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 lose to Caps

At the end of the day the Penguins let too many early chances go…Sidney Crosby had a breakaway but couldn’t score. Jordan Staal came down on a 2 on 1 and was rebuffed. On and on, so it goes.

--Rob Scuderi caught a shot in the face and was obviously out for the game. Dropping to five defensemen for the rest of the night on back to back games may not be an excuse they’ll use, but it looked like it took it’s toll.

--Hold your breath on the Crosby injury front, looked like Sid was in a lot of pain. Hopefully we’ll hear something today and it will be good news…Remember with the All-Star break the Penguins only play three games in the next 13 days.

--For the chances the Penguins failed on, the Caps seemed to put them in. There were certainly no shortage of weak calls (for both teams) to give each other’s power-plays chances to separate. Credit the Caps on this night for doing that.

--The Malkin/Ovechkin angle is fascinating. We can’t remember two players so good just going after each other so personally. It elevates both of their games too, with three combined goals on 22 shots. This could be the angle of the Olympics, how the two countrymen interact and coexist.

--You still get the feeling this team is missing that certain something, but what is it? Sergei Gonchar can do a lot of things, but playing the wing is not one of them. Ray Shero’s inactivity is starting to hurt the team. No one wants him to make a move just to make a move, but at some point he’s gotta step up to the plate and make something happen. Is it fire the coach? Is it shaking the team up with a trade? Hey we don’t have the answers, but “do nothing” seems to be the wrong one. The season is slipping away.

--Finally, eye rolls on Ted Leonsis taking swipes at the Pensblog and then follow up by tooting his own team's blogosphere for being "sophisticated". (Side note: we still can't find the page in the sophistication manual where it says you can call someone a clown?) It's doubtful he'd be crowing like this if the Penguins had won yesterday. But the Caps carried the play so give the man his day.

Still, it's the Pensblog, what do you expect? They "job" everyone all the time, themselves included. The Pensblog is like a juvenile George Carlin--it's profane, it's shocking, it's loud. Japers Rink is like a hip network news show that's always a good read. Both are excellent in their own regards, but they have different ways and different methods. There's no shortage of analytical, even-handed Penguins blogs that offered accounts of the game that Ted would have found a little more mature, but it seemed like he wanted to target the Pensblog and get off a shot while he could at an entire fanbase while he was at it. Classy indeed.

Slugger Ruslan Fedotenko out, Minard up

(image from the Pensblog)

The look on the Penguins faces on the bench is priceless. Miroslav Satan doesn’t seem too impressed though. But then again Satan hasn’t really been that much of anything inside a rink in quite a while.

Ruslan Fedotenko out 4-6 weeks on a broken hand from Colby Armstrong’s beak? Ouch. Rusty should leave the fighting to the big dogs. The shame too is Fedotenko was playing good hockey on the “European line” with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora.

To replace Fedotenko, Chris Minard has been re-called. Minard’s scoring at an Ovechkin-esque rate: 26 goals in 30 games. Unfortunately when he’s been in the bigs Head Coach Michel Therrien—in all his wisdom, has given Minard 8 minutes a night, primarily playing with guys like Eric Godard. This time it should be different, Minard has been a pure goal scorer at every level. During the NHL lockout he scored 49 goals (in 69 games) playing with a playmaking center in Scott Gomez. Sure it was the ECHL, but still, if you can play with talented players it shows, despite the level of competition. With such few Penguins winger actually acting like they know how to play hockey, why not give Minard (now seasoned with 22 career NHL games) a legit shot at a chance on a scoring line.

If Therrien is smart, he'll make it happen. If he's lucky, Minard will somehow pinball around and end up on a top line with all the combination of switches. It's bound to happen, right?

Whitney to take injured Letang's place

Think Ryan Whitney's return from injury tonight would mean less injured defensemen? Not yet:

The decision on which defenseman to sit to make room for Whitney in the lineup was taken out of Therrien's hands. Kris Letang will not play after leaving last night's win at Buffalo with an unspecified injury, apparently the result of being hit by a shot. Therrien described's Letang's status as day to day.

It's seemed like Letang has taken a lot of little bumps and bruises lately, from watching games he's been hobbled or have to double over on the bench quite a few times lately. Hopefully he'll be feeling better after the two day Christmas holiday to come back soon.

The Walking Wounded

Blog buddy Ben Lovejoy has been recalled (maybe the Pens saw our prospect update)....Which means that maybe Hal Gill can't go tonight.

