Pens Points: New-Look Lines
Catch up on the latest hockey headlines with today’s Pens Points.
Here are your Pens Points for this Tuesday morning...
The Pittsburgh Penguins recalled goalie Marcus Hellberg on Monday, but it appears to be a precautionary measure. The team also debuted some new line combinations because... sure, why not? [PensBurgh]
We’re nearing the trade deadline, and while the loss of Jake Guentzel and the Penguins’ overall play has been wildly disappointing developments, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the iteration of this team has been the ham-and-egger free-agent acquisitions, none of whom have stood out from the rest. All have one thing in common: They have provided little to no offense as the Penguins’ secondary scorers. [PensBurgh]
Sure, you’re familiar with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, two of the three players whose jerseys now hang in the rafters at PPG Paints Arena. But unless you’re a literal OG Penguins fan of yesteryear, you may not remember the Penguins’ other player whose jersey is retired: No. 21, Michel Briere. Learn the story and meet the family of one of the early stars of the Penguins. [Trib Live]
New waiver acquisition Matthew Phillips may be an undersized forward, an imposing 5-foot-8 winger. Still, he was recently slotted alongside a future Hockey Hall of Famer, Evgeni Malkin. He was also on a power-play unit alongside Kris Letang, Malkin, Jeff Carter, and Reilly Smith. A sign of things to come? [Penguins]
News and notes from around the NHL...
Joel Eriksson Ek and Kirill Kaprizov recorded hat tricks on Monday. Oh, the Minnesota Wild also scored 10 goals, six of those tallies coming in a 5:45 span, which marked the fastest stretch of its kind in the league since 1999. They won a WILD (see what I did there?) 10-7 contest over the Vancouver Canucks. [Yahoo]
Of course, the above contest got many thinking about high-scoring hockey matches. Here are the top five highest-scoring NHL games of the 21st century. [The Hockey News]
Could the next NHL expansion fee be $2 billion? Or more? I’m sure the owners like the sound of that. [The Hockey News]