The Pittsburgh Penguins wrap up their four game road trip to Western Canada tonight and will take on the Calgary Flames. This will probably be their toughest game of the trip. Calgary has won nine games in a row and have passed Edmonton for third overall in the Pacific Division. Calgary has a chance to tie Anaheim for second place in the division with a win tonight
Pittsburgh has some similarities to Calgary right now. The Penguins have won five games in a row and have now passed Columbus for second place in the division. The Washington Capitals have been struggling and now the Penguins are only one point behind them in the standings. Passing Washington isn’t something that looked very likely a week ago, but here we are. Finishing first in the division as opposed to second or third will give the Penguins an easier first round matchup. Right now, the likely options for the first place Metropolitan team are the Toronto Maple Leafs or the New York Islanders. Those are better options than the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Both teams have a great opportunity tonight to make some moves in the standings.
A big part of Calgary’s resurgence has been the fact that Brian Elliott is starting to play like the guy the team thought they acquired and not the below average version from the beginning of the year
When coupled with the fact that Calgary has been the seventh best Score-Adjusted Fenwick team the (52.0%) the past 25 games you can see why they are winning games in bunches now. When you control play and your goalie is hot it is tough to be defeated.
Signing college UFA's is a great way to boost depth in an organization. They are basically free assets and that makes the risk reward very desirable. The top player in this year's class is Zach Aston-Reese. Here is an in-depth breakdown of his senior year at Northeastern
@jonathanwillis https://t.co/4VAzHg3PpV
— ryan lambert (@twolinepass) March 12, 2017
A decision could come as soon as today on where Aston-Reese will sign.
The Penguins struck gold with a college free agent signing three years ago. Top line winger Conor Sheary was undrafted and the Penguins gave him an opportunity.
3 years ago today, Wilkes-Barre signed Conor Sheary to an amateur tryout contract. Now he has a shot at a 50-point season on Crosby’s wing.
— VBstone (@vinnybatts) March 12, 2017
That 50 point barrier is nothing to scoff at even if he is playing with Crosby. Sheary leads all NHL players in points per 60 at even-strength at 3.10. Sheary is currently at 41 points and that is with missing 20 games and getting minimal time on the power play. He has been fantastic. Can Ashton-Reese be that kind of player? It's worth making an attempt to find out. Teams like Pittsburgh that don't have many top picks need to be creative in how they restock their cupboards and this is one way to do it.
Thanks for reading!