Got us to thinking, the injury bug hasn't been kind to the team closest to us and our favorite team. So, in a pickup game (at 100%), who ya got if these two lineups met each other? It's sad that you can almost make lineups...

Washington Capitals *
Poti-Green
Erskine-Schultz
Sloan


Pittsburgh Penguins
Gonchar-Gill
Whitney-Boucher
*Pseudo-retired Brian Pothier not included because face it, he's finished.

Banged up Brigade

After last night's 3-2 gimmick loss to the Rangers you can add Tyler Kennedy and Mike Zigomanis to the band of injured players quickly piling up on the Pens...And apparantely Phillipe Boucher is on the IR now as well. Add that to franchise goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and top defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.

Both injuries are undisclosed, but rumor has it Mr. Kennedy has already flown back to Pittsburgh to have a leg examined and could miss several weeks. Zigomanis is listed as "probable" so perhaps he will be able to win faceoffs tonight.

There will certainly be no empathy coming from the Carolina Hurricanes and old/new head coach Paul Maurice tonight, but hey, it's worth pointing out. Janne Pesonen and Chris Minard have gotten the call.

Tonight's projected lines, from the main site are:

Talbot-Crosby-Satan
Fedotenko-Malkin-Sykora
Dupuis-Staal-Cooke
Pesonen-Minard-Godard

---
Minard and Pesonen have played and played well all season long (no one in the AHL has more goals than Minard so far). But why keep Pesonen on the 4th line? We can tell that Mike Therrien doesn't trust Pesonen, doesn't know him well enough to give him the added responsibility of playing much. It's something that pretty much all new players to Therrien have to do; prove themselves on the ice, especially defensively before more icetime is given.

Another wrinkle to watch: Kennedy was being used on the top power play. Who gets the call now to join Crosby, Malkin, Satan and Alex Goligoski? We'd bet Staal and Fedotenko are the likely choices.

Fedotenko's had a great game, a lot of effort out of him. The recent benchings and line-demotions seem to have upped his game in recent days, hopefully something he can continue.

Fleury injured

Uh oh, MAF-3000 is injured:

"[Marc-Andre Fleury]'s not going to play (Tuesday)," head coach Michel Therrien said. "It's not a major injury but we don't want to take any risks. That's why we want to be really cautious with his injury."

Therrien confirmed that Fleury suffered the injury late in Saturday's game against the Buffalo Sabres. Fleury still played the entire game. If he isn't healthy enough to backup Dany Sabourin on Tuesday night then the Penguins will re-call a goalie from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Dispite the assurances of Therrien, we wonder if this is something that Fleury has been fighting through for a while; although he played well in the Buffalo game Saturday night, his GAA was over 3.00 the previous five starts, whereas he only had one 3.00+ night in his first 8 outings of the season. Yes, crazy to believe that a coach with absolutely no reason to tell the truth might be bending the situation for his own good, but hey.

Regardless, it’s nice to have a backup who is really clicking right now. Dany Sabs personal stats are 3-1, 1.68 GAA and a .942 save % and even more importantly he has to have confidence and the trust of his teammates for his incredible mop-up duty in the Philadelphia game, topped off of course by the five shootout saves in a row.

But despite how well Sabourin has been, it wouldn't serve the Penguins well if their #1 franchise goalie was out another 6-8 weeks like last season....Hopefully Therrien was telling the truth when he said that this injury doesn't look too serious.

Sydor for Boucher and the implications that follow...

Sooner or later you had to figure Darryl Sydor would be waived or traded. Sydor wants to play, and unfortunately for him with the emergence of young defensemen Kris Letang and Alex Goligoski over the past two seasons the reality was clear: Sydor just isn’t among the top 6 defensemen the Penguins have anymore. To his credit Sydor was the ultimate professional while going through this frustrating time. While others in his shoes coughMark Recchicough often loudly voiced displeasure and anger at having a diminished role; Sydor kept quiet and continued to be a positive example to the boys in the room. The leadership he brought off the ice, especially lately, was very commendable and he deserves much respect for that and we wish him well in Dallas.

On the other hand, we welcome Phillipe Boucher. This is an interesting acquisition; right handed defensemen are in short supply and Boucher did score 19 goals two season ago before battling all sorts of injuries. If nothing else, Boucher should provide a little more “oomph” on the power-play than say, Brooks Orpik, and hopefully steady what’s been, at times a shaky unit on the man advantage. If Boucher can remain healthy (and obviously that’s a big if) he could be a key player down the stretch.

