Pens-Sharks: Pinnacle to periphery
Nineteen months ago, the Penguins and the Sharks — who face off Saturday in San Jose — met in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Since their six-game series triumph over San Jose, the Pens doubled up on Lord Stanley’s hardware, becoming the first team to win back-toback titles since Detroit did it in 1997-98. The Sharks, meanwhile, fell well short of consecutive Finals appearances when injuries struck and they lost in the first round last spring.
This season, the two teams — each built for the postseason — are scratching and clawing just to get an invite. With Thursday’s win in Los Angeles — Pittsburgh’s fifth in six games — the Penguins finally moved into eighth place in the East. Second in the Pacific before Friday’s games, the Sharks owned a tenuous hold on a playoff spot — they held only a onepoint edge on the ninth-place teams in the conference. Pittsburgh general manager
Jim Rutherford didn’t hold back during the first half of the season when he suggested he was prepared to shake up the roster. The Pens were languishing near the bottom of the balanced Metropolitan Division, and were well out of a playoff spot.
The Pens were getting hit with criticism from all corners, which should fall under the category of “premature and irrational.”
The usual cast of characters are still leading the team. The Pens’ five best players lead the team in scoring — forwards Phil Kessel, captain Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and defenseman Kris Letang. That group will need to remain productive and injuryfree if the Pens are to become the first NHL team to win three straight Cups since the Islanders claimed four in a row from 1980-83.
Depth, too, will be a key — as it was last spring. Though
Jake Guentzel has 14 goals and 24 points, the Pens aren’t getting as much as they’d like from fellow forwards Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary and the speedy Carl Hagelin. Just as Guentzel, Rust and Sheary did in the previous two seasons, young forwards
Dominik Simon and Daniel Sprong are getting a chance to produce, lining up on either side of Crosby on the team’s top line.
Pittsburgh is without starting goalie Matt Murray, who left the team Wednesday to attend the funeral of his father. Backup Tristan Jarry and call-up Casey DeSmith (who won his NHL debut in goal Thursday) will hold the fort until Murray returns.
One interesting thought: With the Sharks trying to deal veteran defenseman Paul
Martin, who is skating with the American Hockey League’s San Jose Barracuda, one wonders if Rutherford and San Jose GM Doug Wilson could strike some sort of compromise in terms of sharing what’s left on the contract. Martin spent five seasons with Pittsburgh before signing a four-year deal with San Jose as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2015.
It could be an interesting weekend in San Jose.
Quite the honor: NHL players aren’t participating in next month’s Olympics, but two Sharks employees are headed to South Korea. Steve
Maroni will be working his fifth straight Winter Games as director of events for the 26 men’s hockey games over 12 days. And stadium announcer Danny Miller will work rink side for at least half of the games.
Red hot surprises: The Bruins are on a roll. Boston has points in 15 straight games (11-0-4) — the best streak in the league this season — for the ninth time in franchise history and has become, along with Vegas and Colorado, one of the surprise teams. The Avalanche have won eight straight games and never trailed in any of them. Vegas, an expansion team, was on pace for 117 points after it won Thursday at Tampa Bay — the league’s top team — and before Friday’s visit to Florida. Honoring Lindros: Great to see Philly and Eric Lindros bury their past disagreements so No. 88 could get his jersey added to the rafters during a moving on-ice ceremony Thursday.