The Penguins are back in action tonight against the Philadelphia Flyers. They ran through some line rushes today and here are what things looked like
#Pens workflow...
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Rust-Malkin-Hornqvist
McCann-Crosby-Simon
Aston-Reese -- Blueger-Tanev
Galchenyuk-Agozzino-Angello
Johnson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Ruhwedel-Schultz
(Riikola)
-SK
So I’m not in love with it, assuming the reporting is accurate on the sides each winger is playing on, and I believe it to be so. I don’t like Bryan Rust moving to the left side to accommodate Patric Hornqvist. He has been unstoppable this year. I don’t see the logic in disrupting his slot in the lineup. This also puts Dominik Simon on the right side which isn’t something all too common. Put Simon with Malkin and Rust and have Hornqvist with Crosby. Everybody plays their normal sides and you don’t mess with Bryan Rust at all.
The defense pairings are no surprise unless you thought Schultz was going to play with Letang, but I don’t think anybody was. Until Brian Dumoulin gets back Johnson will continue to play those minutes. The middle pairing stays the same. Bottom pairing has Justin Schultz so that should be an upgrade.
Tristan Jarry was the first goalie off. I don’t think it mattered who Sullivan went with out of the break. I do think it matters how he manages the starts based on the results moving forward. The goalies are trending in opposite directions with Murray playing better and Jarry returning to Earth a little bit. On Sunday the Penguins get the Capitals so we’ll see who gets that very important start.
Thanks for reading!