Penguins/NHL
Beau Bennett has maybe put seven to eight really good games on tape throughout his NHL career and Tuesday night’s performance might have been the best game he’s played in the NHL.
So it was only fitting that Bennett would be ruled out of the lineup 36 hours later.
There are players like Bennett in almost every major sport. They have the talent and ability to be a professional athlete but they don’t have the body to hold up.
For Bennett it’s been a struggle to put 15 to 20 games together and that goes back to his collegiate career where he was often injury prone, dealing with knee and wrist issues.
Those wrist, knee issues have continued for Bennett during his NHL career and this latest injury is said to be a re[hide]curring injury that has bothered Bennett in the past and the Penguins learned about the injury on Wednesday when Bennett asked to come in and be evaluated, a source says.
Pending results of an MRI, early examinations have the Penguins believing the injury isn’t a day-to-day one.
Bennett showed no signs of being injured during Tuesday’s game, taking his last shift with 40 seconds left and coming off the ice during a whistle with 12 seconds left.
THE PENGUINS LEFT WING PROBLEM
The Penguins had gone into the season with quite a few left wing options but it’s evolved as a situation of having more quantity than quality.
Chris Kunitz just can’t finish any more to be a legitimate top line winger, Sergei Plotnikov is a bottom-6 guy, David Perron is what he is, while Beau Bennett when healthy is better on the right side and Daniel Sprong is a natural right winger and it’s unknown if he could transition to the left side.
Eric Fehr when healthy is winger capable but he’s played the right side when used on the wing.
Since the 2009 season, Pascal Dupuis has primarily been a right winger, though, he will play the left side when healthy.
Wide Open Game Tonight?
The Ottawa Senators come into tonight’s game 14-0-3 in their last 17 road games and they like to take chances and push the play. Ottawa gives up a lot of shots and this should certainly be a game tonight that see’s both teams trading chances.
The advance statistics for the Senators are poor despite their 3-1 start. Ottawa, though, is a sneaky team upfront as the Penguins saw first hand in an overtime loss to the Senators late last season where the Penguins were playing lock down defensive hockey then Ottawa took over in the third for the comeback win.
The Senators have a lot of speed upfront, area to watch for the Penguins, and have that presence of youth at the forward position you need in today’s NHL. Ottawa had 5 players last season 25 years old or younger that scored 20+ goals.
LINEUP DECISIONS
Bobby Farnham has been expected to draw into the lineup tonight but Bryan Rust has arrived in Pittsburgh and will be available to play tonight.
Where Daniel Sprong is used tonight will be interesting to watch. He’s the ideal candidate to replace Bennett on the third line but the staff has been so concerned about Sprong’s play away from the puck, they’ve been leery about giving him heavy minutes.
The goaltending matchup tonight will be Craig Anderson vs Marc Andre Fleury.
Anderson is 5-5-2 with a 2.28 GAA and .929 save percentage in his career vs Pittsburgh.
Fehr about two weeks out
Barring no setbacks, Eric Fehr should be ready to play in around two weeks. The target date internally has been early November for a few weeks now.
“I’m in bag skating shape, not game playing shape,” Fehr said today. “There’s a big difference. Anyone who’s played hockey knows the difference. It’s going to be great to get a feel for the game and get the timing back. With that, hopefully the game speed will come.” [/hide]
