Pittsburgh Penguins: Despite A Slow Start, Don’t Worry
Goalies
The Penguins have recently put back up goalie and veteran Anti Niemi on waivers. Before clearing through waivers, the Florida Panthers had claimed him. The waiver claim is most likely due to an injury sustained by starting goalie Roberto Luongo. Niemi (0-3-0) had lost all three games he started and has allowed 16 goals on 79 shots this year and had a .770 GAA.
With the subtraction of Niemi, the former undrafted free agent Casey DeSmith gets his first recall as a professional hockey player. DeSmith is 3-0-0 with a goals allowed average under one (GAA 0.98). In The 2016-2017 season DeSmith started 29 games and won 21 of them (21-5-1) while owning a 2.01 GAA.
Now that the goalie position is better than it was, the Penguins still have some holes to fix.
Defense
The Penguins still have some holes to fix on Defense. The offence the defense has produced thus far in the season is impressive. An up rise in points coming out of the defensive end does not make up for how bad they have been defensively. Losing Justin Schultz does to a concussion does not help either.
Through 10 games this year the Pittsburgh Penguins have already allowed 40 goals. Also, in five of the ten games played so far, they have allowed four or more goals including a 7-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning to finish out their most recent road trip.
The Penguins need to keep the puck out of the defensive zone and start playing the puck more.
Offense
As expected, The Penguins offense looks like it is having no troubles finding the back of the net. The production of goals is pretty evenly spread out between the team. Crosby leads the team with five goals but right behind him he has Conor Sheary with four and a couple of players who have three.
The Penguins may have put the third line center talk on hold for a while.
Last week, GM Jim Rutherford reached an agreement with the Detroit Red Wings to send over winger Scott Wilson and a draft pick for Center Riley Sheehan and a higher pick.
Sheehan is a 25 year old who was drafted out of Notre Dame , 20th overall by Detroit in the 2010 NHL entry level draft.
Sheehan scored a career high 36 points in the 2014-2015 season. A very reliable option to center, he has never had a NHL season with over 16 penalty minutes and plays almost every game.
Sheehan is a nice defensive player to have. He can play on the Penalty kill unit and in must win defensive situations.