The Penguins will be taking on the Carolina Hurricanes with a new look tonight. The team will be getting one of their wingers back and for the time being sitting a player that has played in every game so far. The healthy player is Bryan Rust and to make room for him the team is apparently going to scratch Ryan Reaves
The Reaves scratch is overdue for a team scraping for standings points. If there are better options you have to use them. I don't believe that Reaves will be a nightly healthy scratch, but the seal has been broken. Before he was playing against every opponent. Perhaps now they will only apply their misguided approach to teams like Columbus, Washington, etc... and ice their best lineup on most nights.
Bryan Rust hasn't had a great season, but the team is better when he's in the lineup versus when he's out. He's still very good on the possession front at ~55%, but the offensive numbers aren't where you'd like to see them. Only 1.41 points per 60 at even-strength with only one goal at 5v5 this year. His other three goals are split between the power play (1) and penalty kill (2). He's capable of helping out more in this area and there's a good chance he will be able to.
One roster move that hasn't been made is putting Ian Cole back in the lineup. He will continue to sit for Matt Hunwick who has been struggling as of late. In California Hunwick's possession was a rotten 39.5% at 5v5. It would be one thing if he was playing well, but he isn't. The Cole stuff is something I don't have a handle on. We are past the point of "there must be a pending deal" and into this is just strange.
Jim Rutherford was asked about his goaltending situation and future potential trades. Don't look for the Penguins to be keen on moving any of their goalies to find a third line center
Matt Cullen's favorite moment as a Penguin? The third-line center search. Pittsburgh hosting an All-Star Game. That and much more here: https://t.co/RNvRl2Y9V9
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) January 23, 2018
“I don’t have any interest in moving any of those guys,… Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday afternoon. “We’ve gone through a transition period here where the No. 1 goalie for years – and one of the franchise’s most beloved players – has moved on.
“We’ve transitioned into a team that probably has the best group of young goalies in the league. I don’t have any interest in talking [to other teams] about these three guys.…
This is a good approach because this is how you keep from spending a ton of cap space on goaltending. Keeping long term costs down in areas that you have control over is a good idea. Not to mention the goaltender market is a weird one. Most general managers don't like spending quality assets on goaltenders with extremely limited sample sizes which describes pretty much every goalie in the organization even Matt Murray to an extent.
Speaking of goaltenders the Hurricanes will once again be putting up Cam Ward against the Penguins. Scott Darling is struggling in his first year with the program and Ward has been lights out against the Penguins. Ward has stopped 48 out of a possible 49 shots against Pittsburgh this year. He's Cam Ward, this should change at some point, right?
Casey DeSmith will be getting his third consecutive start. The coaching staff spoke to how they wanted to ride the hot hand. I see no issues with this approach especially since DeSmith will probably be sent down in the very near future with Matt Murray back at practice. It's nice to know that DeSmith was able to bounce back from his NHL debut and string together some nice play.
Thanks for reading!