By JUSTIN GUERRIERO

The Tribune-Review, Greensburg

(TNS) —There’s something that sticks out upon taking a quick peek at the Pittsburgh Penguins’ leaders in shorthanded minutes per game: Four of the top five are no longer with the team.

Marcus Petterson (2 minutes, 44 seconds) departed via trade to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 31 but still paces his former teammates in penalty-kill action per contest.

Jack St. Ivany (2:17) ranks third but hasn’t suited up for Pittsburgh since Nov. 29, having spent the majority of this season with Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Lars Eller (fourth, 2:08) was traded to the Washington Capitals on Nov. 12 while Matt Nieto (fifth, 2:06) was recently waived and sent to the AHL.

As a result, it’s been a revolving door of bodies on the penalty kill for the Penguins, who rank 18th in the NHL (78.8%) heading into Tuesday’s road game at the Colorado Avalanche.

“It’s just trying to get on the same page,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “When you have the same groups (and) you go with the same tandems, they can learn one another’s tendencies. They build a certain chemistry, just like a line combination or a defense pair. When you’re moving new guys in, it just takes time for that chemistry to build. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Forward Noel Acciari (2:23) remains a stalwart on the penalty kill for the Penguins and leads all forwards in shorthanded time on ice.

Defenseman Kris Letang (2:03) also remains a penalty- killing regular, but Sullivan has had to turn to other options in shorthanded scenarios more often this season.

Defenseman Vincent Desharnais, whom Vancouver sent back to the Penguins (along with winger Danton Heinen), has been promptly inserted on that unit and through nine games played, is averaging 1:24 shorthanded per game.

Forward Cody Glass is another newcomer to the penalty kill, having had negligible shorthanded experience previously with the Nashville Predators before being traded to the Penguins in August.

This season, he’s seeing 1:22 per night shorthanded.

“There’s some moving parts, so guys are getting guys on the (penalty kill) right now that usually didn’t, so we’re still adjusting to that,” Letang said. “Obviously, the (penalty kill) has always been huge for our team in the past and now I think it’s going to be an important aspect of our game going down the road.” Penguins assistant coach Mike Vellucci oversees the penalty kill and during a rare recent chat with reporters (filling in for Sullivan, who was away leading the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off) identified two main needed areas of shorthanded improvement: faceoffs and zone

entries. “We haven’t won enough faceoffs, and that’s a big part of it,” Vellucci said. “It’s not just on the centers. It’s on everybody else helping out, getting pucks when we need to. And then our entries — we’ve gotten better as of late, (but) for a while there, we weren’t (doing) as well as at the beginning (of the season).”

The Penguins ended February (featuring only eight games played due to the 4 Nations break) with an 81.3% (13 of 16) kill rate.

But over their 14 games in January, the penalty kill allowed 11 goals (26 of 37), stopping only 70% of opposing power plays.

Earlier this season, the Penguins shut down 84.3% (27 of 32) power- play tries in December and killed at a 76.1% rate (32 of 42) in November.

October, the first month of the season, (30 of 35, 85.7%) showcased their best penalty-killing work.

To Vellucci’s point about shorthanded faceoffs, it’s worth looking at how Acciari, Glass and Blake Lizotte have performed in the circle, as they have taken the most draws on the penalty kill.

Acciari has won 46.7% (71 of 152) of his, Glass is 12 of 31 (38.7%) while Lizotte has won 9 of 29 (31%) of his shorthanded faceoffs.

Whether it be in the faceoff circles or in general, those on the penalty kill want to see it reach a fuller potential.

“In this league, it’s too good — the details sway a game,” Lizotte said. “One power-play goal sways a game, essentially. Special teams are important, especially down the stretch and as a (penalty- kill) unit, we take a lot of pride in that. We’d like to get up more towards the top 10 and get inside there, so that’s kind of the goal for us moving forward.”

Despite a fluctuating cast of characters on the penalty kill, for Sullivan, the keys to being better shorthanded remain the same.

“I think a lot of it just boils down to details,” Sullivan said. “We’ve got to dig in and win faceoffs. We’ve got to get 200-foot clears. We’ve got to make the entries difficult. When you excel in those three areas, you limit power- play zone time. That’s something we talk about a lot.

“We need collective pressure. We want to be a high-pressure kill when we have the opportunity to do it. We’ve got to recognize those situations and then it has to be collective effort. It can’t be isolated effort.”