Wednesday Grab Bag 12.5

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to the Grab Bag, my folks! Quite the week in Penguin world. They lost in Colorado, lost* to the Flyers, then got back on track as Patric hat trick Hornqvist made some magic on hat night.

The Colorado loss was emblematic of how top-heavy this team is. The Flyers loss shows how fickle this stupid game can be. The Colorado win is a testament of what happens when you play a good team and remember it’s a 60-minute game, not 30.

Along with all that, Daniel Sprong was sent north to live on a farm with all your childhood pets traded to Anaheim for Marcus Pettersson on Monday.

Good boy Jeff has a breakdown of the trade.

*Anthony Self-Storage decided to become Patrick Goddamn Roy and steal a game like the North Carolina GOP steals elections.

Links

The Good

Welcome to the NHL, Seattle. Despite being placed in an absolute circus of a time zone, it should be a great market for a hockey team. The way the city already supports the Seahawks, Mariners and Sounders, it was only a matter of time before the NHL and NBA came racing back. Now let’s get moving on um, moving Arizona, Florida and Carolina.

The expansion may have been formally approved yesterday, but the naming rights will be the real battle.

“Paul Kim, a 26-year old University of Washington graduate from Lynnwood, Washington, who registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2016.”

The NHL owns the rights to the original Seattle franchise, the Metropolitans, in Canada, but Paul Kim owns them in the US.

This has lead to discussion what to call the team, and Seattle, we can take that team back as quickly as we gave it to you. These responses suuuuuuuuuuuuck.

About a month ago, former Pensblog member Jesse Marshall did a great piece for The Athletic about Crosby’s stick and why it makes his backhand so lethal. It’s worth a read, but yesterday, Justin Bourne took this a step further and did a tremendous breakdown on stick technology in today’s NHL.

Tom Wilson hurt after blindside hit from Ryan Reaves pic.twitter.com/xsrs7LSMLd

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 5, 2018

What goes around, comes around.

The Bad

Regardless of how bad Chicago is this year, it’s been a tough couple of days for the “Should of kept Darling over Crawford” crowd.

Tired: Letting the Avalanche climb back from down 3-0 in the second period.
Wired: Letting Calgary score five straight to blow a 4-1 lead.

Hey, when your former GM is preaching patience and trusting a process, you fire him. So, the replacement should be a guy with a track record of winning, signing great deals and totally acknowledging mistakes. Good luck, Philly! Enjoy Duchene’s 13-year deal and an overpayment for someone like Jake Gardiner this offseason!

The Ugly

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a Bertuzzi did something very dirty.

I see the defending champions are very sad they got a taste of their own medicine.

Numbers

Standings

Metropolitan

Atlantic

Central

Pacific

Points

Save Percentage

What These Numbers Tell Us: I’ve heard a lot of talk that the road to the Stanley Cup goes through the Atlantic Division. Basically, it’s been prophesied that the winner of the Eastern Conference come May will be someone from the Atlantic. I don’t buy it. Essentially, the Metro is a toss up. Washington, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and maybe Carolina will show up in the postseason. Outside of Washington, there isn’t much of a daunting matchup there. On the flip side, the Atlantic winner will likely have to face a wild card from the Atlantic, then one of Buffalo (crazy, right?), Toronto, Tampa or Boston for two rounds. Then a Metro opponent that hasn’t had that same slog. It’s not far-fetched to think by the East Final, whichever team is out of the Atlantic will be out of gas.

Keeping with the Atlantic, Toronto may be in for a world of hurt when it comes to goaltending. Andersen is having a great year, but he’s already played 23 games. It’s December.  With about four months to go in the regular season, there’s a chance he plays upwards of 50. For a goalie with a spotty at best track record, he may burn out come April.

There’s no two ways about this, speaking of goaltending, the Penguins need to find consistency in-between the pipes. For all the woes this team has, goaltending is a problem right now. G has a good breakdown of the situation here. The best addition this team could hope for is a healthy Schultz and a healthy (and consistent) Matt Murray when they are back.

Tampa remains very good, so does Colorado and McDavid might again will Edmonton to the postseason.

The Week Ahead:

Tomorrow the Penguins finish out a three-game home stand, welcoming the Islanders to the Paint Can. Would be nice to finally beat one of the teams they’re supposed to beat.

Know Your Enemy: Eyes on Isles

Following three games at home, the Pens take to the road next week. It’s off to Canada’s capital, Ottawa, which last time we were there…..vomit.

Know Your Enemy: Sens Chirp

Then it’s back to where it all began in Long Island, another matchup with the Islanders, at Nassau Coliseum.

Well, I said in a previous Grab Bag, but it wouldn’t be foolish to hope for six points out of a possible six, but it’s been a weird year. Talk to you next week!

Thanks for reading, follow me (or tell me how bad this was) on Twitter @SynonymForWet.