Pittsburgh Penguins: Plunge In NHL Power Rankings
By Larry Snyder
Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury turned away all 22 shots he faced Thursday as the Black and Gold captured their first victory 2-0 over the Ottawa Senators at CONSOL Energy Center.
It was the 39th shutout of Fleury’s career. The Pens faithful were able to witness center Evgeni Malkin and rookie right-wing Daniel Sprong collect their first National Hockey League goals of the season. Malkin has 11 goals in his last 10 home games against Ottawa.
The less-than-stellar news was the power play unit is 0-for-12 with the man advantage in four contests. Sidney Crosby had three shots on goal Thursday in search of his first score of the season. He won 11 of his 17 face-offs against the Senators.
Ottawa (3-2-0) was unable to get on the scoreboard just one night after getting seven goals in their 7-3 victory against the Blue Jackets in Columbus.
Mike Johnston’s crew at 1-3-0 occupies fifth in the NHL Metropolitan Division and 10th overall in the Eastern Conference. This win should move the Penguins up in the NHL Power Rankings across the board.
One of the positive notes Tuesday was Eric Fehr on the ice with the Penguins for the first time since undergoing off-season elbow surgery June 3. The 30-year-old center has a projected recovery time of 4-6 months.
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Time to grab some foil, click the mouse, and see how the folks around the internet are rating the Penguins this week.
CBSSports – This Week: #16 / Last Week: #15 – Chris Peters is not as concerned about the offense as much as the Penguins’ defense needs to improve quickly.
ESPN – This Week: #22 / Last Week: #6 – Scott Burnside down graded the Pens 16 points over the misfires of the offense.
FOX Sports – This Week: #28 / Last Week: #13 – Tommy Chalk joins the growing clamor for more pucks in the net.
NESN.com – This Week #25 / Last Week #8 – Nicholas Goss is among the growing group keeping tabs on how many shots Sidney Crosby has taken so far this season.
OddsShark.com – This Week #26 / Last Week #26 – The computer crunched all the numbers at the beginning of the week and has Pittsburgh near the bottom of their survey.
SI.com – This Week #23 / Last Week: #7 – Allen Muir worries about the performance of the Penguins’ power play and penalty kill units.
Up Next: The Black and Gold battles the Toronto Maple Leafs (0-2-1) Saturday, Oct. 17 at Consol Energy Center. They meet at 7 p.m. You can catch all of the puck drops on ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.
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