Some good news on the Penguins injury front and some not as good news as the Penguins enter back into game action today versus the Los Angeles Kings.
Good chance Letang won't play tomorrow. Minor injury. Status still undecided. Maatta is "probably" in tomorrow, according to Johnston.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) December 4, 2015
The good news is that Olli Maatta is closer to being healthy. He had started showing some signs of improvement after being placed with Kris Letang.
The bad news is that now Kris Letang is dinged up. No word on what the actual injury is but it must be annoying enough to where a four day break in game action wasn't enough to make it feel better.
Kris Letang is fifth overall in time on ice per game at 26:24. You run the risk of minor injuries when you rely on somebody that often.
On the forward front it appears things will be status quo
Lines at practice → Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis Perron-Malkin-Kessel Bennett-Bonino-Hornqvist Plotnikov-Cullen-Fehr
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 4, 2015
Here are the team breakdowns for today:
The Los Angeles Kings continue to be one of the best possession teams in hockey but they also continue to be one of the worst shooting teams in hockey. This has been a trend for a number of years and last year it cost them a playoff berth. This is a topic that I had the opportunity to discuss at length with both Lyle Kossis and Andy Smith of the Garage League Podcast this week.
Episode 20 of the @GarageLeaguePod is out! We were joined by @GunnerStaal to discuss the state of the Penguins | https://t.co/mx8saKyXBy
— Lyle Kossis (@LyleKossis) December 2, 2015
The problem for Pittsburgh is that they are shooting the puck just as poorly as Los Angeles but don't have the possession to back it up. Goaltending which is normally a huge edge for Pittsburgh won't be today. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles have received similar goaltending performances this year.
If you are looking to learn a little bit more about today's opponent Hockeybuzz's Jason Lewis put together his own tracking project with zone exits and entries for Los Angeles.
Might have made myself late to work, but had to finish this piece on Kings zone exit success so far. Give it a look! https://t.co/SMMnIBqfr6
— Jason Lewis (@SirJDL) December 3, 2015
Thanks for reading!