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Stage set for more milestones |
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The Penguins had a tough task on Saturday night when they visited the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a matchup between a very likely playoff team and one who is going to scrap and claw their way into a wild card matchup and that’s exactly like it played out. The Penguins didn’t play bad, but they lost to a better team. It is a result bound to happen more times over the course of the season.
The big storyline heading into this one was the goaltending choice. After only one Tristan Jarry start the team went to Joel Blomqvist for back-to-back starts. This of course comes on the back of Mike Sullivan starting Alex Nedeljkovic over and over again at the end of last season. The team can say what they want publicly, but they seem to be looking for excuses at every turn to not start Jarry. If nothing else Mike Sullivan has shown he will commit to whatever goalie he feels will give the team a chance to win, just like he did during the Cup runs.
While it remains to be seen if the power play will be an improvement over last year the goal Kris Letang scored on Saturday was a great example of the path forward. Power plays live and die on being able to assess what the PK is doing and a big part of that is being willing to shoot. This was a great example of taking what was available and being assertive
At times over the years I think that Letang has passed up shooting opportunities on the power play and the fallout is things get overly predictable and the killers can cheat towards the pass. Whether it is Letang or anybody else on the power play they should be willing to let it rip when they get good looks. I really liked this play.
I also liked Geno hitting yet another milestone. He registered his 1,300th career point and now has four points in three games on the year. He once again joins rare company
He is two goals away from 500 on his career and I think once he gets to that milestone he might go on a little bit of a run in the goal scoring department. He had made comments about wasting goals in the preseason in his chase for 500 so you know it has been on his mind.
Sidney Crosby has three points in three games this year and he is one single point away from number 1,600 in his career. The Penguins are in Montreal tonight and I would be shocked if he didn’t find his way on the scoresheet. You know there isn’t another road city he’d rather earn a milestone achievement in than Montreal. The last player to get 1,600 points... Jaromir Jagr.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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