Rumor has it the Penguins actually have a hockey game today. It’s been a while, but it is true. The Penguins will play the Sharks today at 1PM. Not all of the Penguins because they have a number of players on the COVID list, including their starting goaltender Tristan Jarry.
Overall, the team is healthier and the break in action allowed some of the Penguins best forwards like Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, and Bryan Rust to mend themselves without missing any more game action.
As for COVID John Marino, Mike Matheson, and Dominik Simon are slated to return to the team and be available for today’s game. Unavailable include Jarry, Jeff Carter, Kasperi Kapanen, Teddy Blueger, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph. So two of their top three centers at the moment, a top six winger, and their starting goalie. It is what it is. Every team is navigating Omicron and the COVID lists which change daily. The players available should be well rested and ready to give a quality effort. There’s really no excuse not to. Whether that leads to positive results remains to be seen.
Because of the ever-changing rosters some players around the league have been able to make their NHL debuts when they otherwise would not have been. For the Penguins that could be Kasper Bjorkqivst today. To this point Bjorkqvist has been an underwhelming second round pick. He’s 24 years old and has only 5 points in 28 AHL games, in his career. He’s played some professional game in Finland (SM-liiga ) with better numbers. He had 26 points in 44 games in 2020-21 over there. Ultimately, you’d like to see a 24 year old with better numbers in the AHL. They need to be pushing around a point per game in WB/S for any real chance at traction at the NHL level. A few semi-recent examples were Conor Sheary at 36 points in 30 games his 22-year-old season. Jake Guentzel’s 21-year-old season had him at 42 points in 33 games. Even Bryan Rust’s 27 points in 45 games his 21-year-old season had a pulse. With the Marlies Kasperi Kapanen had 43 point in 43 games in his 20-year-old season. The wild card with Bjorkqvist is the fact he suffered an ACL tear right when he started his professional career. Did that change his career trajectory? Here’s what Mike Sullivan has said about his play.
"He's another one of those glue guys that brings a conscientious game, that has the ability to kill penalties. I think that's an important aspect of Kasper's individual game," Sullivan said. "But I think his work ethic, his wall play, his willingness to block shots, his physicality - those are all the things that players of Kasper's ilk, I think, bring to an NHL team that helped them have success."
Not a lot there about skill. We’ve all heard those kinds of buzzwords before.
As for the opponent today here is how the Sharks shake out against the Penguins.
According to Sportsnet the only Sharks players in COVID protocol at the moment are are Adin Hill and Mario Ferraro. They should have their full complement of players minus Kevin LeBlanc who is out due to a shoulder injury.
Thanks for reading!