The jury is in and Rasmus Ristolainen has been suspended three games for his careless hit on Jake Guentzel. This falls in line with the same tired standard the Department of Player Safety has set forth. This is a minor punishments and will not deter future behavior. We get a reminder of this each and every week. Players won't learn until you take more of their time and money.
Pittsburgh will be in the Canadian capital tonight to take on the Senators. The Pittsburgh Penguins will continue to be without the services of Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust. They will also be playing without Jake Guentzel who did not skate today. He is still recovering from his concussion.
Here are how the lines looked this morning
#Pens lines:
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) March 23, 2017
Wilson-Crosby-Sheary
Kessel-Cullen-Hornqvist
Kunitz-Bonino-Rowney
Kuhnhackl-Sundqvist-Archibald
-SK
Malkin did not take part in the skate. Bryan Rust was filling in on defense with Cameron Gaunce.
You will notice that Scott Wilson has been promoted to the top line with Crosby and Sheary. I'm OK with giving that a look. Wilson brings an element of speed to the table and has produced quite well this year considering his quality of teammate and role. His 5v5 points per 60 is a solid 1.96.
I like "loading up" the top six and giving the few offensive players the Penguins have left a chance to succeed with one another. spreading the wealth only works when your roster isn't decimated by injuries. There are too many replacement level players in the mix right now. Let them tread water and hopefully the other ones can rise to the occasion.
Chris Kunitz has not been as effective lately and while he has been a legit option to play in the top six at times this year right now isn't one of them.
The defense pairing remain the same from last game Dumoulin-Schultz Cole-Ruhwedel Streit-Corrado
Pittsburgh's roster is great again this year. Projections like them to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions
Just for fun, playoff probabilities based on what I suspect the bracket currently projects to , and assuming healthy rosters. pic.twitter.com/E8eMCEpHF8
— dom 🤔 (@domluszczyszyn) March 22, 2017
Very exciting until you read the fine print.
"and assuming healthy rosters"
Yeah about that...
Tonight Sidney Crosby will be facing off against his former junior hockey coach. Guy Boucher had the honor of coaching Crosby in Rimouski and talked a little bit about his goal against the Sabres and some of the other cool stuff he did when he was in junior hockey
Ottawa coach Guy Boucher went deep on a question about Sidney Crosby's 1-handed goal. (Boucher coached Crosby as an asst in Juniors). pic.twitter.com/OKCmM3QKgM
— Bill West (@BWest_Trib) March 23, 2017
Here is how the Senators will look tonight
No changes for the #Sens | Mike Condon in the starter’s net, expected to start vs. the Penguins. pic.twitter.com/IZokjDQKxy
— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) March 23, 2017
Still no Mark Stone for the Senators. He's probably their best forward and might make his return on Saturday.
Thanks for reading!