Penguins/NHL
The Penguins continue to shuffle their lines and there‚Äôs a shakeup on the first line, while Petr Sykora’s absence has been Janne Pesonen’s gain. Plus why is Kris Beech a no show to WBS and who centered the Penguins fourth line in practice? Read more for the latest
Pascal Dupuis played on the top line for three games in the preseason but that appears to be it for now. Head coach Michel Therrien has moved Ruslan Fedotenko up to the 1st line. Dupuis has been skating with Cooke and Talbot. Janne Pesonen has received some valuable ice time playing with Evgeni Malkin according to a source. My source tells me Pesonen fit in well playing with Malkin in practice and looks to be a better fit at right wing. The Penguins plan is to use Pesonen as a situational player. The Penguins will not make an official decision on Pesonen until later in the week.
Sources will not confirm nor deny reports that Sergei Gonchar could officially be out for up to 6 months. With injuries I like to wait until the team makes an official announcement but if this is the case the Penguins now have a lot of cap room and according to sources Shero will get creative. The Penguins will go with they have for the time being but they will be in the market for an veteran offensive defenseman. Shero is a big fan of the Anaheim Ducks model of loading up their blueline with offensive defensemen.
All 11 players cleared waivers. Kris Beech is a no-show and may not report to WBS . Beech is furious that he did not get picked up. His agent made it sound like over the weekend that there was a taker for Beech. Looking into what happened.
Reports coming back to me indicate Tyler Kennedy continues to get a strong look at center. The 4th line has seen a few different combinations but in today’s practice I’m told Kennedy centered Bissonnette and Thomas.
