A three game winning streak remains elusive for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were unable to win their third game in a row falling to the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 1-0.
The Penguins lacked the jump that they had in their impressive win over Minnesota the day before. It was a pretty even game which saw both clubs screw up their opportunities to score in regular game action. The only goal of the game was on a penalty shot by Bryan Little.
The Jets had some back door opportunities that they flubbed and Drew Stafford decided to pass up an open net and fire it right into Jeff Zatkoff's body.
Sidney Crosby had a wide open net but could not get a handle on the puck to lift it and Tyler Myers dome kept the tying goal from going in during the last minute.
Connor Hellebuyck is basically the Jets version of Matt Murray and he played a good game. The Jets would be wise to turn the keys over to him and relegate Ondrej Pavelec to the bench in both the short term and long term.
I wrote a little while back on how the Penguins shouldn't rule out Crosby playing with Phil Kessel again and I think it is about that time to revisit that combo.
Sidney Crosby is starting to play better hockey and appears to have his jump back again. You don't go and make a blockbuster trade for a star winger and only give that winger 126 even-strength minutes with Sidney Crosby and write it off as a "failure". Phil "third line" Kessel can't be a long term thing otherwise there was really no point in trading for him in the first place.
There are a few days now in-between games and it gives an opportunity to shake things up.
Kunitz-Crosby-Kessel Sheary-Malkin-Perron Plotnikov-Bonino-Hornqvist Wilson-Cullen-Fehr Porter
Without Bennett available there is really no ideal combination for this forward group.
It is a stretch for Connor Sheary to be playing top six NHL minutes.
Chris Kunitz shouldn't be a regular top six winger anymore but at least he tries to make plays with the puck (albeit unsuccessfully).
Patric Hornqvist can't play with other talent. His dump-ins per 60 is infinity. It is becoming increasingly problematic that he cannot make any controlled plays. His hard work rarely results in anything tangible for the team and a lot of his decisions forces his linemates to work even harder for the puck.
David Perron does all the things that Hornqvist can do but has hockey IQ and hands. I would rather give Perron four million per year moving forward than #72. The James Neal trade is looking like quite the dud but Pittsburgh can try to salvage it by moving on from Hornqvist and targeting another organization that values his limited skill set. Long term the top six right wing position belongs to Kessel and Sprong anyways.
In short Pittsburgh should be actively shopping Hornqvist and Kunitz while keeping an open mind on Perron for now.
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New Hockey Hurts Podcast discusses the mess in Columbus, Tampa Bay's short/long term future, Montreal's reversal of fortunes, Pacific Division, and Pittsburgh goaltending situation. You can find that here
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