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Pittsburgh Penguins: This Week in Review for the Penguins

By Matthew Rodrigopulle

Mar 19, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) celebrate with the Penguins bench after completing a hat trick against the Florida Panthers during the third period at the PPG PAINTS Arena. The Penguins won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) celebrate with the Penguins bench after completing a hat trick against the Florida Panthers during the third period at the PPG PAINTS Arena. The Penguins won 4-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /
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I’ll be introducing a new segment here at Pens Labyrinth where I will share five quick thoughts or conclusions about the Pittsburgh Penguins play at each week’s end.

These thoughts on the Pittsburgh Penguins are all a matter of opinion and observation and hopefully they prove to be insightful.

With that said, this last week for the Penguins had its ups and downs, but overall it was successful. So what exactly did I like and dislike, and what exactly was I thinking about?

Sidney Crosby will win the Maurice Richard Trophy

Sidney Crosby has been leading the league in goals for the majority of this season. This week however saw the emergence of Brad Marchand tying Sidney Crosby for the league lead in goals.

Crosby didn’t let Marchand hold this lead for long though, as he scored a hat trick in Sunday’s 4-0 win against the Florida Panthers. Crosby has six goals in his last four games, and he’s only heating up at this point.

Being the first player this season to hit 40 goals and having a sizeable three goal advantage over Marchand in second, I think it’s safe to bet that Crosby will finish the season with the most goals in the league.

Injuries Can’t Slow us Down

Wow. Injuries have been hitting the Penguins hard this season, and a lot harder as of recently. This past week alone saw the losses of Ron Hainsey and Evgeni Malkin, both key players on an already injured Penguins roster.

Despite these injuries, the Penguins have been able to win games. In their last nine games, the Penguins have only lost one game in regulation, even with all their injuries. Imagine how great this team would be if all our players were healthy!

Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins /

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Dynamic Goaltending Duo Works After all

Pretty simple thought here, but many people have been wanting Matt Murray to get more starts than Marc-Andre Fleury for a long time this season. This talk led up to the trade deadline which ultimately saw  Fleury not being moved. Many fans were against this decision, but what can we do about it now?

Well either way, Fleury has stepped up to the plate, and along with Matt Murray, the pair have been stringing together the wins for the good guys night in and night out. Good on them.

We All Hate Philadelphia

Seriously. We all do.

Our only regulation loss in nine games was to our state rivals. And to make matters worse, they shut us out 4-0. Well let’s just remember who’s in a playoff spot and who isn’t.

Chris Kunitz Shakeup?

Just a really quick thought that’s been looming over this last stretch of games. I’m not sure if it’s the long road trip that we had or the new lines due to injuries, but Chris Kunitz has not been performing like he should be.

During this stretch, I felt as though he didn’t match up well on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. While those two shined together, Kunitz seemed to be one step behind.

Now with Malkin out, I think some more line shakeups can be beneficial for Kunitz and the Pens in order to find a line that works for him. Although we’re playing pretty well, I don’t think the Pens should be too scared to experiment a little bit.

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