Daily Five Christmas Eve Version: On Ben Sitting; Malkin's best set of wingers in career; Staal or Neal; Who would you keep?

1. Sitting Ben Roethlisberger is the right move but this quote via Steelers.com from Mike Tomlin has some a little uneasy about the Steelers thinking St. Louis will be a pushover. "Obviously, he’s {Ben Roethlisberger} less than 100 percent, and it’s our desire at this juncture to get him as close to 100 percent as we can for January football. I felt like this week provided an opportunity to do that.

The decision to play Roethlisberger vs San Francisco was clearly dictated by the 49ers being a more competitive team, despite what Tomlin claimed last week.

2. The Penguins coaching staff envisioned loading up a top line of Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby and James Neal this season. That plan has been altered and it's been Evgeni Malkin who has filled that role just as good and maybe better than Sidney Crosby would have.

For the first time since having Ryan Malone on his left wing and Petr Sykora on his right wing, Malkin has a power forward type of winger on his left wing who drives to the net and wins battles in the corners and can put the puck in the net in Chris Kunitz and a goal scoring winger who can do it all on his right wing in James Neal. This is arguably the best set of wingers Malkin has ever had in a Penguins uniform.

Malkin (16 pts), Neal (9 pts) and Kunitz (9 pts) have combined for 34 points in their last seven games.

3. James Neal is the Penguins first premier goal scoring winger since Marian Hossa and based on current production and potential, Neal is clearly emerging as a $5.5 million per season winger and that might be a discount.