The Penguins had a morning skate today and did line rushes. Here were the lines.
#Pens workflow with Bjugstad absent...
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 10, 2020
Zucker-Crosby-Sheary
Marleau-Malkin-Rust
Rodrigues-McCann-Hornqvist
Tanev-Blueger-Lafferty
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Johnson-Schultz
Riikola-Ruhwedel
-MC
Nick Bjugstad is missing and the news isn’t good
#Pens HCMS: Bjugstad is out with a lower-body injury. Week to week. Murray starts vs NJ
— Josh Getzoff (@PensJG) March 10, 2020
This apparently is unrelated to his previous injury. Nick Bjugstad we hardly knew thee in 2020. Has he played his last game as a Penguin? He might have depending on his ability to return to the lineup. I can't imagine the Penguins have the patience to lock in 4M in cap space to someone that can't stay on the ice and when he has been there hasn't moved the needle much.
Dominik Kahun is doing a nice job with the Buffalo Sabres so far. He had the shootout winner last night and he has four points in six games. He is not playing on the Eichel line so it is pretty good. He seems to be liking things there.
Dominik Kahun said he's having more fun playing with the Sabres because the system allows him to use his skill. Had to do "different things" in Pittsburgh that may have slowed him a bit.
— Lance Lysowski (@LLysowski) March 10, 2020
I would have totally been fine if the team kept him and didn’t make the trade they did for him. I’m also fine that they did. Conor Sheary has been fine and with Bjugstad not capable of being in the lineup getting Evan Rodrigues is playable depth. They need it right now. There isn’t a severe drop off from Kahun to Sheary and Rodrigues is a legit NHL player unlike some of the other options the Penguins have been running out there this year.
The immediate impact of losing Bjugstad isn’t jarring. He was getting clobbered over the weekend by the Hurricanes and Capitals. He was a net loss in the short term. He also hasn’t played much this year so logically there was room for growth and that growth would make him one of the Penguins best 12 forwards. Long term this is going to cause a marginal downgrade. By the time Bjugstad is back we are looking at playoff time and it isn’t easy to jump back into that kind of intensity. This isn’t a Jake Guentzel situation where the player is leaps and bounds better than many of the other forwards.
The power play looked like this
#Pens working on the power play.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 10, 2020
First unit: Schultz, Crosby, Malkin, Hornqvist, Zucker
Second unit: Letang, Marino, Marleau, Rust, McCann
-MC
Letang did get reps on the first team and he should. Justin Schultz has done absolutely nothing to deserve top power play minutes. He hasn’t produced a lick at 5v5 and has been pretty bad for a while now. Letang remains the best option and I don’t think it is close. IF the breakout is an issue Letang still provides a better skill set in getting that part of the power play right. His skating is dynamic. I’m good with keeping Rust off the top power play. His skill set doesn’t scream power play to me even though he has had some good moments. The real problem with the power play is they literally have nobody to run the left side. Their best options involve putting Crosby or Malkin over there and I very much dislike it. One option they haven’t tried with regularity is to put Letang there and let Malkin be the guy up top with Sid on the right circle. I have been pretty vocal about Sid being best down low, but sometimes you can’t get everything you want. The current personnel dictates he would be best utilized on the right circle. Jason Zucker has shown good ability to tip pucks and if Patric Hornqvist is on the top unit you know where he’ll be. Both those players can cause havoc down low.
Thanks for reading!