MONDAY’S PENGUINS BUZZ

Derrick Pouliot is not ready for the NHL and has no business to start the season with the big club. That’s something I’ve been saying for over a month now and many outside of Pittsburgh feel the same way.

Is Mike Johnston who loves Pouliot and has coached Pouliot for six seasons starting to see the light?

After being on the ice for three goals against vs the Blue Jackets and continued struggles with his reads and gap control, Johnston was not sugar coating the situation when he said Pouliot is not a “regular NHL player.”

“He’s not a regular NHL player,” Johnston said following the 4-2 loss to the Blue Jackets. “He’s a guy who’s played games.”

Johnston knows Pouliot better than anybody and this might be a tactic to push Pouliot but the guess here is no.

Johnston is one of the most intelligent hockey people out there. There’s no way he can look at Pouliot and feel he’s ready to contribute on a regular basis, because he’s not.

And you have to wonder if Johnston is thinking in reality that a slow start to this season and in this division, he’ll be out of a job by December. That is the reality of the situation. There’s going to be no free passes this season for Johnston, one of the NHL’s lowest paid coaches, in year two.

He’s not in position to let Pouliot learn the NHL game if there are six other better options right now.

Everyone wants to run him out of town because of the cap hit and poor analytics but Rob Scuderi is the Penguins fourth or fifth best option on the backend right now. That’s where things really are with this group.

What was telling with Johnston’s evaluation of Pouliot Saturday afternoon was being critical of the areas Pouliot should be better at, notably the transition game and moving the puck.

“The first period, he wasn’t getting to loose pucks quick,” Johnston said. “The other thing about his game that I see is he’s [hide] hanging on to pucks way too much. He’s got to move it faster and move it cleaner.”

Tonight in Quebec Pouliot will be back in the lineup and paired with Kris Letang. Smart on the Penguins to get him back in and paired with Letang, but nothing he does tonight should change what needs to happen and that’s a couple more months in the minors for the young blueliner.

MORE BUZZ

— Puck moving defenseman David Warsofsky is causing some serious discussions in the organization. One Penguins source called him this year’s “Taylor Chorney” and that he’s someone who could become a factor with the big club at somepoint this season.

— Nick Bonino will make his preseason debut tonight vs Montreal. The coaches have wanted to give Bonino and Perron a look together and that will happen tonight. The plan is to play those two together vs Montreal and Wednesday vs Detroit. Perron has seen no time with Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist in camp.

— The Lineups for the next three games – courtesy of the Penguins —

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