— Rumblings, Musings, Opinions —
Florida’s a Beast: There’s not a worst matchup for the Penguins in the Eastern Conference than the Florida Panthers. Following Pittsburgh’s 5-2 loss to the Panthers Wednesday night, talk about two vastly different styles in how each team is built. It’s very easily to see why the Panthers got through the Boston Bruins and the Eastern Conference last spring. The Panthers are a daunting team to go up against over seven games for anybody that’s going to see them………
Sell Baby Sell? Speaking of daunting, Kyle Dubas has a daunting task ahead of himself. Last night didn’t change much. Dubas knows he can’t double down on this group. This season is pretty close to being lost and Dubas has been prepared for about three different scenarios to go at the trade deadline. But let’s not kid ourselves, there is still intrigue in the organization that hitting on a few tweaks to the roster prior to the deadline and this summer that Pittsburgh could still bounce back and compete for a playoff spot next season. While the fan base might be down on him, I’ve consistently heard Penguin management believes Erik Karlsson and obviously Sidney Crosby are still high-level enough players that you have to give it another shot next season before an all-out blow it up. Management is said to regard Karlsson as the clear-cut 2nd most important player on this team and their To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Fixing Past Mistakes: Tallest task of Dubas if Pittsburgh does go the route of while any move this season will be with an eye on Re-tooling/Competing for a playoff spot next season, is fixing his mistakes and work some magic of making some net positives in moving disappointing players. The Ryan Graves and Reilly Smith acquisitions ending up being huge misses taking up over $10 million in cap space next season. Pittsburgh thought they found prime Brian Dumoulin 2.0 when they signed Graves, while for Smith few have any answers why it’s gone so wrong. Philosophical changes have to be made. This bottom-6 fascination of defensive minded forwards just doesn’t work when Pittsburgh has such a huge gap of having any physical/heavy style forwards on the team. Yet the Jesse Puljujarvi signing was another double down on defensive minded forward with limited offensive upside. Whether the head coach throws a fit or not, Pittsburgh has to start targeting different style of forwards……….
MORE BUZZ
— Buzz: A growing movement among decision makers in the organization is a likely push for Evgeni Malkin to become a full-time To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”! One prominent search firm NHL clubs often use is said to have Hextall on their list of candidates this summer……….Deadline Fodder: Marc Andre Fleury gave strong consideration to signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs in summer of 2022 before deciding to resign with the Minnesota Wild. If Fleury is traded at the deadline he will get to pick his destination……To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
