Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal
The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to move on and forget about what transpired over the weekend against the Philadelphia Flyers. Pittsburgh could possibly be in a way better position to earn a victory as Chris Kunitz and James Neal were slotted with their normal linemates during the morning skate.
There is no replacing Kunitz or Neal, let alone both, and the results were evident the past 2 games. These two potential returns to the lineup would be a game changer for the Penguins.
Nothing is official yet for tonight’s game but it was encouraging to see both players taking part in the line rushes with in their normal spots. Coach Bylsma said that both Kunitz and Neal will need to be cleared by the doctor later today to be available for tonight.
The lines for the morning skate were as follows:
KUnitz-Crosby-Stempniak Jokinen-Malkin-Neal Glass-Goc-Gibbons Pyatt-Sutter-Adams
First two lines look really good.
3rd line is meh
4th line is, well what is there to say, it’s not good. Brandon Sutter has literally no opportunity for success there.
Perhaps I’m watching different Penguins games than the Penguins brass but I just don’t understand this whole Pyatt thing. This experiment has run its course. He was picked off of waivers because the Penguins were decimated by injury; the Penguins are healthy enough to where his services are not needed any longer. There are better players available, namely Jayson Megna and Joe Vitale.
Bylsma has shown a tendency to give “try hard… guys (Engelland, Adams) the benefit of the doubt, but Pyatt doesn’t even fit that mold.
Beau Bennett’s return can’t come soon enough. It looks as though he will have to have a few more contact practices until he returns to action.
Jeff Zatkoff will be in goal for the Penguins.
If Kunitz does return to the lineup look for Sidney Crosby to get back to his scoring ways. He only has 1 point in the last week, yet still holds a 15 point lead in the scoring race. Call it a hunch but I believe Stempniak will score his first goal as a Penguin tonight. I reserve the right to rescind this prediction if Kunitz is out, I also reserve the right to keep the prediction if Kunitz doesn't play and he still scores.
The Penguins opponent tonight is going to be desperate for points just like the Flyers were. The Dallas Stars are currently 2 points out of the last wild card spot. They are trailing the Coyotes but the Stars do have 2 games in hand.
The Stars possess one of the best lines in all of hockey this year. Tyler Seguin has been terrific since his trade to Dallas. Playing in his natural center position he has 30 goals and 39 assists in 65 games. This is Seguin’s first 30 goal season.
Seguin is on fire lately as he has 5 goals and 11 points in his last 5 games.
His linemate Jamie Benn has 27 goals and 64 points in 67 games. He has 4 goals in his last 5 games.
The third member of the line is rookie standout Valeri Nichushkin. Nichushkin has 13 goals and 30 points in 64 games but has really come on when playing with Seguin and Benn. He isn’t just a passenger on that line, he is holding his own. Good news for the Penguins is that he only has 1 assist in his last 8 games. That doesn’t mean he will stay dormant for long though.
Whatever Penguins defense duo pulls the Seguin, Benn, Nichushkin duty will have their hands full tonight.
There is an outside shot that Kari Lehtonen will make his return to the lineup tonight against the Penguins. He has been out of actions with a concussion.
The Penguins former #1 defenseman will be in the house tonight. Sergei Gonchar has 2 goals and 18 assists on the year.
Gonchar on #Pens: "For that team to lose two in a row, it's a big thing. I'm sure they'll come out hard."
— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) March 18, 2014Gonchar on playing in Pittsburgh: "It's always going to be special."
— Wes Crosby (@OtherNHLCrosby) March 18, 2014Alex Goligoski will also be in the Stars lineup. He is currently the Stars 3rd leading scorer with 5 goals and 32 points in 66 games.
****
I compiled some basic offensive stats for the players who were tied to the Penguins via rumor during the trade deadline, the stats are from after the trade deadline. This is a very small sample size and not many strong conclusions can be drawn, but I thought it would be interesting to compare anyways. Also included are the Penguins 2 deadline pickups:
Ryan Kesler has 4 games played with 1 goal. Kesler has since been injured and he will miss time due to a knee injury. Most likely it will be a few more weeks until he returns.
Thomas Vanek has 5 games played with 1 assists.
Brad Boyes has 6 games played with 1 goal and 3 assists.
Ales Hemsky has 5 games played with 1 goals and 6 assists. This is the one that got away for the Penguins. I think Hemsky would have put up really decent numbers playing in Pittsburgh. It was certainly worth the risk considering how little Edmonton got in return for him.
Chris Stewart has 1 game played with 0 points. He was injured and it is likely he will miss the remainder of the season.
Lee Stempniak has 6 games played with 3 assists.
Marcel Goc has 6 games played with 1 assist.
Thanks for reading!
Follow me on twitter Follow @GunnerStaal