Penguins This ‘n’ ‘At

As our Penguins prepare to take on Rick Tocchet’s Canucks on Turkey Day Eve, I decided to fire a shot or two across the opinion bow.

I’m not super disappointed that the Pens placed forward Valtteri Puustinen on waivers to make room for Blake Lizotte. Puusti was pretty much going to waste as the team’s 13^th forward and was never going to be granted a real opportunity given our logjam of forwards. And I do like Lizotte, who plays with some badly needed fire and zip when healthy.

The move I don’t get (and absolutely hate)? Apparently, Jesse Puljujärvi was the odd man out of the line rushes at yesterday’s practice. In the process, casting the last vestige of our best line of late, the Drew O’Connor–Sam Poulin-Puljujärvi trio, to the wind.

To put it bluntly, WTF?

Anyway you slice it…eye test, metrics, boxcars…Jesse’s been one of our most effective players this season. He even scored goals in consecutive games last week, a rare feat indeed for our stone-handed forwards.

Know who was slotted in? Matt Nieto. Make that 32-year-old, doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in h-e-double sticks of scoring a goal yet he’s been deemed indispensable Matt Nieto.

I can just hear coach Mike Sullivan’s justification. Something to the effect of, “We think ‘Niets’ is a real good penalty-killer.”

At the risk of sounding like I have a vendetta against the guy, in the five games since Nieto’s returned to the lineup, the Pens have yielded six power-play goals, including four in the past two games. How’s that for helping the PK!

Unfortunately for our Pens, it’s the same old bullshoot.

Oh well. At this stage, anything that helps us be bad is good. That includes Sully’s questionable lineup choices.

Elsewhere, newcomer Philip Tomasino has been slotted next to Evgeni Malkin on the second line. Along with former Preds teammate, Cody Glass, he appears to be the poster child for POHO/GM Kyle Dubas’s trade targets…young players with pedigree who’ve washed out at other stops.

Rumor Mill

Just two years after selecting him sixth overall, the CBJ are reportedly shopping 21-year-old defenseman David Jirícek. The Czechia native stands 6’4”, tips the scales at 204 pounds and is a coveted right shot. Not sure what the issues are or why the CBJ are looking to move him, but I’ve seen skating, mobility and defensive acumen mentioned as possible triggers.

Elsewhere, Darren Dreger reported the kid-rich Canadiens could be open to dealing a pair of 23-year-old defensemen, Justin Barron and Jayden Struble, and 24-year-old forward Kirby Dach, a former third overall pick of the Blackhawks.

Whether or not the Pens have anyone/anything of interest in return?

A matter of conjecture.