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The Toronto Maple Leafs make their way to Pittsburgh for what could be the two team’s final meeting against one another. The Penguins would be more than content with that. The Maple Leafs always play the Penguins tough as evidence by their 4-1 victory in October and their 6-5 shootout loss from November.
Both teams have had multiple players suspended recently. The Leafs are currently without the services of David Clarkson and previously Dion Phaneuf. The Penguins will be without Deryk Engelland and James Neal due to being disciplined.
Deryk Engelland is awaiting an in person hearing with the league for his careless open ice hit against Justin Abdelkader. The league should give Engelland around 5 games for his hit, perhaps they will. The only issue is that earlier on Saturday the league set their own standard for a repeat offender with the David Clarkson suspension. Clarkson was guilty of a blind side predatory head shot on Blues forward Vladimir Sobotka. The league only gave Clarkson two games. If I’m Deryk Engelland I would be pretty upset to receive more than the two games that Clarkson received.
Personally I thought Clarkson should have received a much stiffer punishment . If he was a 1st time offender I think he should have gotten 5 games for that hit. Given that he is a repeat offender this year I would bump that to 25 games. Harsh, of course, but that is the point.
Just because the league got the Clarkson suspension wrong doesn’t mean I want them to get the Engelland one wrong too. Eventually they will have to start doing a better job, if it happens to be a Penguins player when the light bulb goes on, so be it.
In other suspension news Shawn Thornton has until the end of today to appeal his suspension.
Mark Madden had an accurate take on the current state of NHL discipline which you can find here .
Every team has injuries, hockey is after all a contact sport,but as I was looking at the injury report for the Penguins I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit. The following players are out due to injury or suspension for the Penguins:
Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, James Neal, Paul Martin, Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, Beau Bennett, Tanner Glass, Andrew Ebbett, Deryk Engelland, and Tomas Vokoun. That’s not a bad roster right there.
From all accounts it appears the Philip Samuelsson and Harry Zolnierczyk have been recalled from WB/S as a response to the Penguins thinning NHL lineup.
Currently I believe Matt Niskanen is the only active player for the Penguins who has played more than 50 games in the NHL on defense.
Edit: Combined Despres (60), Bortuzzo (39), Maatta (34), Dumoulin (1) and Samuelsson (0) have played in 134 career NHL games.
The Leafs have been struggling as of late and won’t care about the Penguins and their roster issues. They will be looking to continue to do what they do, and that is to play the Penguins tough. If Pittsburgh gets careless with the puck tonight the Leafs have some goal scorers to make them pay. Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk, and Joffrey Lupul all love to score against the Penguins.
The blog will be updated if and when any information is released about the Malkin and Letang injuries.
UPDATE 11:15 AM
Kris Letang has been placed on IR
Evgeni Malkin is not at the morning skate. Semi good news for him is that he is considered day to day. That injury looked like it could have been way worse. Penguins are fortunate that it does not appear to be a long term injury for the Russian star.
Its also great news for Malkin. It would have been awful if he had to miss the Sochi Games because of a fluke injury.
Rob Scuderi is at the morning skate and has joined his teammates for the first time since breaking his ankle. He will return to action after Christmas.
Penguins #1 PP will have a different look today
Jokinen-Crosby-Kunitz Dumoulin-Niskanen
Line Combos
Projected lineup for the Penguins:
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis Zolnierczyk-Jokinen-Megna Conner-Sutter-Vitale Adams-Sill-Kobasew
Niskanen-Maatta Bortuzzo-Dumoulin Despres-Samuelsson
Engelland-Scuderi
It will be the Crosby led WB/S Penguins against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight.
Projected lineup for Maple Leafs:
van Riemsdyk-Kadri-Kessel Raymond-Holland-Lupul D’Amigo-McClement-Kulemin McLaren-Smith-Bodie
Gunnarsson-Phaneuf Franson-Gardiner Rielly-Liles
Injuries
Evgeni Malkin was examined on Sunday but no update on his lower body injury has been given. Malkin took a serious spill into the boards and looked to suffer what could be a serious injury.
Kris Letang missed Saturday’s game against the Red Wings with an undisclosed upper body injury. His status is also unknown at this time.
Colton Orr is questionable with an elbow injury. The Penguins would probably welcome his presence in the lineup.
Tyler Bozak is out of the lineup with an oblique strain.
Power Play
The Pittsburgh Penguins still have the best power play in the NHL. It currently sits at 26.7% after going 2 for 4 against the Red Wings on Saturday night.
The Maple Leafs also have a pretty great power play. They are 3rd overall at 24.3%.
The Penguins are tied for 11th in the league with 116 power play opportunities
The Maple Leafs are 24th overall with 107 power play opportunities.
Penalty Kill
The Penguins are 2nd overall in the NHL on the PK with 87.8% They are coming off a terrific 5 for 5 performance against the Red Wings.
The Maple Leafs are 27th overall with 76.7%. This is a far cry from the top end penalty killing the Leafs grew accustomed to last season.
The Penguins are 3rd best in the league with only being shorthanded 98 times
Toronto is 26th overall with 129 times shorthanded.
Fenclose%
The Penguins are 5th overall at 53.9%
The Maple Leafs are 29thth overall at 42.8%
Toronto continues to be one of the worst puck possession teams in hockey and they have started to regress in the standings because of it. They are 3-5-2 in the last 10 games.
Even Strength Save %
This is one area where the Maple Leafs are terrific. The Leafs are 3rd overall with an EVSV% of .939%.
Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer have done a terrific job so far this year for Toronto. They haven’t had a choice given the amount of rubber they face on any given night.
The Penguins are ranked 19th overall with .921%.
Trends
Maple Leafs are 3-8 in their last 11 overall
Maple Leafs are 1-5 in their last 6 vs. Eastern Conference
Maple Leafs are 1-8 in their last 9 road games
Penguins are 4-1 in their last 5 vs. Atlantic
Home team is 7-3 in the last 10 meetings
Maple Leafs are 1-4 in the last 5 meetings in Pittsburgh
Stats are courtesy of covers.com
Thanks for reading!
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