Pittsburgh´s "depleted" blueline.

[Gliff]

Atleast they are NHL young defensemen instead of 2 career AHLers like the Ducks had...

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Atleast they are NHL young defensemen instead of 2 career AHLers like the Ducks had...

I think that's the point of the thread.

I've never been so indifferent to losing three good defenseman, though Määttä really does sting, because it finally gives us a chance to see Dumoulin, Harrington, & Pouliot. Shero's D hoarding is actually a plus here...sorta...I'd rather have Forsberg or Saad or whoever in the top six instead of one of those guys, but that's beside the point. This definitely isn't a 'woe is me' thread.

If another one goes down, though, Taylor Chorney was also called up and will be the #7 for at least the next week...that one is less exciting.

 

[radicalcenter]

Shoulder problems again. His surgery might have gone wrong in the summer..

Poor guy

he might be the unluckiest player in the NHL.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Shoulder surgery, cancer, the shoulder again, and the mumps. This has been a rough six months for Olli.

 

[66-30-33]

Does not look depleted to me. Looks way better!

 

[Will Hunting]

Poor guy

he might be the unluckiest player in the NHL.

We have Beau Bennett too. Serious competition right there. No one can beat Bennett in injuries, IMO. Not even Maatta.

 

[DearDiary]

Does not look depleted to me. Looks way better!

2 top pairing defensemen replaced by rookies, yeah looks way better

 

[radicalcenter]

We have Beau Bennett too. Serious competition right there. No one can beat Bennett in injuries, IMO. Not even Maatta.

But Maata injuries are not his fault at all and that's what I meant by unluckiest.

Cancer = not his fault
Surgery gone wrong = not his fault

 

[Jets4Life]

If it makes you feel better, the Jets have all top 4 D-Men out with injuries (Trouba, Stuart, Enstrom, and Bogosian).

 

[Mad Dog Tannen]

2 top pairing defensemen replaced by rookies, yeah looks way better

Two top pairing?

Did something happen to letang?

And there are multiple threads/posts on the pens board clamouring for all three of these players to play (Harrington, poulet, desmond), as far back as the summer. There's posts last week calling for a Martin trade cuz Harrington is just as good if not better, and it's widely accepted all three players are nhl ready.

Note not purposefully misspelling your def prospects names, autocorrect is not my friend.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

pulet and desmond
Oh, autocorrect.

Ehrhoff is a top pairing caliber defenseman and Martin was as recently as last year. Two clear top four defenseman. We're not better with them out of the line-up, but losing guys of those caliber isn't a big of a deal as it used to be when you can call up guys like Harrington & Pouliot to replace them.

The calls to trade the vets and run with the kids is misguided, though. Trading Martin...it'd be pretty rare to see a guy of his caliber be dealt by a team in the Penguins' position...but with his UFA status at the end of the year and the guys behind him...I'm not against it any more. That doesn't mean he's bad or the guys with 1 combined NHL game between them are better than him instantly.

 

[Zen Arcade]

But Maata injuries are not his fault at all and that's what I meant by unluckiest.

Cancer = not his fault
Surgery gone wrong = not his fault

Bennett:

-Skate falls off of a shelf and cuts a tendon in his wrist
-Teammate injures his leg by colliding with him in practice
-Defenseman injures his other leg by falling on him during a game
-Mumps

 

[redbull]

We have Crosby and Malkin so we're not allowed to complain.

Am I doing the normally typical response right?

you can only complain on the Pens board

When the Isles were missing Boychuk, Hamonic and Visnovsky they looked like seriously outmatched and gave up a lot of scoring chances. The drop-off from a 20+ minute dman who can really play to a #8-9 on the depth chart is significant on ALL teams....gotta fight through it.

The Pens have some nice young names on defense but they (understatement alert!) probably aren't going to replace Martin, Maatta (who plays like a vet) and Ehrhoff - especially not this year, but damn if those Pens still find ways to win!

I've been very impressed with Despres every time I see him play, but for whatever reason, he isn't getting big minutes. I don't watch him close enough to see where the issues are (like most can't tell how awful Jake Gardiner is unless you watch the giveaways and mental lapses) - he seems like a guy that will rise to the occasion.

I think Scuderi's seen better days and increased minutes will do what Strait's minutes did to the Islanders. Unfortunately for Pens fans - though I could be wrong.

Great test for Harrington and Pouliot though!

