Heading into this season, the Penguins were widely regarded as the top team in the NHL.\u00a0 Numerous media members including writers at The Hockey News, ESPN and NHL.com picked the Penguins to win the Stanley Cup based on the idea that last year’s team was only derailed because of injuries.\u00a0 This year, the general consensus appears to be, “if the Penguins are healthy, they have to be the favorite to win it all.”<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this year is starting to look a lot like last year.<\/p>\n
When Sidney Crosby returned from his ten month absence from hockey to face the New York Islanders on November 21st, the Penguins finally had their starting lineup together; a lineup that Penguins fans hope to see engraved on the Stanley Cup this year.\u00a0 The Penguins beat the Islanders 5-0 and went on a mini-run of 3-0-1 in their next four games.\u00a0 In those games, the lines looked like this:<\/p>\n
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis<\/p>\n
Neal-Malkin-Sullivan<\/p>\n
Cooke-Staal-Kennedy<\/p>\n
Adams-Park-Vitale<\/p>\n
Michalek-Martin<\/p>\n
Orpik-Letang<\/p>\n
Niskanen-Engelland<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since their overtime win against Montreal on November 26th, the Penguins have slowly started tapping back into their minor league call-ups at Wilkes-Baare to fill holes left by injured players.\u00a0 Kris Letang, Zbynek Michalek, Sidney Crosby and Rob Bortuzzo are all out against the Islanders tonight due to concussion-like symptoms.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Deryk Engelland returns after a two game absence while Richard Park will be held out with a hopeful return Tuesday night against Detroit.<\/p>\n
And then there’s Jordan Staal who, until his morning skate today, was ready to play as the second line center before leaving the ice with a lower body injury.\u00a0 While his status is day-to-day, it is somewhat unnerving to see Staal miss more time after missing half of last year with foot and hand injuries.\u00a0 Especially when he started his career with a streak of 358 consecutive games played.\u00a0 This season, Jordan Staal has 18 points in 27 games including 12 goals.\u00a0 Jason Williams has been called up from Wilkes-Baare to fill Staal’s spot.<\/p>\n
Last season, the Penguins had lengthy injuries to Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz, Zybnek Michalek, Dustin Jeffrey and Paul Martin.\u00a0 While Malkin’s reconstructed knee appears to be holding up, Crosby’s concussion symptoms might be returning after he took an elbow to the head in Monday night’s loss to Boston.\u00a0 While this recent removal from play looks to be just a precaution, Penguins fans can’t help the feeling, “here we go again.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heading into this season, the Penguins were widely regarded as the top team in the NHL.\u00a0 Numerous media members including writers at The Hockey News, ESPN and NHL.com picked the Penguins to win the Stanley Cup based on the idea that last year’s team was only derailed because of injuries.\u00a0 This year, the general consensus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professional"],"yoast_head":"\n