The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in game action tonight and they are going to be fighting an uphill battle on two fronts.
The first is the fact that their opponent, the Los Angeles Kings, are really good. The second is the fact Pittsburgh will be without one of their better players in Kris Letang.
Letang has an upper-body injury, per Johnston. Scuderi will play tonight. #Pens
— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) December 11, 2015
So this is a double whammy. The Penguins desperately need Kris Letang’s skating and puck moving skills against a shot suppression master like Los Angeles and they certainly don’t need Rob Scuderi in the lineup. This is a very disappointing development entering tonight’s contest.
The Penguins played really well against a subpar Colorado team. The next step was to see what that lineup could do against a much better opponent. Tonight was the perfect opportunity to see how that played out. Instead we’ll see Rob Scuderi getting exposed time and time again.
Kris Letang’s injury is not related to the one that kept him out of game action last week. He is going to be out for the “next little bit…. That is no good. Pittsburgh’s upcoming schedule includes LA tonight and the surging Bruins (7-1-2 in their last 10) back to back.
Here is an outside point of view about the Penguins and how their defense corp. is just not good enough and is negatively impacting the forwards. Specifically the star forwards.
The lack of puck-moving ability from the blueline has been hamstringing the Pens stars. Now more relevant than ever. https://t.co/dlBnsvMLfX
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) December 11, 2015
Forward lines at skate: Kunitz-Crosby-Bennett Perron-Malkin-Kessel Bonino-Fehr-Hornqvist Plotnikov-Cullen-Sprong
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 11, 2015
I like this because Eric Fehr is not a left winger and Nick Bonino has played some at that position in the past. It gives Eric Fehr some reps back at the center position he found success with the past two years and it will be good to see Bonino on the left wing in case he ever needs to bump up to top six duty in a pinch. Left wing is not a position of strength for the Penguins and trying new options there is fine by me.
The last time the Penguins played Los Angeles it was the swan song for the Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis line. The newly formed Kunitz-Crosby-Bennett line has been really good so far. Let’s see how they fare against a stubborn Kings team.
Thanks for reading!