Pittsburgh Penguins Roundup: Crosby, Kessel, Dumoulin And More

The Pittsburgh Penguins at 12-8-0, 24 points open the week hanging onto third place in the Metropolitan Division. The Black and Gold are only one point ahead of the New Jersey Devils with a record of 11-8-1, 23 points in fourth place.

Let’s gather around the warm glow of our monitors and check out what the pundits around the internet have been saying about the team.

Jared Clinton from The Hockey News has Sidney Crosby as one of his five players who appear ready to bust out of their slumps. Clinton reminds everyone that the Captain has scored on 14.2 percent of the shots he has taken since coming into the National Hockey League. He feels the when pucks start going in for Crosby, the lamp is going to be lit a lot.

The Department of Hockey Analytics at Sports Illurstrated looks at the numbers and thinks one solution to get the Penguins offense back on track is to drop Phil Kessel on the third line with center Nick Bonino. It could be an interesting experiment at this point.

Gregory Katz from the Too Many Men On The Site at FanSided is not impressed with the 3-on-3 format for the overtime period. He would like to see the NHL skate 4-on-4 in overtime till somebody puts the puck in the net. Skip the 3-on-3 and shootout all together.

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• Penguins’ Three Keys to Help End Islanders’ Point Streak
• Penguins: Without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin Will Be an MVP Candidate

Jenn Menedez of the Post Gazette likes that head coach Mike Johnston tabbed defenseman Brian Dumoulin to run the power play in the match-up against the Sharks when Letang went down from a puck to the face. The Penguins continue to keep him busy the ice.

The Hockey Writers Mike Necciai states that one of the lessons that we have learned through the first quarter of the regular season is that Kris Letang misses being paired with Paul Martin. It is Necciai’s opinion that the former member of the Penguins blue line crew brought a steady hand and solid heads-up play to the ice.

Josh Yohe at dkpittsburghsports.com would like to see more from right-wing Patric Hornqvist. Right now he is on pace for about 16 goals for the season and that is not going to propel the Penguins very far in the standings or the playoffs. Yohe wants more of that maniac-style in front of the net.

Next: Steelers: Grading the Browns Game

Over at the Pittsburgh Sporting News, Jacob Betzner in his Three Up, Three Down prospects column is impressed with center Jake Guentzel of the University of Nebraska – Omaha. The 5-foot-10, 167-pound third-round 2013 draft pick is at the top of the NCAA in scoring with 16 points in just 10 contests. The pipeline may have something left to contribute down the road.

Next Up: The Penguins hit the ice Wednesday, Nov. 25 against the St. Louis Blues (13-6-2, 28 points) in the final contest of their four-game homestand. They get together at center ice at 7:00 p.m. and you can catch every power play on ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.