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Pittsburgh Penguins are back in action at home tonight and will take on Jordan Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes are technically alive in the wild card race but in reality they are a non-factor. Carolina is just playing the string out at this point.
The Penguins can clinch the Metropolitan Division tonight. They will clinch with a win or a Flyers loss to St. Louis. Fairly decent chance the division gets wrapped up tonight.
The Penguins are coming off a win over the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in which they held on for their dear lives. Tonight the Penguins will look to dictate the play and win convincingly. The Penguins need to assert themselves over weaker competition as the playoffs near and tonight is one of those games.
There needs to be some positive signs from areas of concern as the playoffs loom closer. The current bottom 6 forward grouping needs to prove that they won't get dominated and obliterated every single game.
The defensemen who lack puck skill need to show they are capable of creating more controlled zone exits so the forwards can generate offense.
If the Penguins can't make these improvements against the Hurricanes, then how can they expect to do so against playoff level competition?
Sidney Crosby will be looking for his 100th point tonight. He will be the Art Ross Trophy winner this year. It will be the Penguins 15th Art Ross Trophy, that is amazing. Pittsburgh has been treated to some of the best offensive players to ever play the game.
It is nice to see Crosby finally start to win some tangible awards that backs up his claim as the best hockey player in the world. Injuries have stolen many of his opportunities for tangible reward the past few seasons.
Here is a history of the Penguins and the Art Ross Trophy that I wrote over the summer.
Sidney Crosby will also be the front runner for the Hart Trophy. Here is a simple enough stat on why:
This season, when Crosby records a point the #Pens are nearly unstoppable (45-7-4). When he fails to record one, they're a dismal 3-15-1.
— @PensNation_Nick (@PensNation_Nick) April 1, 2014
Kris Letang has been nominated for one of the NHL’s awards at the end of the season:
Kris Letang is the Penguins’ nominee for the Masterton Trophy, which recognizes perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.
— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) April 1, 2014
Letang is certainly a worthy nominee. I believe Dominic Moore is the front runner for the award. Moore had to step away from hockey during the 2012-2013 season due to the death of his wife from cancer.
Regardless of who the perceived front runner is, congratulations Kris Letang.
There do not seem to be any lineup changes from the other night, status quo with the line combos and d pairings:
Kunitz-Crosby-Stempniak Bennett-Jokinen-Neal Pyatt-Sutter-Gibbons Glass-Adams-Megna
Orpik-Bortuzzo Niskanen-Maatta Scuderi-Engelland Despres-Letang
Marc Andre Fleury will start in goal.
Former Hurricane Jussi Jokinen has proven to be one of the better trades of Ray Shero’s tenure. His ability to excel in his top 6 winger role with Malkin has been very valuable. It is likely his ability to morph into other roles will prove as more valuable. Jokinen will most likely play on the 3rd line in the playoffs with the return of Beau Bennett and that will give a much needed improvement to the 3rd line. Jokinen is the perfect player to have on the roster because he can play anywhere in the case of a mid-game injury.
Paul Martin should be playing hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins by the weekend. Martin will not play tonight but he has not been ruled out officially for the Winnipeg game. Thursday night’s game still remains a long shot but the game in Minnesota seems like the best bet for a return date. It will be nice for Martin to dress in that game as he is a Minnesota native.
Joe Vitale who was originally slated to be week to week got some surprising news from the doctors recently and his return could be coming sooner than later. Vitale claims to be “feeling great…. I would normally be optimistic about such a return but I know that it will come at the expense of a deserving player like Megna or Gibbons. His return should bump Pyatt,or Adams.
The Carolina Hurricanes cancelled their morning skate, here are their projected lines:
E Staal-Loktionov-Tlusty Gerbe-J Staal-Semin Skinner-Nash-Lindholm Bowman-Malhotra-Dwyer
Faulk-Sekera Hainsey-Michael-Liles Harrison-Bellemore
Thanks for reading!
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