Pens Halfway Point Review

By: Bub Volz

The Pittsburgh Penguins are close to the halfway point in their attempt to defend their Stanley Cup. They have a record of 26-8-5 good for 57 points. They are tied for 2^nd at the time of January 10. The penguins are playing at an elite level right now and nobody should be surprised.

The stars are performing at another level this year. Sidney Crosby is having one of his better statistical years with 26 goals and 18 assists for 44 points. Evgeni Malkin is quietly under the radar having an equal year with 16 goals and 27 assists only 1 point behind Sid. The other lethal scorer on the pens is Phil Kessel and he is at 13 goals and 26 assist for 39 points.

One of the Pens under the radar trades last year was the only move they made at the deadline was acquiring Justin Schultz. He is having an awesome year and is really finding his game in Pittsburgh with 7 goals and 18 assists for 25 points. Schultz is leading our defensemen in points. If he keeps up his scoring pace, he will unfortunately not be a penguin because we won’t be able to afford him.

Our goaltender dilemma is slowly working itself out. Matt Murray has played in 19 games but can’t beat the injury bug as of now. This means Marc-Andre-Fleury is getting the majority of starts with 25 games played. If the pens are still shopping Fleury and I’m slowly starting to think that’s the best idea, his value is going up. General Manager Jim Rutherford has a difficult decision ahead to figure out this situation.

The Pittsburgh penguins are one of the best teams in the league. They will make the playoffs and be a legitimate threat to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. I know this is really hard to do in today’s NHL but if there is any team that could do it, it is this team that could do it.