Our forward thinking mind though can’t help but wonder what will happen when Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar return. Whitney is already practicing and should be back sometime in December—though it is too early to say if that will be in the earlier or later part of the month. Gonchar is still in a sling and no where close to coming back, but he should be around come March. It’s a great thing to have a surplus of defensemen at the NHL, especially given the injuries that can happen at any given moment. But having too many NHL caliber players could poison the drinking water—like it may have if Sydor wasn’t such a good sport—and that would be a terrible thing. Boucher, for instance, has said that he is playing for a contract next year and we can’t imagine him being happy or quiet if he’s the odd man out. A lot of the logjam has been created by Goligoski establishing himself as a full-time NHL defenseman right off the bat. If his play wasn’t at such a high level it would be easy to demote him to the minors for further work. But that probably isn’t an option at this point.

So which two of the eight defensemen (this includes Whitney) are the odd men out? Surely not a healthy Whitney or Orpik. Letang’s played well in an expanded role, and as mentioned, Goligoski has been awesome. The team has been very high on Gill (remember Therrien called him a top 4 guy a couple weeks ago) so seemingly he’s in too. This would leave one playing spot for three veteran defensemen: Boucher, Rob Scuderi and Mark Eaton. Eaton’s had a rough season so far and Scuderi, though a solid shot-blocker and reliable guy, is a 5/6 guy that could be replaceable.

If all are healthy, would another trade be coming? In that case it would seem that Eaton or Scuderi would be the most likely candidates.

Whitney-Orpik
Gill-Letang
Goligoski-Boucher

That’s probably how we would line them up, provided Boucher plays well. We realize the risks in looking even that far down the line, but what do you think? Sooner or later when reinforcements trickle back in the Penguins are going to have some decisions to make.

Crosby out of practice, questionable Saturday

From the PG:

Sidney Crosby sat out the Penguins' practice today and is questionable for their game on Long Island tomorrow night because of an undisclosed injury.

A decision on whether Crosby will play against the New York Islanders likely will be made after the game-day skate.

Although he did not participate in the regular workout at the Mellon Arena today, Crosby was on the ice for a power play session beforehand.

Sid did look like he was skating very well last night (like when he sprung himself and Max Talbot on the short-handed 2 on 1) and he felt well enough to take a slapshot towards the end of the game on a powerplay. But for some reason it did sort of look like he wasn't his usual self, despite the fact he seemed to be moving freely and generally doing the things he does...

It's probably clear whatever he tweaked last week in Phoenix isn't 100%, and if there's a game to miss over it, surely it's against the lowly Isles before the war of the worlds that will be Tuesday night in Detroit.

Still the last thing the Penguins need are more injuries and they're lucky that Kris Letang was able to pick himself off the ice and carry on after being flattened by, to Letang's point of view, surely must have been a large truck of some sort.

Hopefully Crosby will shake this quickly, but even he must miss a game Evgeni Malkin--21 points in 13 games this season, in fact atleast point in 12 of 13 games (and nine straight)-- is easily the best "2nd" center in the league.

The Change We Need...

Like a machine not firing on all cylinders, things just aren’t adding up for the Penguins. It’s frustrating to watch and it’s frustrating for them to go through right now. There’s a variety of problems: not enough puck possession, not enough shots, too many shots against, bad penalties, not converting rare scoring chances, losing 50/50 pucks, losing key faceoffs that lead to goals, apparent lack of effort for most periods, and the list could go on and on and on. In fact, if it weren’t for the sterling work of Marc-Andre Fleury and Dany Sabourin this 5-4-2 team probably would be about a 2-9-0 team.

But before we all jump into the deep end of despair check that calendar…That’s right it still says October and no team ever won—or loss, a Stanley Cup eight months before they give it out.

It’s obvious though something isn’t clicking, in two sentences Sidney Crosby gave to the newspapers he used the word “urgency” four times, as in what the Penguins aren’t showing out there but need to be. As if things couldn’t be worse, Crosby didn’t play much of the 3rd period after appearing to have some sort of rib/torso injury that he would only specify as a little “discomfort”. It appears it should be a day-to-day thing, which is a good thing.

So what’s missing this year, why the lack of urgency? Is it simply all the new faces adapting to the system the Pens play? Undoubtedly the injuries to the top two defensemen on the team is a part of it, but the season would be lost if the Penguins hang on the crutch and wait for them to return.

