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Pittsburgh Penguins-NYR: Key Questions and Predictions

By Fraser Stephenson

Mar 27, 2016; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers center Eric Staal (12) shoots and scores a goal past Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) during the second period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 27, 2016; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers center Eric Staal (12) shoots and scores a goal past Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury (29) during the second period at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 3, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; New York Rangers center J.T. Miller (10) carries the puck against pressure from Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) during the first period at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 3, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; New York Rangers center J.T. Miller (10) carries the puck against pressure from Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) during the first period at the CONSOL Energy Center. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

When will Evgeni Malkin be ready to return and who should he play with?

I’m not a doctor and the only insider information I get from the Penguins is stuff I only dream about. But if I’m on the Penguins’ coaching staff and Evgeni Malkin isn’t at 100% by Wednesday night, I would be in no rush at all to get him back in the lineup.

In fact, he wasn’t on the ice practicing this morning, so it looks like we’re on the same page here.

Is this team better with him? There’s no question in the world about that: watch his goals against Edmonton and Minnesota and just try to make an argument about not wanting to mess with team chemistry. The guy’s a superstar.

With that said, they’ve won 14 of 16 without him and if this is going to be an extended playoff run, you want him as healthy as possible to the very end. If you wait until game 2 to put him back in, it’s only 3 more days without him; game 3 would be 6 extra days. Any player could use that at this point in the year.

As far as who he should play with (and I might sound like a bit of a hypocrite now), I don’t want to mess with team chemistry. The Sidney Crosby and Nick Bonino lines have both been possession monsters with Malkin out and are producing multiple multiple multiple scoring chances every night.

I can understand the argument behind playing on Crosby’s wing. However, in the limited opportunities I’ve had to watch them in the past it does not look like they’re some kind of super line that’s completely unstoppable. I don’t think these playoffs are when you want to test the waters and see if that suddenly happens now.

Instead, putting him between Conor Sheary and Eric Fehr allows him to control the puck the way he is used to while still having wingers that are capable of finishing scoring chances. Having the highly responsible and defensively-minded Fehr on his line could also take on some of the faceoff burden.

That would create three incredibly intimidating lines already, while the Matt Cullen line is one of the strongest fourths in the playoffs. Matchup nightmare.

Next: Bennett and his Boo-Boos

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