M*A*S*H Unit

The PG reports the residual damage, and it's not pretty. 20% of players that pulled on a uniform last game aren't able to go due to injury (that's four players for you non math whizzes). Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, Rob Scuderi and Maxime Talbot, all out with various non-disclosed upper (Scuderi, Talbot) or lower (Crosby, Letang) body injuries.

Add them to Pascal Dupuis (leg/groin injury), faceoff king Mike Zigomanis (shoulder?), Ruslan "Ivan Drago" Fedotenko (hand) and Sergei Gonchar (shoulder) and that's 8 players (or 44% of the non-goalie lineup) that would be out there, if healthy.


Earlier this week the Columbus newspaper blog Puck Rakers compiled a list of man-games lost to injury. Pittsburgh came in fifth on the list for quantity and would have to rank higher than that for quality of players missed. As an example, Philadelphia had 213 missed man games to injury but that includes the entire seasons for human pylons Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher, two players stashed away on long-term injured reserve that the Flyers are not exactly missing.

Regardless, there's still a game to play with the players that are left. The seven minute man, Janne Pesonen, is back in town...Will Therrien be forced to give him a chance to sink or swim? At this point, why the hell not. It's not like any other winger is showing any offensive prowess (save Petr Sykora of course). Pittsburgh's Own Bill Thomas is back in the show as well. Thomas only has 14 points in 33 AHL games, unusual for a guy who scored 52 points in 75 AHL games last season. We think that they have been using him in more of a checking role and he probably is going to have to switch his game around in order to make it work at the highest level. It'll be interesting to see if he could have anything to offer.

Something we've been thinking about
--If you want to fire the coach, what are you going to do better? Here's how we'd line 'em up tonight:

Pesonen-Malkin-Sykora
Kennedy-Staal-Satan
Cooke-Jeffrey-Minard
Bissonnette-Thomas-Godard

Whitney-Orpik
Gill-Goligoski
Eaton-Boucher (shudder)

Yeah this is asking a lot of a guy like Pesonen to go from riding the buses in the minors to playing with the NHL’s point scoring leader, but Pesonen was a point scoring leader in his league last year, it’s not like he doesn’t have skill. Obviously if it’s clear Pesonen is out of place an adjustment to move someone else up (like Tyler Kennedy or Miroslav Satan) could be made.

For that very reason, it's time to end the Satan banishment to the lower lines. Sure he's been largely invisible in recent weeks and worthy of demotion. But on a night like tonight where so much firepower is out of the lineup, it's not a time for that. He's got to get more ice and he's got to make something happen with it.

And how much confidence do you have knowing that every member of the bottom four defensemen has been healthy scratches for multiple recent games. Hope the Whitney/Orpik combo is ready for big minutes, they’re surely going get them in all situations.

Pens waive Taffe, one step closer to losing Beech

Somewhat surprising news: the Pens have waived Jeff Taffe and intend to send him to the AHL if he goes unclaimed. Taffe carved out a pretty solid niche as a 4th line center that played responsible hockey in 45 NHL games last season and although he didn't touch the ice for a game in post-season play, we thought his place as 4th line center/13th forward was secure.

Bill Thomas and Paul Bissonnette though beat Taffe out, as the Penguins obviously must feel they have enough talent but not enough grit and toughness. Emergency goalie for the Sweden trip John Curry was also sent back to the AHL, as expected.

Taffe played in the first game in Sweden and even got some time in with the second powerplay unit before being a scratch in Game 2. We have to wonder if the coaches saw something they didn't like.

The Penguins roster now stands at 22 players, one less than the maximum. Did they waive Taffe to potentially put a claim in for one of the many veterans on waivers? Interesting.

Also since Kris Beech won't report to Wilkes-Barre, the team put him on unconditional waivers. He likely won't be claimed by anyone but this gives Pittsburgh an out to not pay him anymore as Beech tries to find a league over-seas to play in.

Bill Thomas is the new Ryan Malone

Some big shoes to fill, but for now at least 25 year old Bill Thomas is the newest Pittsburgh born representative of the Penguins.

An interesting signing, as Thomas could be a fringe NHL player for the Pens, or provide some scoring at the AHL level and be a decent mid-season callup option.

Thomas, a 6'1 185 winger, went undrafted to the NHL but still had a great career at the USHS and NCAA level. Phoenix signed him late in the 2005-06 season and Thomas had a decent go in a short stint [9 games, 1 goal, 2 assists]. Things seemed to continue to go well for Thomas, he scored 33 points [13 goals, 20 assists] in 47 games in San Antonio and was named to the AHL all-star game, of which he didn't participate since he was in Phoenix. That year for Phoenix, in 24 contests Thomas had 8 goals and 6 assists. That's a pace for 27 goals in a full season.

The wheels of his development were spinning last season, as Thomas was an "up and down" player between Phoenix and San Antonio. Most of it was down, as he only got 7 games in the NHL (pointless). The AHL numbers were good, he was 2nd on the team (to former Penguin Matt Murley) with 52 points [24 goals, 28 assists] in 75 games.

Bill Thomas became a Group VI unrestricted free agent. The definition in it's simplest form for a Group VI UFA is: it's for relatively younger guys who haven't played a certain number of NHL games (Ryan Lannon, Connor James and Nathan Smith qualified for it from the Pens). The purpose is to give guys who are about 25 and spent most of their careers in the minors a chance to find a fresh start in a new organization.

A knock on Thomas has been that he's not strong enough on the puck and while a skilled player, is he skilled enough to be a consistent top 6 forward every night at the NHL level? The answer to that seems to be in the negative. We still think Thomas is a good signing, he's young, shown flashes of great play in the NHL and could conceivably make the roster.