Penguins/NHL
Penguins-Tuesday
The Pittsburgh Penguins in their final tune up before Game 1 Wednesday night had a bit of a surprising development.
[hide] The coaches look to be going back to the Olli Maatta – Trevor Daley pairing.
The pairing has been nothing short of a train wreck this season and was a major contention of scrutiny before Daley and Maatta both got injured in the same week back in February. Maatta has just one game under his belt since returning.
Tuesday’s practice is giving a glimpse of what to expect with the lineup vs the Blue Jackets in Game 1.
LINES
Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Conor Sheary
Bryan Rust – Evgeni Malkin – Phil Kessel
Scott Wilson – Nick Bonino – Patric Hornqvist
Tom Kuhnhackl – Matt Cullen – Carter Rowney
D-PAIRS
Brian Dumoulin – Ron Hainsey
Ian Cole – Justin Schultz
Olli Maatta – Trevor Daley
EXTRA’s
Mark Streit who has falling a bit out of a favor, was on the extra pairing with Cameron Gaunce. Chad Ruhwedel dealing with a wrist injury, is on the shelf for the start of the series. A source says if Ruhwedel was ready to go, the Penguins third pairing would more likely be Daley – Ruhwedel than Maatta – Daley.
Nonetheless, the Penguins going right back to the Maatta – Daley pairing will have the pairing under the microscope from the start.
Forwards
Evgeni Malkin as expected continues to trend in the direction of playing in Game 1. Malkin centered Bryan Rust and Phil Kessel today as the Penguins will play Rust on his off-wing.
The coaches believe Rust is adequate enough to play his off-side because of how well he beats defenders wide with his speed and protects the puck with his backhand in driving to the net.
There are no surprises today with the top-12. The thinking has been that Carter Rowney will play over Josh Archibald to start the series and that looks to be the case.
A bit of a sidebar, though, Archibald did take some line rushes in place of Scott Wilson on the third line.
Goaltenders
In a good sign, Matt Murray came on the ice early to take shots and is going through a full practice.
No. 1 Power Play
Phil Kessel – Patric Hornqvist – Sidney Crosby – Evgeni Malkin
Justin Schultz
Werenski back for Blue Jackets, Murray long-shot
The Columbus Blue Jackets will not have defenseman Ryan Murray to start the series, a significant blow for them in matching up with the Penguins top-2 lines.
#CBJ lines: Saad – Wennberg – Foligno; Jenner – Dubinsky – Atkinson; Hartnell – Gagner – Bjorkstrand; Calvert – Karlsson – Anderson #Pens
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) April 11, 2017
#CBJ pairs:
Werenski – Jones
Johnson – Savard
Nutivaara – Quincey
Harrington – Carlsson
#Pens— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) April 11, 2017
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Hey npl are you going to finish last this year while I finish first again
Geno is back in the lineup. With one French-Canadian looking for more vagisil and the other on the bench, we have as good as shot as anyone.
Ok for the hell of it set up bracket again in NHL called TIOPS with the password of TIOPS
Murray rules out yet?
Looks like he is starting actually
They must’ve convinced him that the team will bail him out like last year and not play the way they did end of this season in front of him .so like that he doesn’t need to fake an injury
After 2 goals in the first, he’ll fake his injury and use it to bail. Fleury wil save the day though. He and Kessel!
It clearly didn’t work out with him last year….
Kessel likes to stay and play he likes to pretend he is helping its the other one the Russian you should be worried about as well he will fake injury as well but fans shouldn’t be worried like they are for letang. Malkin gets always healed once he is on that 737 plane crossing the Atlantic.
Unlike Letang. Who’s never healed.
He pretended all the way to being the true MVP of the finals last year while Crosby pretended to be the MVP… even excepted the award on Kessels behalf!
Just like last years playoffs??
You mean like MAF faking an injury after stopping a puck last year? Guy makes 3000 saves a year for 15 years but the puck hurt him? Sounds fake to me
I’d like to see maatta with hainsey. I think maatta does better with a partner who takes less chances. I liked dailey and dumoulin when they were together last year. I hope the current pairings work out, but they wouldn’t be my choice.
That pairing might be too slow to put out there together.
potentially, but I think that having a partner who is a little more reliable in his own end would help to counter that for maatta. and hainsey moves ok (certainly not great) out there. and im not super concerned with the speed of cbj.
I agree with Stanch although I could see them work as a shutdown type pairing like Gill and Scuderi in 09. It would definitely need to be a pairing you NEED to note is on the ice to adjust the break out and chances taken in the offensive zone so that lack of foot speed isnt exposed.
Streit is slow and having maataa and streit in the lineup at same time would be brutal to watch
Well, those are the decisions a team is faced with given the fact that they don’t have a true number one defenseman aside from the fraud that misses the playoffs every two years like clockwork.
Malkin says he is in for game one. Sullivan says there is a good change Hags is back in the 1st round
I like the idea of hagelin on that third line a lot more than Wilson. I do think Wilson has improved though, but would just rather see him slotted in on the 4th
Won’t get an argument from me. I think part of Wilsons emergence is the fact that he generates so much on that 4th line with Cullen and Kuhnhackl. That noted, until Hags is back, he makes the most sense to have that look on line three
“Mark Streit who has falling a bit out of favour”?
from the mind that gave “Sideny Crosby” lol
Yeah – I thought he had been playing well??