The Pittsburgh Penguins put together a stellar performance out of the break Tuesday night with a 3-0 shutout win over the Winnipeg Jets at PPG Paints Arena. While the mood in the Jets room was more of ‘they just couldn’t finish’ as Winnipeg out-chanced Pittsburgh 5 vs 5 in every key category, the eye test told a different story as it was a game the Penguins felt in control of from the very first minutes after puck drop An argument can made the Jets have overachieved thus far and are not a true upper tier team like the standings might currently say — what the Penguins showed again is a growing theme of how better competition has seen them put a blueprint on tape with a more structurally and systematic level of play –………..

Pens – Jets Fallout

— The split power plays were a huge success in the Penguins getting two points vs the Jets. The situation deserves a little run here to see how it goes. Can the coaching staff find a happy medium in properly allocating time and not be married to either unit? Hard to take a Sidney Crosby off the ice after just 45-50 seconds and distributing close to equal time for both units is easier said than done when you’re not awarded five-minute majors on a game-by-game basis…….

— Reilly Smith returned to the lineup, and everything continues to look to be in slow motion for the veteran forward. The second line of Smith – Malkin – O’Connor was below 37% in possession and out-chanced 11 to 4 during 5 vs 5 play against the Jets………

— Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is said to have gone to bat for Jeff Carter this summer with the new management team that Carter could still provide a valuable role to this team on and off the ice. It was sure looking dicey when it’s believed management asked for Carter To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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League Buzz: Penguins Likely to Trade Guentzel & Remain Buyers?

Even Kyle Dubas’ closest confidants don’t have a good read of how things will play out over the next month. What’s unlikely is the Penguins falling out of playoff contention to make things easy on Dubas & Co. With pressure from the head coach whose power in the organization might be second to just Sidney Crosby, to add at the deadline and who thinks it’s insane to be even considering a Jake Guentzel trade, multiple league sources have described the Penguins front office of being in an extremely difficult place where the group is facing internal pressure from a number of corners……….

— Jake Guentzel hit 500 games Tuesday night and having 219 goals through 500 games just sums up how great of a player he has been in Pittsburgh. As talk of the Penguins recently offering Jake Guentzel 6 years and around $8.5 million a year getting strongly debunked from both sides, it did not happen, a fascinating thing to watch is whether the respectful cat and mouse game between the Penguins and the Jake Guentzel camp goes all through the deadline. The Penguins in league circles have put out the message of while To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

[hide] One belief around the league continues to be the Penguins being in position to receiving offers that are going to be too good to pass up but barring a complete collapse in standings over the next month, any trade of Guentzel will have the Penguins having a plan in place to replace his production. A name to watch will be Seattle’s Jordan Eberle as Pittsburgh is getting a lot of play around the league of being a motivated buyer for a top-9 level forward whether it’s tied to a trade of Jake Guentzel or not. — Among the buzz around Guentzel: Colorado is in on everything big, so can never rule them out; Both Florida teams are getting some linkage on Guentzel [/hide] as the worst kept secret around the league is Guentzel being highly intrigued of playing in Florida, but a lot of buzz To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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