This year has been rough for the Penguins and the number of games they have lost to injury. The time frames have been extended and there has been no shortage of high quality players affected. While Sidney Crosby isn’t ready to return the other elite player missing from the lineup will likely be back on Monday.
Penguins' lines/pairings
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) November 24, 2019
Guentzel - Malkin - Rust
Galchenyuk - McCann - Tanev
Kahun - Simon - Hornqvist
ZAR - Blueger - Lafferty
Dumoulin - Letang
Johnson - Marino
Pettersson - Trotman
Riikola - Ruhwedel#Pens #DKPS
There hasn’t been a ton of information about Kris Letang’s injury nor his time table for return, but we have some answers now.
John Marino did a great job jumping up to play with Brian Dumoulin in Kris Letang’s absence. Marino has been one of the bright spots of the season so far. The team should want this to keep going. They should play him with Marcus Pettersson now that Justin Schultz is on the shelf for longer term. Playing Marino with Pettersson does two things.
The first is obvious. The team would be playing its four best available defenders in the top four. They did it without Letang and they should do it with him back in the lineup. Jack Johnson being sheltered on the bottom pairing and not asked to do anything is the only way you are going to get him to be serviceable. I don’t like the idea of changing his dynamic and I don’t like the idea of putting Marino with the team’s worst player. Marino’s skills can be put to better use
The second benefit of playing Marino with Pettersson is it shows what things will look like after Justin Schultz. I feel strongly that the Penguins should not give Justin Schultz his next contract. He is very deployment dependent and given his age and asking price you would be making a commitment reserved for somebody who is not deployment dependent. John Marino might be an unexpected gift that gives the Penguins some roster flexibility moving forward. It might protect them from making a bad signing (Schultz). Marino did great with Dumoulin and it would be prudent to see if he can do a good job for an extended period with Pettersson. It might be what things look like in 2020-21. It might need to be what things look like in 2020-21. Let’s learn as much about it as possible now.
Thanks for reading!