Quick little Sunday recap before football begins today.
So far so good for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They are 2-0 and have scored 11 goals.
Sidney Crosby has exploded out of the gate for six points and a share of the NHL point lead with Brock Nelson of the Islanders. Something tells me that one of the two will continue being near the top of the league in points and the other one will have a nice season but not quite at this break neck pace.
One troubling aspect of the Penguins so far this season has been their penalty kill. They have given up five power play goals in two games. This of course is unacceptable and will need to change.
Paul Martin is tied for the team lead in shorthanded time on ice per game with 5:19. The person he is tied with, Rob Scuderi. And therein lies the problem. There is absolutely no such thing as a PK specialist. If you can't play at even strength, you can't play on the PK either. The Penguins can't keep trotting out Scuderi to take on big minutes, regardless if it is even strength or on the penalty kill.
You need to be careful when talking about possession stats in extremely small sample sizes. But the Scuderi numbers are not very surprising. One of these things doesn't look like the others...
The Penguins have only given up one even strength goal and that was on a play where Marc-Andre Fleury made one of his classic puck handling errors. If you can keep the puck out at even strength the chances of winning are usually excellent.
Patric Hornqvist is awesome. Great fit for this team. I'd hold off on buying his jersey though, I have a feeling his #27 will be available at some point in the next year.
Geno may have some rust in his game but you are starting to see the flashes of brilliance. Won't be long until we see full blown Geno Machino in Mike Johnston's system. And it may be a Geno Machino that we've never seen before given the positive changes in how the Penguins are allowed to play now. Scary thought for the rest of the league.
Phil Kessel was invisible last night. Part of that could possibly be from a lower body injury that stems from the preseason, but also the quality of play from the Penguins top 4 defensemen. During the game Phil Kessel was "taken off" of the first line but to me getting away from Bozak and getting placed on a line with Kadri sounds like a promotion to me.
*Is that Dan Byslma's music?!* It very well could be at some point during this season in Toronto. Randy Carlyle is a terrible hockey coach and the Leafs will never do well under his guidance. Dan Bylsma is known to get the most out of players who don't necessarily have great skill, the Leafs currently fit that bill. I think it would be a good fit for both.
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New Hockey Hurts podcast discusses the Penguins hot start to the season, Chris Pronger situation, and more! You can find tha there
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