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Jets not flying as high this year

November 26, 2018, 12:32 PM ET [28 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
In Pittsburgh’s last three games they have come away with five out of six points in the standings. In those games they allowed only one goal twice and two goals on Saturday against the Blue Jackets. Goaltending has been solid and it has given them a chance to win.

The best game of the three came against the Blue Jackets. Columbus is currently in first place in the division and wasn’t dealing with the same number of significant injuries the Stars and Bruins were. I don’t think Columbus is a legit first place team in the sense that they are dominant and consistently outplaying their opponents. They are in the lower third of the league in possession. Their goaltending is right on par with Pittsburgh’s and we all know how that has gone this year. They are a team the Penguins are chasing down for a playoff spot so a regulation win was an important result as the Penguins try to claw their way back.

Tomorrow’s seems like it will be a legit test. They are travelling to Winnipeg to face the Jets who were one of the very best teams in the league last year. They are one of the teams in the league that can match the Penguins with their firepower up front. Patrik Laine being the one in the forefront after scoring five(!) goals against the Blues. The performance was so good it earned a fan one million dollars.

Some good news for the Penguins is that the Jets firepower has largely underachieved so far this year.



There just aren’t as many players scoring above the 2.0 mark. Namely, Mark Schiefele, Blake Wheeler, and Nikolaj Ehlers are way down from last year. They all have track records of being better, but it sure would be nice if they were to continue with their down seasons for at least another game.

That Kyle Connor is quite the player. All he does is produce offense.

Another positive for the Penguins tomorrow is that Connor Hellebuyck is not even close to the goalie he was last year when he was a finalist for the Vezina trophy. Last year at even-strength he was a .931% goaltender and this year he is at .911%. That’s a big drop and part of the reason the Jets find themselves in a wild card spot as opposed to challenging the Predators for the division lead

Pittsburgh’s lines for practice today were similar to the game against Columbus

Guentzel-Crosby-Simon
Pearson-Malkin-Kessel
Aston Reese-Brassard-Rust
Wilson-Sheahan-Sprong

Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Riikola
Oleksiak-Johnson

In other news the Philadelphia Flyers have fired general manager Ron Hextall because of philosophical differences he had with upper management. Dean Lombardi has been working for the Philadelphia Flyers recently and that would be a great hire for the Flyers if your interests lie in Southwest Pennsylvania. A Lombardi hire would probably mean the Flyers would be the front runners for Slava Voynov because Lombardi has no moral compass.

When reached for comment Gritty belched and shrugged his shoulders.

Here are some thoughts on the Sabres, Daniel Sprong, Tanner Pearson, Kris Letang etc...




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