Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

So so weekend for the Penguins, Letang, and Malkin

January 6, 2020, 10:24 AM ET [177 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Penguins were able to earn half of the points available this weekend by beating the Montreal Canadiens in overtime on Saturday night in Montreal. Yesterday, they looked tired and overwhelmed playing a good Florida team. This is very understandable considering the injuries and taking two out of four points is very acceptable.

On Saturday night I thought the Penguins did a great job in overtime on their regroup and attack. They chose to exit the Canadiens zone to create more time and space and create a rush attack. It worked perfectly.




It really helps when one of the opposition players tries to make a line change when the bench is on the far end. The only Montreal player back had no ability to close the gap and Blueger had speed. Tanev goes hard to the net and cleans up the garbage and you have a nice sequence for the Penguins.

While the Penguins weren’t great against Florida they did have some really impressive skilled moments from both Tristan Jarry and Jared McCann. Jarry made his best save of the season and McCann thought he was Sidney Crosby for a second







Kris Letang is not having his best stretch of hockey. I don’t think it is worth overreacting to because the main issue is obvious and will be remedied when the team gets healthier. Let’s not overthink things. He is playing with Jack Johnson and for the people who love to bring up intangibles you don’t think he knows who is partner is and that there’s more pressure for him to play better? He still has to play top pairing minutes against the other team’s best. Now he has an anchor attached to him. The difference between Letang’s numbers with Brian Dumoulin and Johnson are stark



Letang has gone from elite to average and you can see it. It isn’t easy being a top pairing guy in this league and it is a lot tougher with a bad player as a partner. I get why the Penguins are using this pairing. I like building a sample between Pettersson and Marino for the long term. You just need realistic expectations with Letang if this is how the team is going to use their defense pairings. He’s in a tough spot.

Evgeni Malkin has a lone assist since Jake Guentzel was injured. This is a situation to track because Malkin can still be amazing. I think he just needs more help than he used to. He’s still going to be good, but if you want him to look like an MVP candidate like he did when Crosby was out Jim Rutherford and Mike Sullivan will need to come together to figure out Malkin’s quality of teammate so he can continue to thrive and be a difference maker at that level.

We should learn a lot about Sidney Crosby’s status when the team leaves to visit Marc-Andre Fleury and the Vegas Golden Knights. If he makes the trip it is a good sign he’s close to returning. If he doesn’t the Penguins aren’t home again until January 14th.

Thanks for reading!
Join the Discussion: » 177 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Ryan Wilson
» Penguins earn victory on Jake night
» A salute to Jake Guentzel
» Sid puts on show as Avs dig out of hole
» A dud in Dallas
» My thoughts on Dubas' thoughts