Here’s three options the Pens have…It’s clear something is needed to kick-start them, but any of the proposed solutions could spell doom.

1—Fire the coach
Michel Therrien has always had his detractors and perhaps this time they’re right. He doesn’t look like he has control of the team, surely they’re not operating the way he wants them to. The coach’s job is to keep a team in game shape and prepared for the opponent. The Penguins don’t look motivated, they don’t really look prepared. In hockey coach’s come and go with the seasons, and when a team is struggling it sure is easier to replace the coach than the 12-15 disappointing players. But dismissing Therrien would be a huge push on the panic button, something that might not fly with a relatively young team that’s really only had one head coach at the NHL level.

2—Pull a trade
Jay Feaster, a knowledgable and respected hockey man, is saying the Penguins are having discussions with the Thrashers and he used the word “blockbuster”. At this point that could only mean one name: Ilya Kovalchuk. Jordan Staal+Kris Letang+a pick (and maybe Darryl Sydor to even out the salaries) could get it done. Is it worth it? Evgeni Malkin’s contract kicks in next year and that would mean the Pens are paying three forwards $24.9 million, add in other salaries of Fleury, Whitney and Brooks Orpik and that’s $37.65 million for just six players, with no guarantee the salary cap will rise in this rough economic time. Then after next year Kovalchuk would be a free agent and probably walk to the highest bidder, which surely the Penguins won’t be. Plus just nine months after the Marian Hossa deal are we ready to trade with Atlanta again? And would they part with their lone star a year and a half before they really have to?

3—Ride it out
The most likely option is the simplest, every team is forced to face adversity and this frustrating stretch isn’t the worst thing that could happen to a club. The players need to band together, hold themselves accountable and start chipping in. Down 2-1 last night, for instance, the Penguins had a 5 on 3 powerplay. They score and suddenly the momentum and energy is reclaimed by the Penguins. But guys like Malkin and Alex Goligoski couldn’t orchestrate it, they couldn’t finish it. Execution is the difference between winning and losing and, other than the goalies, no player can really claim to be happy with their season to this point.

Dupuis out, the next Robbie Brown up?

JB brings it, as usual...Pascal Dupuis is out tonight and Chris Minard (7 goals in 7 AHL games) is up with the big Penguins...

If Minard does get the spot on Crosby's line, people will scoff. They'll say Pittsburgh must be desperate if they're putting a career minor leaguer in that role. They'll note that Minard is 26 and was never drafted and played in places like Pensacola, San Angelo and Anchorage on his way to the AHL. That, to me, is snobbery at best and bigotry at worst. What difference does it make where he came from? If he can play, he can play.

People will say Minard is too slow to keep up with Crosby, but that's not true. When WBS did its skills competition last year, Minard was second in the fastest skater contest, by one-thousandth of a second, to Jonathan Filewich. He can skate.

I'm not saying Minard is going to become an NHL all-star. In fact, I wonder if he can get his shot off against stronger, quicker NHL defensemen. But he's done everything he's been asked to do the last year-plus. At a time when the parent club's offense is struggling, it's worth giving him a chance in a scoring role. Who knows? He could become Crosby's Robbie Brown.

We would advocate giving Minard a shot with Crosby. In the lockout year, Minard played with Scotty Gomez in Alaska of the "East" Coast Hockey league and scored 49 goals in 69 games. Granted, the level of talent was no where near NHL caliber, but the stats are what they are; no one else on that team had more than 28 goals. Gomez incidentially went an Adam Oates-esque 13g, 73a in 61 games if you were wondering.

Dupuis was practicing with Crosby before leaving practice after being hit with a puck, so it would reduce the line juggling at least to slide him into the vacated slot. HCMT, of all people, of course is not afraid to switch everything up though, so who the hell knows what the lines may look like come 10 PM eastern tonight. Minard can shoot and he’s proven can play with a premier playmaking center in Gomez, why not give him a crack, if only for a night, to see if he can do it at the NHL level.

Sydor requests trade

According to the Trib, Darryl Sydor has asked the Pens for a trade.

Not shocking, even with Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney out with injuries, Sydor couldn’t find his way into the lineup due mainly to rookie Alex Goligoski playing so well at the NHL level. Further, sooner or later Gonchar and Whitney will re-join the team and that’s just going to push Sydor even further down the depth chart, if not off the team entirely.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that Sydor has seen the writing on the wall and requested a change of venue. The bigger question is, at 36 years old, are there any takers for him? Surely the Penguins would be willing to shed Sydor (and his $2.5 million salary) for little more than a late draft pick or far-flung prospect.

