Penguins/NHL
Latest NHL Buzz
If the NHL doesn’t participate in the 2018 Olympics, league officials are more than confident there won’t be any kind of mass exodus among star players that would be a black eye for the NHL.
Alexander Ovechkin is going to go and some Russians may follow him, Evgeni Malkin among them, but there’s no fear among Gary Bettman and his co-horts in the league office that prominent North American star players and faces of the league like Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane would go if the NHL wasn’t participating.
In fact top league officials don’t believe there would be one North American player that would go. The Russian players going, the league doesn’t really care.
This is the primary reason Gary Bettman is taking such a hard line on the NHL’s desire of not going to Olympics.
If they feared a Sidney Crosby would be going that would lead to others following him, then things may be different.
Penguins on the hunt for a d-man?
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The Penguins brass isn’t alarmed by the Penguins ranking 23rd in the NHL in goals against per game that they are determined to add a defenseman by the March 1 deadline. Like many teams, the Penguins are monitoring a few potential targets and are not ruling out going that route, but the poor goals against numbers is being more attributed internally to just a lack of a consistent commitment from the forwards in playing their own end and defending the neutral zone to the ability we saw late last season.
If the Penguins don’t add an impact defenseman before the deadline, so few are actually out there, what the Bruins and Blues losses last week did show is how reliant the Penguins are going to be again on Kris Letang and why the Penguins chances of repeating will come down to whether the forward group can stay motivated and committed to playing all three zones to the ability they did last spring where the Penguins 200 ft game just transformed at the perfect time into a team that played suffocating defense due to their speed in tracking the puck. It’s rarely been there so far this season, which isn’t surprising.
Maatta – Daley pairing https://t.co/VXdqvbuvdg pic.twitter.com/okXGxAmIc4
— Insidepghsports (@Insidepghsports) January 31, 2017
The Olli Maatta – Trevor Daley pairing got exposed mightily in the Bruins game where Boston had favorable line matches with their bigger forwards against the pairing. Video above, during the third period there was a 40 second shift in the offensive zone for Boston, where the Bruins abused Maatta along the wall as his limitations about big power forwards is going to continue to be there due to a lack of strength, foot speed.
The Penguins would go on to score about two minutes later. This team can hide so much at times.
Long-term Goaltending Decisions being made in the East
The New York Islanders don’t know where they’ll be playing in a few seasons as the Barclays Center is kicking them out, but they are committing to Thomas Greiss as their No. 1 goaltender beyond this season. The Islanders have signed Greiss to a three year extension worth $10 million, per Arthur Staple of Newsday.
Another former Penguin who has shined in goal this season is also close to getting a commitment beyond this season.
The Senators and Mike Condon’s reps have been talking an extension for about three weeks now and a deal is expected to get done soon, somewhere in the $2 million range (AAV).
More and more teams committing to not putting big dollars into goaltending after past failed experiments.[/hide]
