In the wake of injuries to goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and winger Beau Bennett, the Penguins have recalled forwards Kevin Porter and Conor Sheary—along with goalie Matt Murray—from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
After skating through the opening two months of the season relatively unscathed, the Pens have been wracked by ailments of late. Pascal Dupuis hung up his skates on December 8 due to health issues. Kris Letang has missed four of the past five games. He’s been placed on injured reserve. Fleury is expected to miss at least 10 days with a concussion. Bennett will be out 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury, courtesy of a brutal check delivered Monday night by Washington’s T. J. Oshie.
The team’s reeling in the standings, too. The black and gold is 1-3-1 in its past five games; 6-7-3 since beating Edmonton on November 6. Clinging to fifth place in the Metropolitan Division, the Pens presently are on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture looking in.
With the offense sputtering as well, new coach Mike Sullivan scrambled his line combinations—dramatically—at Tuesday’s practice. David Perron filled Bennett’s right-wing slot beside Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz. Evgeni Malkin skated with preseason linemates Sergei Plotnikov and Patric Hornqvist.
The biggest stunner of all? Phil Kessel was bumped to the third line.
“Nothing is etched in stone here,” Sullivan explained. “I’m just trying to go through the process here, where we can try to create a spark and effect some change.”
Among the call-ups, Sheary leads the Baby Pens with 19 assists. The diminutive winger is tied for the club lead in points (25) with Dominik Simon. Porter, who began the season with the Pens, collected five goals and four assists in 16 games at Wilkes-Barre. He’s a plus-11.
The 21-year-old Murray may be the most intriguing of the bunch. A triple AHL award winner last season, the rangy 6’4” netminder has posted a sparkling 1.84 goals-against average, four shutouts, and a .938 save percentage.
Hey Rick,
This may be a blessing in disguise for the Pens and our fans.By that I mean it is much better this situation occurred in mid December, and not in mid February. I agree with Phil’s comment that the “TEAM” needs a shake up.Thirty days from now we all will know just what this Penguins organization is made of. Can they over come adversity or not? I think this is good for them.
I am excited about the prospect of seeing Matt Murray play.I hope he is the second coming of KEN DRYDEN. I want him to really do well.Then when Fleury returns,I trade Murray to Edmonton, who desperately needs a future franchise goalie, and they have 20 year old defense men, 6’3″ Darnell Nurse ( drafted 7th over all ), or 6’4″ Griffin Rinehart ( drafted 4th over all),either one would make us better in the long run.
Simply put,they need a future #1 goalie, and we need a future # 1-2 d man with size, ready to play now.
So my Christmas wish is that… Matt Murray’s new NHL record will be 7 and 0 ..with 3 shut outs! That should get us a young D-man we desperately need.
Cheers
Hey Jim,
First off hopefully Murray plays. Second, if he goes 7 and 0 ..with 3 shut outs, that would probably be the one thing he could do that makes him untradeable!
Phil
Your probably 100% correct. I just think that with Fleury finally
making a believer out of me,this is probably one area we may get a decent return in a trade.Goalie..
Cheers
Hey Jim,
I’m using your comments as a springboard. Speaking of big, young defensemen …
…had JR not made last season’s deadline deals, we’d have three young 6’4″ defensemen on our backline. Dumoulin, Despres and Bortuzzo. Team them with Letang, Maatta and whoever, and I’d really like the look and feel of our ‘d.’
If only … 🙁
Stop it Rick…I am crying in my soup as I read this.
But your are right !!!!
This team definitely needed a good shaking up.
Hey Phil,
I, too, like the fact that Sullivan isn’t shy about shaking up the status quo. That includes the power(less) play.
During our first man-advantage on Monday, nobody from the “top” unit ventured into the slot. It literally was as if there was an invisible force field keeping our Pens shunted off to the perimeter. Then the second unit comes on–Bonino, Dumoulin, Hornqvist, Perron and (I think) Maatta. They dug, cycled, crashed the net, and shot the puck.
A novel approach…at least for our Pens.
I’m not especially keen on the call-ups. At least not Sheary (generously listed at 5’9″ 175). I would’ve preferred Oskar Sundqvist (6’3″ 209). Or Tyler Biggs. But what can you do? Size and strength obviously aren’t a priority for this regime.
Much to my chagrin, we’re resembling JR’s old Hurricane teams more and more…