goals in the Penguins' first-round series is still a little shocking. Afterall, those two had a total of only five goals during the course of the regular season.
Think about that. Those two had more goals than Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz did combined (2) in the first round.
We know this is a little outrageous to say, but we would probably have guessed Petr Sykora or even Miroslav Satan could've put up more tallies than Eaton and Scuderi.
And when you add in the game-winning goal Sergei Gonchar recorded in Saturday's win, the Penguins already have four goals from their blue line. Only Chicago and Detroit have four as well.
Historically speaking, the Penguins current total is fairly high as well. We're not sure there's really any purpose to his following list (other than to satisfy our hockey geekdom), but the Penguins currently have gotten 22 percent of their goals from the blue line. Only two other playoffs teams in franchise history have gotten a higher percentage of its goals from the defense.
| Year | Total Goals |
Goals By Defensemen |
Percentage of Total Goals |
Players (Goals) |
| 2009 | 18 | 4 | 22 % | Mark Eaton (2) Sergei Gonchar (1) Rob Scuderi (1) |
| 2008 | 61 | 2 | 3 % | Sergei Gonchar (1) Ryan Whitney (1) |
| 2007 | 10 | 2 | 20 % | Sergei Gonchar (1) Ryan Whitney (1) |
| 2001 | 38 | 6 | 16 % | Andrew Ference (3) Janne Laukkanen (2) Darius Kasparaitis (1) |
| 2000 | 31 | 6 | 19 % | Janne Laukanen (2) Jiri Slegr (2) Darius Kasparaitis (1) John Slaney (1) |
| 1999 | 35 | 6 | 17 % | Kevin Hatcher (2) Greg Andrusak (1) Bobby Dollas (1) Jiri Slegr (1) Brad Werenka (1) |
| 1998 | 15 | 2 | 13 % | Kevin Hatcher (1) Brad Werenka (1) |
| 1997 | 13 | 2 | 15 % | Keving Hatcher (1) Ian Moran (1) |
| 1996 | 57 | 4 | 7 % | J.J. Daigneault (1) Chris Joseph (1) Francois Leroux (1) Sergei Zubov (1) |
| 1995 | 37 | 4 | 11 % | Larry Murphy (2) Chris Joseph (1) Norm McIver (1) |
| 1994 | 12 | 0 | 0 % | NA |
| 1993 | 50 | 4 | 8 % | Larry Murphy (2) Ulf Samuelsson (1) Peter Taglianetti (1) |
| 1992 | 83 | 7 | 8 % | Larry Murphy (6) Paul Stanton (1) |
| 1991 | 95 | 14 | 15 % | Larry Murphy (5) Ulf Samuelsson (3) Paul Coffey (2) Grant Jennings (1) Jim Paek (1) Gordie Roberts (1) Paul Stanton (1) |
| 1989 | 43 | 3 | 7 % | Paul Coffey (2) Zarley Zalapski (1) |
| 1982 | 13 | 1 | 8 % | Randy Carlyle (1) |
| 1981 | 21 | 6 | 29 % | Randy Carlyle (4) Mario Faubert (1) Pat Price (1) |
| 1980 | 14 | 3 | 21 % | Randy Carlyle (1) Ron Stackhouse (1) Bob Stewart (1) |
| 1979 | 16 | 1 | 6 % | Colin Campbell (1) |
| 1977 | 10 | 3 | 30 % | Ron Stackhouse (2) Mario Faubert (1) |
| 1976 | 3 | 0 | 0 % | NA |
| 1975 | 27 | 4 | 15 % | Ron Stackhouse (2) Dave Burrows (1) Colin Campbell (1) |
| 1972 | 8 | 0 | 0 % | NA |
| 1970 | 23 | 4 | 17 % | Duane Rupp (2) Dunc McCallum (1) Bob Woytowich (1) |
(Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)