Pretty exciting weekend of hockey for the Penguins. They will play a home and home against who I think is their biggest threat to the divisional title, the much improved New York Islanders.
Playing a home and home is always intriguing especially if the Friday night game has a little spice to it.
Here is Mike Johnston’s thoughts about preparing for this weekend:
Now it wasn’t as though Dan Bylsma never made adjustments, it is just that they were few and far between and mostly dealt with personnel, not the actual structure of how the Penguins played. We all saw how the stretch pass was a staple with Bylsma until the bitter end.
I don’t believe you need to always make adjustments, sometimes the players just have to execute better. However, you should always be open to adjustments and should never be ignoring the possibility of doing so. Mike Johnston appears like he will not be making similar mistakes that came with the last regime.
The Penguins will play their second game without versatile winger Pascal Dupuis, the first game was a solid 4-0 victory over the Canadiens. Tonight should be a tougher test as the Islanders are a top five possession team in the league. The Penguins are #2 with a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 56.6% (CHI 56.7%). This is a really great matchup.
If Beau Bennett is going to stay with Brandon Sutter it is imperative that the third line continues to produce at the rate they have. If they don’t Beau will most definitely need to find himself in the top six to help out the depth there. Nick Spaling is not a top six winger, even if it is in a short term role.
Here is what Coach Johnston said about Pascal Dupuis and the kind of role he will have moving forward:
“As a coaching staff we would like him to be very involved. We are going to put together some sort of job description in the next week or so."
Last year this kind of thing was not encouraged, if you were hurt, you were cast to the side. Pascal Dupuis means a ton to the players on the Penguins, specifically the core group. It seems like a no brainer to keep his personality around the team. I very much like the fact that they are making an effort to keep his presence around the team.
The Islanders are three points back of Pittsburgh in the division but have played in one more game. Depending on how the weekend goes we may have a new divisional leader in the Metropolitan.
Enjoy the game 1 of this miniseries.
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