Pens Win Two in a Row.

After a terrible loss to the Senators the Penguins have rattled off two wins in a row, first they beat the thrashers and their hi powered offense, then last night they beat the Panthers in dramatic fashion. Hopefully now that the Penguins are starting to get healthy again they can get back to winning consistently. Even though they are still in first place they have been sliding fast since the injuries started piling up. In the games since Gonchar went out the Penguins record is 7-7, which is admirable with all the injuries they have had, but not what we expect from a Penguins team with this much talent. Also i need to see much more out of both Crosby and Malkin, both of them have been disappointing through the first 20 games of the season.

Farm Report:
With all the injuries the Penguins have suffered we have had a great opportunity to see what some of the baby Pens could do at the NHL level and I have to tell you I am extremely impressed with Ben Lovejoy. This guy is an NHL level defense man who does everything well, he is responsible defensively, makes great out let passes, and carries the puck well. He will be a great addition to our line up next year when either Letang, or Gonchar leaves via free agency.

Sen's take down the Pen's 6-2

this game was so bad it made me want to puke. Gonchar returned to the line up, but the PP still looked terrible, just as it did earlier this season with him and all spring last year with him. That sentence was not meant to be a knock on Gonchar who is a great defensemen, it was meant to shut all the people up that are always blaming our PP woes on the fact that Gonchar is hurt. We have enough talent on our team that one injury should not derail the PP. It is time for Mike Yeo to be re-assigned, he is a terrible PP coach, I am not sure he is even aware there are different PP formations. My personal favorite, about our PP is how we just leave the left point man standing at the point and never use him for anything but trying to keep Malkins shots that go wide of the net in the zone and the vocational back door play from Crosby that everyone in the league knows is coming. As my friend Eric told me "Our PP is so bad that I wish we could just decline penalties". I laughed when he said that, but unbelievably I have heard others echo the same sentiment.

Now that I got that out of my system lets touch on something positive:
Jordan Staal has been awesome so far this season, he is growing into his frame and becoming very difficult for other teams to handle. He has been in the league long enough now to prove to me that he will never be an elite scorer, but I would expect him to put up between 20-30 goals every season while racking up huge puck possession minutes in the offensive end, and shutting down the other teams top scoring unit.

MASH unit getting the job done for the Penguins.

The Penguins are now on a two game winning streak despite having only one defenseman left in the line up who played for the Penguins in the cup finals last year. Malkin returning to the team has been a big boost for the Pens and Sidney Crosby, even though there line only came away with one point in last nights game it is amazing to watch them play together. It is clear other teams are scared of them, there was countless times last night were a defensemen would botch a routine play that landed up on Malkin or Crosby's stick because they were nervous with Crosby and Malkin bearing down on them. I hope Bylsma keeps our new first line together, Staal looks very comfortable as a second line center, and Geno is clearly the answer to our problem of having no scoring wingers. This being said in an ideal situation Crosby and Malkin would play on seperate lines and each have true scoring wingers, but in a salary capped NHL this is not going to be possible unless we sacrifice some players like Gonchar and Staal. So basically your choice is trade Staal and Gonchar for some scoring wingers or keep them and play Crosby and Malkin together. Which ever decision they make we will be a dominate team as long as Crosby and Malkin are still here.

Injuries and losses continue to mount for the Penguins

The Penguins once again failed to score a goal falling to the Bruins 3 -0. To add insult to injury the Penguins lost Brooks Orpik to injury early in this game, this brings the total of Penguins core players sitting in the press box right now to 6. Who would have ever thought that Gonchar, Orpik, and Letang would be injured while McKee, and Eaton who over the years have been proven to be made of glass continue to eat up minutes for the defense (lets hope that continues). With all these injuries and the lack of goal production I think it is time to give Tangretti and Caputi a look, this would only be a temporary move until we start to get healthy again but the Penguins could use the scoring touch and the two of them could use the NHL experience.

Penguins now 4-4 since the spree of injuries they have suffered.

You knew when the season started the Penguins weren't going to win all 82 games, and at this point their record is still pretty good but I am starting to have some concerns. This team will again be great when they get healthy but the injuries they are suffering are long term injuries, guys are missing 6 weeks at a clip. And every guy we have lost is one of our better players. This is the time when great players rise up and carry there team to victory, and right now we are not seeing this from Sidney Crosby who is the Penguins only legitimate scoring threat left in the line up. In his defense his wingers have been horrible guerin has not been finishing plays that should be goals, and as for Kunitz well you all know how i feel about him. The scary thing about this situation is there is nothing the Penguins can do right now to fix this situation, they just need to hold on and try to play 500 hockey until they start to get healthy again.

Thought of the day:
Before Malkin got hurt everyone was down on Malkin and Crosby's point production so far for the year compared to last year where Malkin won the scoring title and Crosby finished third. In my opinion there numbers were so good last year and very average this year because Crosby and Malkin were playing together most of the year last year under Therrien. So when the Penguins get healthy I think they should be reunited on the top line, Staal has proved so far this year that he is a beast and can handle the second line, Talbot and Adams can center the third and fourth line. I know a lot of people will make the arguement that putting them together makes it to easy for other teams to defend them, because they can load there best defensive players up against that line and not worry about a second line beating them. To this i say, our second line will still be a very good line and if you can find a defensive pairing to shut those two down when they are playing together than you probably deserve to win. Here are my projected lines when we get healthy.

Malkin-Crosby-Guerin
Kunitz-Staal-Kennedy
Cooke-Talbot-Feds
Rupp-Adams-Dupuis

Gogo and Letang

I have not been able to watch a lot of the Penguins games recently because i have been traveling but based on what I have seen plus the stats that Gogo and Letang are putting up it doesn't seem like the Penguins are missing Gonchar that bad (aside from the first game they played without them). If this continues and these two young D-men continue to improve this will be the last season we see Gonchar in a Penguins uniform.

So heres the question of the day:
Lets say Gogo and Letang tear it up in Gonchar's absence and it is determined we will not be signing Gonchar back. When the trade deadline comes if there is a package of quality prospects available that could become true scoring wingers do you trade Gonchar for them, or do you keep Gonchar along with his scoring, and veteran presence considering the Penguins are poised to make another cup run knowing full well you will be getting nothing in return for him in the off season?

This is a very hard decision, you always want to keep the farm system stocked but you also don't want to give up a Stanley Cup to ensure a bright future