Pittsburgh will be facing Dallas tonight and the only Star on the ice in 2019-20 has been Sidney Crosby. The Stars a 1-6-1 on the year with no standout players. Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov only have four points each while Jamie Benn has the same amount of points as Jamie Oleksiak, two. Roope Hintz has been one of the few bright spots with four goals and five points in the eight games, but none of which have come in the last three games.

Speaking of Jamie Oleksiak he will be returning to Pittsburgh for the first time since his time with the Penguins. The Oleksiak situation was a weird one. He was fine as a Penguin and there was no pressing need to move him. His presence should have been enough for the team to avoid pursuing Jack Johnson, but his lower cap hit and better on-ice play wasn’t enough to sway the decision makers. Since going back to Dallas this is what Oleksiak has done



It’s only 29 game sample since leaving, but I imagine it is a better 29 game stretch than anything his replacement has done.

I would make the argument that Oleksiak being one-punched was definitely part of the decision to move on from him. The “Tom Wilson broke the Penguins” meme has some truth to it. Pittsburgh became infatuated with being as tough as or tougher than the Capitals and as a result abandoned why they consistently beat them in the past. The team then went on to replace Oleksiak with a more expensive and less effective version in Gudbranson. The string of moves lacked planning and made the team worse and more expensive.

Tonight is a good opportunity to earn another two points in the standings. Even if they don’t they’ve earned a slip up with the previous week of good results.

Thanks for reading!

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