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Pittsburgh Penguins: Individual Offence Isn’t an Issue Right Now

By Matthew Rodrigopulle

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 17: Members of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 5-4 in overtime at Madison Square Garden on October 17, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 17: Members of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 5-4 in overtime at Madison Square Garden on October 17, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Pittsburgh Penguins won 5-4 over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins may have come away with the W on Tuesday night, but the real story that I’d like to talk about is just how spread out our scoring is right now.

Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins /

Pittsburgh Penguins

Although I would like our bigger guys like Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin to chip in with the goal scoring a bit more, I am very impressed with how this team has been generating offence.

As of right now, with seven games played, 14 of our players have scored at least one goal. That’s very good early this season. It shows that all our guys are playing well together and they’re all lifting their weight as much as they can offensively. It also takes a lot of pressure off of our big guys.

But Our Goal Scorers are Barely Scoring

I’ve seen a few of these online. It’s pretty bad. “Crosby only has 4 goals.” “Malkin and Kessel are declining.”

As much as I’d love to see our main goal scorers score more, it’s not needed right now. I mean yes, definitely, who wouldn’t want Crosby or Malkin or Kessel to already lead the league in goals? It would be awesome!

But what our team is doing is they’re really lifting a lot of pressure off these guys. Malkin and Kessel may only have two goals, Crosby may be ranked 12th in goal scoring right now, but that’s because we’ve found offence everywhere else. They don’t have to do amazing individually if the team is playing great and getting it done together.

Lets Not Forget About that Hole

Let’s not forget that we don’t have a bonafide third-line centre yet. Greg McKegg has that role covered for now, but Jim Rutherford still hasn’t officially found a permanent replacement because he feels Malkin and Crosby can carry the weight for now. That’s why they are being held down a bit.

Until they are able to play their role freely, without having to carry the third-line centre weight as well, I wouldn’t expect the pair to be producing at their full rate. As long as we’re getting wins, this is fine with me!

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