The Pittsburgh Penguins not only lost to the Boston Bruins by a score of 2-0 but they lost both of their franchise centers in a matter of minutes to start the contest.
Sidney Crosby never came back after warmups because of illness related issues.
Evgeni Malkin left the game early in the first period after absorbing a hit along the wall. He has what appears to be a lower body injury.
This opened the door for Craig Adams to find himself back into the lineup. He only played nine minutes, most of them ineffective.
This was a situation where the Penguins knew they were going to be without Crosby and given the amount of offense you lose when Crosby is out you should probably replace him with the best offensive option you have. The Penguins would have been better served by dressing seven defensemen. Then they could have had Derrick Pouliot as an option to generate offense rather than a 13th forward who only plays around 5 minutes of ice time at even strength. Once Malkin left the game the Penguins were quickly neutered. Pouliot can create and distribute from the back end, the Penguins missed out on that yesterday.
While still on the topic of Derrick Pouliot, he was optioned to WB/S to make room for the call-up of Andrew Ebbett. There is nothing to read into this move other than it is a logistical paper move because of Pouliot's waiver exempt status. He isn't being put down there because of his play. Depending on the severity of Malkin's leg injury he probably won't even play a single game for the Baby Penguins.
Chris Kunitz continues to find the short end of the stick as it pertains to goals, but he also continues to generate chances. Give me guys that miss quality chances over guys that never find themselves in one.
Speaking of Chris Kunitz
he has an iron deficiency:
The condition, diagnosed by Penguins physicians in January, sapped him of energy. It also impacted everything from his offseason training to in-game recuperation required to keep up with a couple of superstar franchise centers.
“I wasn't bouncing back, I just wasn't recovering,” Kunitz said. “I'm still getting there. Hopefully, I'm back to real close to the level I want to be.”
Kunitz doesn't want this “personal issue” to be part of any conversation about him. But his coach also is one of his biggest fans, and Johnston believes detractors should know something before writing off the Penguins' most productive winger of the Sidney Crosby era.
“He's huge for us,” Johnston said. “And it's been about eight weeks now that I've liked his game.”
As I have stated multiple times, the process for Chris Kunitz has been good, he has just been lacking the tangible rewards for it
When you combine the concept of variance with Kunitz's medical condition things start to make a lot more sense and the people that were worried about him can feel better about the tide turning towards him scoring goals again.
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31 points isn't great but it isn't bad either for a player's first 82 games in the NHL. If you want more points from Bennett you need to change his usage.
Blake Comeau didn't magically change into a better player this year. He is still the same guy he was on Columbus. What changed was him receiving big minutes as Evgeni Malkin's winger rather than being in a fourth line role with Columbus. The quality of teammates you play with matters and needs to be taken into consideration with player evaluation. Ignoring important variables leads to incorrect evaluations.
To put things into perspective Bennett 's 31 points in 82 games (.38) is right in line with Blake Comeau (.41) and Brandon Sutter's (.37) offensive career points per game rate and above Nick Spaling's (.29).
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After the Boston game Thomas Greiss now has an EVSV% of .922 and has earned 68% of possible standings points when he has played.
Marc-Andre Fleury has an EVSV% of .929 and has earned 65% of the possible standings points when he has played.
That info isn't meant to suggest that Greiss is playing better than Fleury this year. It is meant to show that he has been league average for cheap and that is a good thing. If you can get league average goaltending and combine it with good possession, you can win games.
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The Penguins get to play the Detroit Red Wings today. They should be in a real peachy mood when they visit CONSOL Energy Center. They are 4-5-1 in their last ten games and that includes the shellacking they took in Philadelphia yesterday by a score of 7-2.
Thanks for reading!
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