Pens Off-Day Notes: Eye on Division Crown; Letang/Norris Talk; Tidbits

Heading into the stretch run, the goal hasn't changed for the Penguins (41-22-8, 90pts): Winning the division and earning the No. 1 overall seed in the Eastern Conference.

Winning the division remains a longshot but Pittsburgh has kept pace with Philadelphia, remaining three points behind the conference leading Flyers who have two games in hand. The Penguins face the Flyers twice in their next six games.

To stay in the hunt for the top-seed, the Penguins have taken advantage of two of the worst teams in hockey, earning consecutive wins against Edmonton and Ottawa, posting back-to-back 5-1 wins, respectively.

Tyler Kennedy and Jordan Staal each had a goal and an assist, leading the Penguins past Ottawa 5-1 last night. Chris Kunitz added three assists and the Penguins also got goals from Matt Cooke, Ben Lovejoy and Zbynek Michalek.

Some inside the locker room felt that the Penguins 3-2 OT win against the Boston Bruins on March 5th, could be a turning point for them. They have won 4 of 5 but the schedule gets much harder for Pittsburgh from here on out.

The Penguins have an off-day on Wednesday and are not back into action until Sunday, before things heat up for them.

Over the course of their next four games, Pittsburgh faces the New York Rangers (37-30-4, 78pts) and Detroit Red Wings (41-20-8, 90pts) in back-to-back games on Sunday and Monday, than face the Philadelphia Flyers (43-19-7, 93pts) and New Jersey Devils in back-to-back nights on Thursday and Friday.

For the Penguins to be a force in the playoffs, not only does Sidney Crosby need to return at somepoint in the post-season but Kris Letang has to get back to being the elite defenseman he was in the 1st half of the season.

Since Sidney Crosby has been sidelined (Jan. 6), Letang is a minus-11 in 30 games and since February 1st, Letang is also a minus-11 during that span and has only collected 4 points (21 games).

It hasn't just been about the stats. His play has been erractic and a big turnover or two seems to be there just about every game of late from Letang.

It's time for some of the local papers to stop the Norris Trophy talk and I've felt that for a few weeks now but the buzz around the league from outsiders is that he remains very much in the mix. One reason for that is most voters don't see Letang play on a nightly basis and his play in the first half appears to be out-weighing his lackluster play for at least a month in a half now.