Happy belated Thanksgiving. I hope the holiday was kind to everyone. Here are some brief thoughts from the St. Louis game:
Pittsburgh played one of its better games of the season against the St. Louis Blues. They were able to win the even-strength battle against one of the better even-strength teams in the league. Pittsburgh controlled 54.65% of that action.
Sidney Crosby scored two goals. The first goal saw Pascal Dupuis forcing a turnover where the puck sat flat in the middle of the slot and Sid took out all his frustration out on it.
Crosby goal cc @HopintheCordoba @BellaLuna227 pic.twitter.com/eLB6bhTFjG
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 26, 2015
Sidney Crosby also scored a power play goal. He was not playing the right half wall at the time, just saying.
Crosby also addressed the so called "rift" that he and Lemieux have
Crosby, on rumored rift w/66: "If people are going to make stuff up, it’s totally out of my control. I feel stupid even commenting on it."
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) November 26, 2015
Jason Mackey wrote a very good article on this subject which included getting more quotes from Crosby ($$$)
ICYMI ... For the Friday Insider, I tried to shed some light on the Sid/Mario stuff based on my own experiences: https://t.co/odNSz0ydh3
— Jason Mackey (@Mackey_PGH) November 27, 2015
Matt Cullen was on the ice for 14 shot attempts and only 3 against (82.35%) Sergei Plotnikov was on the ice for 15 shot attempts for and only 6 against (71.43%) Eric Fehr was on the ice for 13 shot attempts for and only 6 against (68.42%).
Really great job by that group.
Adam Clendening continues to make the most of his long overdue opportunity. He and Ian Cole aren't butting up against the other team's best players but they are dominating the ones that they do.
That first game is all the way back in October while the last four have been from this recent stretch of games. It is an incredibly small sample but one to track. If he continues to drive play like this how can they justify returning him to the pressbox when Olli Maatta returns.
When you combine the promising possession data with recent games with his AHL production it is very likely the Penguins have a competent NHL defenseman with Clendening. Over the summer I wrote about AHL success and how it translates to the NHL. Here is a reference tweet from that article
Again: 1. Making the NHL is hard 2. Forwards, success is p likely at ~0.7ppg 3. D, success is p. likely at 0.5 ppg #ProbailitiesNotDestinies
— Kevin Flynn (@joshweissbock) July 20, 2015
Adam Clendening has 126 points in 193 AHL games. His points per game average is 0.63.
Pittsburgh takes on Columbus tonight and the last time they played the Blue Jackets it was one of their worst outings of the year. If Pittsburgh plays anything like they did against St. Louis on Wednesday they will get the result they need against Columbus tonight.
The #NJDevils have signed F Tyler Kennedy to a one-year, two-way contract for $600,000 at the NHL level and $200,000 at the AHL level.
— New Jersey Devils (@NHLDevils) November 27, 2015
Thanks for reading!
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