Sydor hasn’t been ineffective when he has been in the lineup but it is clear time is starting to pass him by and he’s not the player he once was. Still, it’s hard not to think he could be a 5/6 defensemen on any number of NHL teams and as injuries mount up perhaps another team will be willing to get Sydor.

Yay another injured defenseman

Injury strikes again, this time the USS Hal Gill is pulling into port for repairs..

Gill did not participate in the Penguins' practice at Mellon Arena today, and it is not known when he will be able to resume playing.

Again the Penguins are lucky to not only have the youth of players like 21 year old Kris Letang and 23 year old NHL rookie Alex Goligoski playing and playing well but also to tap a guy with 1328 reg. season + playoff games as a replacement. Darryl Sydor's only played two games, but his experience and mindset should benefit the young club that's given up a ton of shots on net lately.

Gill's loss could be a major one though, the big guy's been very reliable, doing a lot of little things to help the team win. Gill's 4:56 per game of penalty-kill time is second on the team (to partner Rob Scuderi) as well as second on the team with 16 blocked shots.

Talbot/Fisher injury updates

Mike Fisher and Maxime Talbot are a lot alike. Both play center for their respective teams, neither are the most skilled players on the roster and both are routinely over-shadowed by more heralded teammates. But ask any player or observant fan and they’ll tell you that a guy like Fisher is basically the backbone of the Senators, while Talbot is almost as important for the Penguins on and off the ice.

For once, good news for the Pens when it comes to injuries, as Talbot has been medically cleared to play after suffering a bruised thigh last week. Fisher, however, left with a groin problem in Ottawa’s 4-1 win over Frolunda (Sweden) and his status for this weekends games are in doubt.

If Fisher couldn’t go that would be a huge hole for Ottawa to fill. After Jason Spezza, they don’t have much in the way of center depth minus Fisher. They do have Chris Kelly and could throw Antoine Vermette out there, but neither can bring what Fisher can to the table.

"All right, let's not panic. I'll make the money by selling one of my livers. I can get by with one."

The noted philospher Homer J Simpson provides us with the calming title, so hey, let's look at the positives:

--The Penguins could be getting a great pickup near the trading deadline when Gonchar returns! --Even more ice time for Kris Letang!
--Alex Goligoski's going to make the team for sure!

Now, the panic:

WHO'S GOING TO PLAY 26 MINUTES A NIGHT IN ALL SITUATIONS AND TRY TO MATCHUP AGAINST THE OTHER TEAM'S NUMBER ONE THREAT!!!


It's okay boys and girls, hands off the panic buttons (until the games begin, at least).

Orpik-Eaton
Gill-Letang
Goligoski-Sydor


Do it.

Gonchar out "indefinitely"

From the main page:

"Sergei will continue to be evaluated as our team medical personnel consider several treatment options," Shero said. “In the meantime, we will look for our other defensemen to step up and fill the void created by his absence.”

Gonch went down on September 20th, so even if he would be out for eight weeks that would mean missing 13 regular season games, only three of them against divisional opponents. But that eight week period is totally arbitrary, indefinite could mean shorter, could mean longer.

Now the Pens are looking at starting the season without their top two point scorers on the blueline, and perhaps more importantly guy in Gonchar who's served admirably all-around. Don't sleep on the fact he was 4th in the Norris Trophy voting last season, and if it weren't for biases in preconceived notions on how he's a more "offensive" defenseman it could have been higher.

This opens up not just a huge opportunity for Kris Letang (6 goals and 11 assists in 63 NHL games last season) and Alex Goligoski (28 points in 23 AHL playoff games) but a responsibility to step in and produce. Goligoski has just three NHL games under his belt but is now 23 years old and has the seasoning to be able to play at this level. You can never be sure if a young defenseman will sink or swim at the NHL level (hello Noah Welch) but Goose has the track record to do well.

Surely it's better to be without key players at the beginning of the season rather than at the end of it--provided the choice is given, but all the same it's best not to be in that situation in the first place. Perhaps this early season adversity will help the Penguins get over whatever sense of entitlement they may have carried in attitude for thinking this year's journey deep into the playoffs will be as deep or as inevitable as the talent they have. It will make them work, and at the end that could pay off.

