DETROIT -- In only eight days, the Penguins will open their 51st season, which means there isn't much time for management to sort through final roster decisions.
Which should mean, in turn, that plenty of weight would have been placed on the performances of three pivotal forwards -- Scott Wilson, Tom Kuhnhackl and Greg McKegg -- in the 4-1 preseason loss to the Red Wings on Monday night at the new Little Caesars Arena.
Except, of course, that it's preseason, right?
"It's another time you're on the ice for your team," Wilson was telling me after scoring the visitors' lone goal. "It's a chance to compete."
Compete, indeed.
The goaltenders are settled. The defensemen are mostly settled, presuming that both Chad Ruhwedel and Matt Hunwick make the Nos. 6 and 7 spots in one order or the other. But the forwards are left with two openings, based on my conversations with the Penguins' decision-makers on the trip:
Guentzel-Crosby-Sheary
Rust-Malkin-Kessel
Hagelin-SOMEBODY-Hornqvist
Wilson/Kuhnhackl-Rowney-Reaves
(Pay little heed to the actual lines. I wrote out that exercise primarily to illustrate need and depth.)
I'll get to the third-line center in a spell, but the most glaring and most undecided battle is that last one for fourth-line left winger between Wilson and Kuhnhackl.
Or, to put it more clearly, between which of Wilson and Kuhnhackl is a better penalty-killer.
The short answer to that is Kuhnhackl. It's most definitely the short answer for management, which has been so delighted by his short-handed work after extensive sessions the previous two summers with Clark Donatelli, the head coach at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. It wasn't a strong suit at all until then, but it's sure become one now and, as if to underscore that, Kuhnhackl completed a natural hat trick of preseason insanity Monday night with his third shot-block in as many games. This one came with one knee to the ice and a blistering slap shot by Detroit's Martin Frk late in the third period, an episode that, like the other two, had him wobbling back to the bench.
I'd hoped to speak with Kuhnhackl, but he was -- yeah, guess -- on the athletic trainer's table.
I did speak with Wilson, at length, as he was kind enough to set down his protein shake for a spell:
