• Tonight begins what I legit hope will be my every-single-game-home-and-road coverage of the Penguins the rest of the way, with the NHL season resuming against the Devils -- 7:08 p.m., PPG Paints Arena -- amid their pursuit of a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
See, that's how the columnist gig goes: Migrate where it's hottest. And there can't be a bigger story we'll cover as a staff these next few weeks than whether these guys make it for the first time in four years, particularly given all the gloom-and-doom of this past summer.
I've booked everything more than a month out, Taylor Haase will be with me for the overwhelming majority of it, and we'll do our best to bring you ... well, what I'd like to think we usually do. Just twice as much.
• Now, as to whether or not they'll get there ...
Sidney Crosby'sout a minimum four weeks, per the team yesterday, because of the right knee injury sustained at the Olympics. And the usage of minimum as a descriptor, to me, resonated.
Why?
Well, without pretending to be a medical expert, the release also was noteworthy in that it reported no actual procedure on the knee, which absolutely would've been included, based on voluminous precedent, doubly so with Sid's stature. And if there's no procedure, exempting the imaging he had done in Italy, that'd almost certainly make the minimum-four-week prognosis a prescription as opposed to a prognosis. Meaning he HAS to stay out that long for the sprain/strain to heal properly. Just like Filip Hallander, with his blood clot, HAD to avoid heavy athletic activity for three full months, since that's how long he was prescribed blood thinners.
Make sense?
So no, I don't envision some heroic early return for Sid. Whereas I do envision ... Winnipeg?
The precise four-week mark from yesterday would be March 18, the day the Penguins would be completing the circle of a psychotic five-game trip from Raleigh to Las Vegas to Salt Lake City to Denver and for-real back to Raleigh. After that, there's the only two-day break of the entire month, followed by a March 21 return home against the Jets.
That meets the minimum, allows a relative minute to gear back up and ... eh, we'll see.
SYDNEY BLACKMAN / PENGUINS
Players skate with the Little Penguins after practice Wednesday in Cranberry, Pa.
• Sid spoke confidently yesterday of how his teammates will fare without him, and not without cause. I wrote it back in October, and I'll be louder now: It's a good hockey team.
"I think we've shown all year," he'd say, "that we've had injuries and guys have stepped up to get to where we're at at this point. I think it's because of our team play. I don't think it's been any one person. I think it's because, collectively as a group, we've found different ways to win, and different guys have stepped up. So, as long as we continue that and understand that, then I think we give ourselves a good chance. But it's going to be an important stretch here the next little bit. A lot of teams are trying to get points and in similar positions. But I think I'm just really confident as far as that's concerned."
The collective concept should be stressed: When the Penguins stick together, they succeed. And I don't mean in the sappy, syrupy way. I mean on the ice.
All four lines, all three defense pairings and both goaltenders need to do their part, and that's obvious. The special teams need to stay top-six in the league, and that's equally obvious. But more than anything, an aggressive, across-the-board attacking mindset -- the swarming thing I've been talking about since Madison Square Garden in early October -- absolutely has to be applied. Trust me, that's what Sid's referencing. That's what Dan Muse references when he speaks of a common approach. That's what they're all citing. Be all over everyone in all three zones. And maybe more than anything, ensure that all forwards are tracking back between the blue lines to stunt opposing rushes and return play the other way.
Not to sound disrespectful, but the Penguins can do that with or without Sid.
• They can score without Sid, too:
PENGUINS
They've even got, for the first time in forever, a young center who could pick up some of his minutes, his faceoffs, even time on the top power play:
PENGUINS
They'll be fine. And if and when they are, Sid will have had a little more than the equivalent of the break for his overall body than all the non-Olympians just had, right into the most rigorous stretch of the regular-season schedule ... and anything that might follow.
• Don't sweat Rickard Rakell at center. Those few times in Pittsburgh he's been needed there, he's been almost scary natural. Dude loves carrying the puck, and especially with a head of steam through the neutral zone. Just needs to get it at the right stride.
• If trying Rakell between Avery Hayes and Bryan Rust doesn't click for whatever reason, one of the many beauties of having a Ben Kindel is that he's plug-and-play pretty anywhere he's put.
Which, by the way, is why Kyle Dubas has no need, as I see it, to make any external move over this situation. There are plenty enough centers at hand, and his acquiring one of a top-six caliber would be nonsensical if that results in a healthy scratch by month's end.
• I expected newcomer Sam Girard to be paired with Kris Letang, but I didn't expect Connor Clifton to bump Ilya Solovyov from the lineup, as apparently will happen based on Clifton and Ryan Shea skating as the third pair in practice yesterday.
I do understand why: Any other alignment would've had Shea on the right -- and wrong -- side. But it sure is nice to have Solovyov in the shadows if needed. Really liked what I saw of him.
• Thanks so much for reading my hockey coverage. Tons more to come.
THE ASYLUM
Grind: Stick together ... it'll be fine
Good Thursday morning!
• Tonight begins what I legit hope will be my every-single-game-home-and-road coverage of the Penguins the rest of the way, with the NHL season resuming against the Devils -- 7:08 p.m., PPG Paints Arena -- amid their pursuit of a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
See, that's how the columnist gig goes: Migrate where it's hottest. And there can't be a bigger story we'll cover as a staff these next few weeks than whether these guys make it for the first time in four years, particularly given all the gloom-and-doom of this past summer.
I've booked everything more than a month out, Taylor Haase will be with me for the overwhelming majority of it, and we'll do our best to bring you ... well, what I'd like to think we usually do. Just twice as much.
• Now, as to whether or not they'll get there ...
Sidney Crosby's out a minimum four weeks, per the team yesterday, because of the right knee injury sustained at the Olympics. And the usage of minimum as a descriptor, to me, resonated.
Why?
Well, without pretending to be a medical expert, the release also was noteworthy in that it reported no actual procedure on the knee, which absolutely would've been included, based on voluminous precedent, doubly so with Sid's stature. And if there's no procedure, exempting the imaging he had done in Italy, that'd almost certainly make the minimum-four-week prognosis a prescription as opposed to a prognosis. Meaning he HAS to stay out that long for the sprain/strain to heal properly. Just like Filip Hallander, with his blood clot, HAD to avoid heavy athletic activity for three full months, since that's how long he was prescribed blood thinners.
Make sense?
So no, I don't envision some heroic early return for Sid. Whereas I do envision ... Winnipeg?
The precise four-week mark from yesterday would be March 18, the day the Penguins would be completing the circle of a psychotic five-game trip from Raleigh to Las Vegas to Salt Lake City to Denver and for-real back to Raleigh. After that, there's the only two-day break of the entire month, followed by a March 21 return home against the Jets.
That meets the minimum, allows a relative minute to gear back up and ... eh, we'll see.
SYDNEY BLACKMAN / PENGUINS
Players skate with the Little Penguins after practice Wednesday in Cranberry, Pa.
• Sid spoke confidently yesterday of how his teammates will fare without him, and not without cause. I wrote it back in October, and I'll be louder now: It's a good hockey team.
"I think we've shown all year," he'd say, "that we've had injuries and guys have stepped up to get to where we're at at this point. I think it's because of our team play. I don't think it's been any one person. I think it's because, collectively as a group, we've found different ways to win, and different guys have stepped up. So, as long as we continue that and understand that, then I think we give ourselves a good chance. But it's going to be an important stretch here the next little bit. A lot of teams are trying to get points and in similar positions. But I think I'm just really confident as far as that's concerned."
The collective concept should be stressed: When the Penguins stick together, they succeed. And I don't mean in the sappy, syrupy way. I mean on the ice.
All four lines, all three defense pairings and both goaltenders need to do their part, and that's obvious. The special teams need to stay top-six in the league, and that's equally obvious. But more than anything, an aggressive, across-the-board attacking mindset -- the swarming thing I've been talking about since Madison Square Garden in early October -- absolutely has to be applied. Trust me, that's what Sid's referencing. That's what Dan Muse references when he speaks of a common approach. That's what they're all citing. Be all over everyone in all three zones. And maybe more than anything, ensure that all forwards are tracking back between the blue lines to stunt opposing rushes and return play the other way.
Not to sound disrespectful, but the Penguins can do that with or without Sid.
• They can score without Sid, too:
PENGUINS
They've even got, for the first time in forever, a young center who could pick up some of his minutes, his faceoffs, even time on the top power play:
PENGUINS
They'll be fine. And if and when they are, Sid will have had a little more than the equivalent of the break for his overall body than all the non-Olympians just had, right into the most rigorous stretch of the regular-season schedule ... and anything that might follow.
• Don't sweat Rickard Rakell at center. Those few times in Pittsburgh he's been needed there, he's been almost scary natural. Dude loves carrying the puck, and especially with a head of steam through the neutral zone. Just needs to get it at the right stride.
• If trying Rakell between Avery Hayes and Bryan Rust doesn't click for whatever reason, one of the many beauties of having a Ben Kindel is that he's plug-and-play pretty anywhere he's put.
Which, by the way, is why Kyle Dubas has no need, as I see it, to make any external move over this situation. There are plenty enough centers at hand, and his acquiring one of a top-six caliber would be nonsensical if that results in a healthy scratch by month's end.
• I expected newcomer Sam Girard to be paired with Kris Letang, but I didn't expect Connor Clifton to bump Ilya Solovyov from the lineup, as apparently will happen based on Clifton and Ryan Shea skating as the third pair in practice yesterday.
I do understand why: Any other alignment would've had Shea on the right -- and wrong -- side. But it sure is nice to have Solovyov in the shadows if needed. Really liked what I saw of him.
• Thanks so much for reading my hockey coverage. Tons more to come.
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