The Pittsburgh Penguins got crushed last night by the New York Rangers. It doesn't matter. In the grand scheme of things this was a throwaway game in November in what will likely end up as a season with a divisional title. Every single team in the league has these nights over the course of a season.
Teams can pout and dwell on it or do what Pittsburgh will most likely do, shift their focus to their next game (Toronto on Friday).
The main thing to take from last nights game from a Penguins perspective is that Kris Letang appeared to be seriously hurt, but managed to come back and play quite a bit. He didn't appear to have any limitations. This loss is an inconvenient speed bump, a Letang injury would have been a spike strip with Maatta already out of action.
If you are looking for positives it's that Marcel Goc may finally be allowed to contribute to this hockey team.
My only disappointment from last night's game was the fact that Beau Bennett did not play a majority of his shifts with Evgeni Malkin. I think it is pretty clear Malkin could use some natural skill infused onto his line, Beau can provide that. Blake Comeau did an admirable job when the team needed him but he is a bottom six player. He needs to find his rightful spot in that bottom six grouping.
With the Penguins off until Friday Mike Johnston will be able to focus on whatever perceived shortcomings the Penguins had against the Rangers.
I see no point in further breaking down this game, it is an exception to the rule. If they lay another egg on Friday or against the Rangers Saturday it will merit further discussion.
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In a non-Penguins related note it appears I was lucky enough to catch Connor McDavid when I did. McDavid engaged in fisticuffs last night and broke his hand. It is unknown how much time he will miss.
This doesn't change anything in the big picture, his hand is broke, it didn't fall off. The only entities this impacts are the Erie Otters, Hockey Canada, and TSN who holds the World Junior Championship TV rights. His hand will heal, he will still be awesome, just unfortunate he was in a spot to get injured like this.
Personally I have no idea why they still have fighting at the CHL level. With the information that we know about concussions/CTE/brain injury there is really no excuse for fighting to still be a part of this level of hockey (or any really). They are still kids and their brains are still developing. Instead of having an environment where a player has to fight because of "abuse" they take, how about we just call the initial "abuse" instead. I watched McDavid get punched in the face last Saturday night twice in front of the official during the middle of game action and he just ignored it. Shame on the OHL for allowing that nonsense to be a part of their product.
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