In lieu of a poll asking which Penguins player had the worst overall effort Wednesday, I’d like to get your thoughts on who should play on Evgeni Malkin’s line.
Poll Results
Question:
Should the Penguins trade for disgruntled Islanders' forward Nino Niederreiter?
Nearly half of pollsters (48 percent) believe that the acquisition cost should determine whether Pittsburgh trades for Niederreiter. In a close race for second place, 26 percent of voters want the Pens to trade for him and 25 percent say that the young forward is simply unhappy because he's in the AHL.
If you have a poll you'd like to see, drop me a note and there's a chance I'll use it. As always, thanks for voting.
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Play of the game: Chris Kunitz called for boarding with 8:09 remaining in regulation and the Penguins trailing 4-2. The Pens had 1:14 left on a power play when Kunitz checked Mike Komisarek near the boards. The refs deemed the play to be a penalty. The call seemed questionable and took the steam out of a team that was frustrated all night by the officiating. Sidney Crosby would serve a late penalty for too many men on the ice/unsportsmanlike conduct at 18:09 while Evgeni Malkin would get a game-misconduct at the 20:00 minute mark.
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Penguins Defensemen TOI
Matt Niskanen: 19:48 Total, 1:46 PP, 2:28 Short-Handed
Deryk Engelland: 7:46 Total, 0:00 PP, 1:12 Short-Handed
Paul Martin: 24:49 Total, 1:29 PP, 5:58 Short-Handed
Brooks Orpik: 23:48 Total, 0:00 PP, 8:05 Short-Handed
Simon Despres: 8:46 Total, 0:00 PP, 0:20 Short-Handed
Kris Letang: 27:31 Total, 6:15 PP, 3:37 Short- Handed
If I’m an opposing coach, I’m going to get a useless forward to challenge Deryk Engelland nine times out of 10 when the Pens dress six defensemen. Taking Engelland out of the rotation put pressure on the remaining blueliners, especially with coach Bylsma hesitant to skate Simon Despres. Brooks Orpik nearly saw as much time short-handed as did Despres for the entire game. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the team dress seven defensemen going forward, depending on matchups.
Click
here for a listing of player ice times.
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So our favorite whipping boy, Eric Tangradi, skated all of six shifts Wednesday, three in the first period, two in the second and one in the final 20 minutes. I sense a trend here.
He showed the ability to turn a potential 2-on-1 drive with Evgeni Malkin into a 2-on-3 at the 13:21 mark of Period 1. Head down, Tangradi chose to skate from the center of the ice to the left point. The Leafs had one man back in their zone. Malkin was crossing the blue line. Inexplicably, Tangradi skated away from the net, giving Toronto time to recover.
Malkin never touched the low-percentage pass. It was easily moved aside by Mikhail Grabovski.
The Penguins have said they would give Tangradi some run, some opportunity to see what the big forward offers. They can’t be pleased. Tangradi hasn’t shown enough to retain his second-line spot thus far. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to see Pittsburgh make some lineup changes going into Friday’s contest in Winnipeg, with Tangradi on the bench or headed back to Wilkes-Barre.
That said, the team would be in its second week of training camp in a normal season. Players are still trying to find their way, coaches are finding their way and Ray Shero is busy trying to figure things out. One of the reasons Tangradi got his opportunity was because of the lack of viable alternatives.
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Jonathan Bombulie says that Beau Bennett left Wednesday’s game with a minor injury. How that affects his chances of an NHL recall remain to be seen. Bennett is
pointless in two games since returning to the Baby Penguins following training camp.
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Coach Bylsma spoke of how the fans at the Black & Gold scrimmage were extremely loud and enthusiastic. As someone who works "Education Day" once a year at PNC Park with the Pirates, I can confirm that 9000 kids in the upper deck make more noise than 25,000 fans on a Saturday night.
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Did anyone else notice the yahoo behind the Toronto coach giving the camera the middle finger last night? ROOT Sports didn't notice. Classless.
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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