Five Questions
1. What’s wrong with Evgeni Malkin, who has one even-strength goal?
2. Should the Pens send Beau Bennett, playing on the third line, back to Wilkes-Barre?
3. Who do you like better on the point for power plays, Kris Letang or Paul Martin? Why?
4. Can you name the Pens’ top three forward prospects after Bennett?
5. Are you concerned with the penchant of opponents having success knocking the Pens’ top players off their games with retaliatory penalties?
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Random Thoughts
Six Eastern Conference teams have losing records. Last year, only three had sub .500 numbers. I like to see losing records, the more the merrier. This isn’t youth league soccer where everyone gets a trophy.
It’s funny listening to Sidney Crosby talking about how his luck against Ryan Miller is all about bounces. Yeah right, grinned the Cheshire cat.
Scott Hartnell is shooting for a return Wednesday against the Pens in Pittsburgh.
The Pens’ three home games in the coming week represent the second-longest homestand of the season.
Paul Martin has nine points in 16 games after totaling nine points his first 33 games a year ago.
Somewhat surprisingly, the nine teams in the East with winning records all have positive goal differentials and the six losing teams have negative goal differentials. Last year, nine teams had negative differentials but only three had losing marks.
Pittsburgh holds the highest goal differential (plus-11) in the East while the Flyers have the second-worst (minus-11).
Jordan Staal has
two goals and 10 assists in 13 games for the ‘Canes. He never finished with more than eight more assists than goals in any of his six seasons with the Penguins.
The Penguins have completed 33 percent of their schedule. In a full 82-game slate of 2011-12, Pittsburgh completed 33 percent of its season on December 3, 2011.
I think the assists for Malkin and Chris Kunitz on Crosby’s goal Sunday that were reviewed and disallowed, should have counted. Apparently the scoring took away the assists because the thinking is Ryan Miller pushed the puck across the goal line after his defenseman had prevented it from trickling over. If that was the case, then I would agree. I think that the puck had rolled on edge across the goal line even before Miller nudged the stick of his defender and the puck for a goal.
After Miller’s save on a James Neal tic-tac-toe play, Neal was seen smiling while skating off the ice. It would be nice to know whether he was smiling because Miller robbed him or because he didn’t get good wood on the shot – or maybe some of both.
Twenty five players are within 10 points of Thomas Vanek for the point lead in the NHL. Vanek has 25 points and Crosby sits one behind at 24. A healthy Crosby will surely pass Vanek but Steven Stamkos is a threat at 21 points, along with a host of others like John Tavares (20).
If you knew that Francois Beauchemin and Sheldon Souray lead the league in plus-minus with marks of plus-14 and plus-13, then you are either Duck fans ore related to Beauchemin or Souray.
The coach-proclaimed best player in the NHL might be struggling with scoring in 2013, but Claude Giroux does lead the league with 222 faceoff wins. That other guy, Crosby, ranks second with 212 wins on the draw.
Joe Vitale, the most faceoff-able man in the world. Vitale doesn’t take many faceoffs, but when he does, he usually wins (64.3 percent).
Pick your poison: Paul Martin is averaging 25:37 of ice per game, Kris Letang is averaging 25:37 per game.
At 11-5, the Pens are one of two teams without an overtime loss. The Maple Leafs (9-6) is the other.
Evgeni Malkin has his one even-strength goal in 232 minutes and four seconds of even-strength time.
Zbynek Michalek has 41 blocked shots in 15 games; Brooks Orpik has 40 in 16.
Malkin has the fourth-most missed shots in the NHL with 26. To be fair, his 16 takeaways are fifth-most.
Despite missing three games, Letang’s 19 giveaways are third-highest total.
Feel free to add your numbers in the comments.
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Treasure Life!
JT
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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