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It doesn't Maatta what the defense pairings are

October 13, 2018, 1:48 PM ET [191 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
A week ago Montreal embarrassed the Penguins on Hockey Night in Canada. Pittsburgh will get another shot at them in primetime this evening. It will not be the goaltending matchup from last week. Carey Price has the flu and Casey DeSmith will be making his second consecutive start for the Penguins. Matt Murray seems to be making positive progress from his concussion diagnosis earlier in the week. He is officially the backup tonight.

There will be some other changes to the lineup




You will notice that it is now Jamie Oleksiak’s turn to sit in the press box for the Penguins. I’m fine with a rotation of players cycling in and out of the lineup as long as it is merit based. Jack Johnson was atrocious alongside Justin Schultz and he was bad alongside Olli Maatta. It really isn’t going to matter what the defense pairings are (outside of Dumoulin-Letang) if Jack Johnson doesn’t get his head out of you know what and start making a dent in possession or offensively. It is indeed early in the season, but I do grow tired of the argument that he needs half a season or something like that. We have over a decade sample of who he is as a player. Any success will be quality of teammate driven. He’s not going to magically find his “potential” in Pittsburgh. This is going to be a season long theme so buckle up.

You could put Olli Maatta with Kris Letang and I think they would play well. The problem is what do you do with Brian Dumoulin? He's a nice complimentary player, but when he's not with Kris Letang he's not nearly as good. We had a good look at what happened to Dumoulin away from Letang when he played with Ron Hainsey. They lived in their own end. He can't prop up Jack Johnson. The only player who can prop up Johnson is Kris Letang and that would be a waste.

Patric Hornqvist has traded spots with Bryan Rust. He will be playing with Derick Brassard. It’s no secret that I think the lion’s share of Patric Hornqvist’s success in Pittsburgh has been on the backs of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. I’m not so sure Brassard can do all the heavy lifting in transition to give Hornqvist more offensive zone time which he desperately needs to be relevant. He certainly won’t be assisting the carrying of the puck in the neutral zone.

Thanks for reading!
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