Another game, another injury. Or three.
The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-2 last night. Another great performance by James Neal and backup goaltender Brent Johnson gave the Penguins the win, despite scratching a near All-Star team for the game.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Brooks Orpik, Tyler Kennedy and Dustin Jeffrey sat out the game with injuries, while Kris Letang served the first of his two-game suspension. In addition, Marc-Andre Fleury was given the night off after playing in the team’s first of back-to-back games.
Speaking of back-to-back games, last night was the Penguins’ eighth game in 13 nights. The games have spanned four time zones already.
With the plethora of star injuries the team is dealing with and what is and has been arguably the toughest season-opening schedule in National Hockey League history, we might as well give Dan Bylsma the 2011-12 Jack Adams award right now.
Back to last night’s game. The Penguins lost Kris Letang’s replacement Brian Strait midway through the second period. Mad props to the Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin, who logged over 29 minutes of ice time with the Pens playing with five defensemen for most of the game.
Enforcer Steve MacIntyre took one shift for a grand total of 23 seconds of ice time, meaning the Pens essentially played with 11 forwards as well. At least that was by choice.
An apparent injury to Brent Johnson, however, wasn’t by choice. A Wild player crashed the net with about nine minutes remaining in the third period. Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen was sent spinning into Johnson, whose right leg got caught between Niskanen and the goalpost while the rest of his body spun into the net. Johnson lay on the ice unable to stand up for a solid ten seconds while Minnesota passed the puck around and tried to get shots into an essentially empty net.
Why the play wasn’t blown dead when it became obvious that Johnson couldn’t even standup is beyond me. How the Wild couldn’t score five-on-five in the offensive zone against no goaltender is also beyond me.
Johnson would stay in the game in a heroic act of mental and physical strength, stopping 24 of the 26 shots thrown his way overall.
Chris Kunitz, Jordan Staal (PP), Neal, and Pascal Dupuis (SH) were the goalscorers for Pittsburgh. Matt Cooke recorded two assists and now has six points in eight games. Dupuis also added an assist.
The 4-2 victory means the San Jose Sharks are the only team in the NHL whom Bylsma has never beaten.
In a somewhat encouraging statement, Bylsma said yesterday that the team could see the return of one of its injured players for Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.
It won’t be Sidney Crosby or Dustin Jeffrey, both of whom aren’t ready for game action yet. Orpik is progressing but not near a return either. That leaves Kennedy and Malkin as the best possibilites. Kennedy is currently listed as “doubtful” for the game, while Malkin is listed as……. “questionable.”
Let’s hope we see the return of Geno, but at this point anyone is welcome back into the lineup.
Fun Facts:
- The Penguins have now played 39 of their last 43 games without both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The team is 21-13-5 in those games.
- Alex Ovechkin has scored 26 goals in his last 73 games. Thanks to Josh Yohe at the Trib for that one.
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