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Penguins enter break as bottom seed in East |
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The Pittsburgh Penguins closed out their western road trip by beating the Arizona Coyotes and then losing to Marc-Andre Fleury and the Vegas Golden Knights. They are now on a bye week and don’t play again until Monday January 28th after All Star Weekend.
This will be a great time for everybody not named Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang to recharge their body and minds away from hockey. They’ll need it as the strength of schedule to close the season is going to be one of the tougher slates in the league. Pittsburgh is currently the last seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and would play the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one. It would mean that the Penguins would be on the Atlantic side of the bracket and have to deal with Toronto or Boston in a potential round 2 series. Not ideal. The good news is they have a lot of hockey left so they aren’t in a predicament like that.
More good news would be the return of Justin Schultz who should be back in the lineup at some point in February.
Things could always be worse. You could be invested in the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton put Ryan Spooner on waivers today. They effectively traded Jordan Eberle for nothing. Just had to have Kris Russell. Connor McDavid’s face on draft night became a punchline, but unfortunately for him it is his career. He should demand a trade in the offseason. It’s unfortunate the league’s best star has to play in a small market with total buffoons running the operation.
The Carolina Hurricanes traded for Nino Niederreiter. It was a straight up swap for Victor Rask. A team like the Edmonton Oilers desperate for winger help probably should have been in on a deal like this. Then again, not trading your talented wingers for nothing is another path on the road.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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