The Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins will meet again to conclude their home and home series which began with a 3-0 victory for Boston on Wednesday evening.
Here is Pittsburgh's reality at the current moment:
Fact: the Penguins are closer to last place in the Eastern Conference than they are to 3rd place in the Metro.
— VBstone (@vinnybatts) December 18, 2015
The team was very fortunate to have Marc-Andre Fleury playing the way he did at the beginning of the year because this could be even worse.
Here is what the lines looked like at the morning skate:
Kunitz-Crosby-Sheary Perron-Malkin-Kessel Plotnikov-Bonino-Hornqvist Porter-Cullen-Fehr
Daley-Maatta Cole-Warsofsky Dumoulin-Lovejoy
Daniel Sprong was taking line rushes as a defenseman with Adam Clendening.
Jeff Zatkoff will start tonight and Matt Murray will more than likely make his NHL debut tomorrow night against Carolina
Penguins now working on PP. Crosby on R half-wall, Malkin on L half-wall. Warsofsky at point.
— Bill West (@BWest_Trib) December 18, 2015
Pittsburgh continues to bungle one of the easiest decisions it has with its roster. They will continue to try a left handed player on the left side instead of making it work with Phil Kessel in that spot. Phil Kessel can be a deadly weapon from that side of the ice as long as you aren't foolishly setting him up for one-timers. Not being able to figure out how to use Phil Kessel on the #1 power play unit effectively is one of the bigger failures in a season that has already had their fair share. The other no brainer choices that have been written ad-nauseam have been Crosby down low with Malkin on the right half wall. Keep re-inventing the wheel though I suppose.
I came across something trade related yesterday from Today's Slapshot
Dreger: #Pens "kicked tires" on Tobias Enstrom trade. #NHLJets. https://t.co/9b1dAwMWMj
— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) December 17, 2015
Tobias Enstrom is certainly the kind of player that would help the Penguins but tough to say what the acquisition cost would be. Aside from the assets necessary to acquire Enstrom finding room for his 5.75M salary would be difficult as well. This is the kind of player the Penguins are lacking at the current moment though.
Thanks for reading!