Uh oh, The Sarge is hurt

The last thing you want to see in exhibition games are injuries, and the Penguins appear to have a problem here with number 1 defenseman Sergei Gonchar going down with what's believed to be a separated shoulder.

Since Gonchar plays 26+ minutes a night matched against the other teams' top forwards, and also eats significant time on the penalty kill and basically runs the Penguins successful powerplay.

Luckily, GM Ray Shero wanted to collect, and pretty much has succeeded in stockpiling 10 NHL capable defensemen, so even with Ryan Whitney's surgery recovery as well as losing Gonchar the Penguins still have some decent options.

Notably, prospect Alex Goligoski. After leading the AHL in scoring this past post-season (28 points in 24 games). If Gonchar is to miss any regular season time-- and it's still a little early to say the sky is falling-- the "Goose" is going to have to figure into the Penguins plans, or at least get the chance to prove that he is ready for the show.

And of course the young Kris Letang, already under increased responsibility with Whitney's absence, is going to be counted on as the team's premier offensive defensemen.

The sky isn't falling but potentially opening up the year without your top two offensive defensemen isn't anyone's idea of ideal. It's better to have these sorts of worries in September and October than in April and May but the health factor is there. Hopefully the Pens have weathered the worst part of the storm and can slip through the rest of the exhibition games unscathed.

Whitney to miss 3-5 months

Well, this sucks.

Ryan Whitney had surgery yesterday (Friday) to correct a nagging foot problem. Whitney is expected to be out 3-5 months, which puts the window of his return somewhere between mid November and January.

Bad news but not the worst. GM Ray Shero likes to keep 10 defensemen that can play in the NHL, and by the looks of it he has that by keeping Brooks Orpik and trading for Danny Richmond.

Losing Whitney is a blow, since many (including us) thought he would have a big-time bounce back season. Whitney played 5:14 a game on the power play (second on the team only to Sergei Gonchar) and 22:56 overall (again second on the team only to Gonchar). And despite being lamabasted by most Pens fans, Whitney still scored 12 goals (tied for 13th in the league) and tacked on 28 assists. Someone's got to pick up those minutes and that production.

Look no further than Kris Letang. The now 21 year old defenseman has more games under his belt and was gradually given more and more responsibility and ice over the course of last season. Letang averaged 18:09 a game and 2:35 on the PP. Expect those numbers to go up.

With the Penguins still boasting some fairly steady defensive defensemen on the roster (Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill even Daryl Sydor) the Penguins still have some breathing room. Talented prospect Alex Goligoski might now get a longer look in camp, as he is a smooth skating, puck moving offensively skilled defenseman.

So this isn't the worst news possible and at least happens with some time to let Whitney get his foot right and heal up.

Hold the phone, Holmstrom could be ok

Well, we might have gotten a little ahead of ourselves earlier today in ruling Tomas Holmstrom out for Game 4. From coach Mike Babcock's presser we learned that "Holmer" is a tough guy, the docs says he's doing well and Babs expects his top line plugger to play. Babcock also disclosed the injury of being a hamstring, but didn't say what leg or how severe it was.

As we said, we may not know the true answer until just before game-time. Holmstrom's hammy could be dangling by a thread (and being a hockey player, he'd probably still try to play) but who knows if he'll actually be in there until the official lineups are released a couple hours before game-time.

Holmstrom out for Game 4?

According to ESPN, Red Wings plugger/pest Tomas Holmstrom is not expected to be in the lineup for tomorrow night's Game 4. Holmstrom aggravated a lower body (believed to be hip, knee or sports hernia) when Hal Gill un-parked him from the front of the net.

The absence of Holmstrom shakes up the rest of Detroit's usual forward combinations...Here's how they looked at practice today according to Red Wings' beat writer Bruce MacLeod:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Cleary
Franzen-Hartigan (subbing for Filppula)-Samuelsson
Drake-Draper-Maltby
Hudler-Helm-McCarty

The ripple effect created by Holmstrom's absence is this: Kirk Maltby moves up from the fourth line to the third to replace Cleary. Darren McCarty goes back in the lineup on the fourth line.

No offense to the Red Wings, but two thirds of their 2nd line are Filppula and Samuelsson. In skill alone this is a huge boost for the Pens.

The bigger question becomes what happens if Holmstrom's knee/hip/groin/hernia has torn open and he'll be unavailable for more games (or the whole series) rather than just the next one. It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds. We never root for injuries or continued pain, but this is a fortunate occurrence for the Pens.