 

[Fordy]

Bennett:

-Skate falls off of a shelf and cuts a tendon in his wrist
-Teammate injures his leg by colliding with him in practice
-Defenseman injures his other leg by falling on him during a game
-Mumps

Obviously those are all his fault!

 

[Zen Arcade]

The real victim is John Hynes, Wilkes-Barre's coach, here's what he has to work with on defense tonight

McNeill (decent prospect)
Goers (AHL third pairing/7th d)
D'Agostino (longshot/ECHL fodder)
Boak (ECHLer)
Seymour (Bad ECHLer)
Ciafrini (ECHL depth defenseman on a PTO)

 

[jrolley325]

thank god ray shero drafted nothing but defensemen all those years

 

[Cherpak]

Bortuzzo is garbage, teams better off with him injured. I'd also argue he's your 7th dman, so not even technically a starter./regular.

Erhoff is out 3 games....nothing unusual there.

Paul Martin is day to day I believe.

Maatta out all year is definitely terrible and the only thread worthy discussion. You'll have 5 of your top 6 playing this time next week and the sixth could be bortuzzo. Heck, you're very next game u could have Martin and bortuzzo back.....

Doesn't seem like that big of a deal, it's a rough defence for one or two games......expect very little sympathy from wpg fans when they see this thread, lol.

And no offence, but Maatta getting the mumps is all on the penguins management. How about when seeing Crosby with an American dad jaw, you quarantine him immediately. Ridiculous.

He's not looking for sympathy from other fans. Thats not what this thread is about. Its about how every one of the Pens top D prospects will be playing in this game. Thats thread worthy.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

If Letang goes down we are pooched

But seeing the prospects will be good.

 

[Cherpak]

Bennett:

-Skate falls off of a shelf and cuts a tendon in his wrist
-Teammate injures his leg by colliding with him in practice
-Defenseman injures his other leg by falling on him during a game
-Mumps

He has a ways to go before he catches Brittle Beau.

 

[jdatb]

The real victim is John Hynes, Wilkes-Barre's coach, here's what he has to work with on defense tonight

McNeill (decent prospect)
Goers (AHL third pairing/7th d)
D'Agostino (longshot/ECHL fodder)
Boak (ECHLer)
Seymour (Bad ECHLer)
Ciafrini (ECHL depth defenseman on a PTO)

Oh man haha

 

[Classicnamesup]

What happened to Maata?

 

[Cherpak]

What happened to Maata?

Awaiting a second opinion on his shoulder. The surgery earlier may have failed in some way. Details at the moment are sketchy. The Pens policy on reporting medical issues is to only give basic information.

 

[Will Hunting]

you can only complain on the Pens board

When the Isles were missing Boychuk, Hamonic and Visnovsky they looked like seriously outmatched and gave up a lot of scoring chances. The drop-off from a 20+ minute dman who can really play to a #8-9 on the depth chart is significant on ALL teams....gotta fight through it.

The Pens have some nice young names on defense but they (understatement alert!) probably aren't going to replace Martin, Maatta (who plays like a vet) and Ehrhoff - especially not this year, but damn if those Pens still find ways to win!

I've been very impressed with Despres every time I see him play, but for whatever reason, he isn't getting big minutes. I don't watch him close enough to see where the issues are (like most can't tell how awful Jake Gardiner is unless you watch the giveaways and mental lapses) - he seems like a guy that will rise to the occasion.

I think Scuderi's seen better days and increased minutes will do what Strait's minutes did to the Islanders. Unfortunately for Pens fans - though I could be wrong.

Great test for Harrington and Pouliot though!

Good post, considering you are a non-Pens fan. Seems like you know what are you talking about. That´s appropriate assesment of Despres especially, nobody really knows why he wasn´t getting those bigger minutes before. He´s getting them last couple of games and is gonna continue to get them now.

As for Scuderi, yeah he´s been OK this season, but he´s gonna play with Pouliot now. Good test for both I would say

 

[Classicnamesup]

Awaiting a second opinion on his shoulder. The surgery earlier may have failed in some way. Details at the moment are sketchy. The Pens policy on reporting medical issues is to only give basic information.

Thanks. Terrible news, Maata is a terrific young dman that every team in the league should be jealous of

 

[penguins2946*]

The Pens top-6 last year at a point was:

Maatta-Niskanen
Despres-Bortuzzo
Samuelsson-Dumoulin

Last year, it was a little worse than it is this year. Letang will probably be playing over 30 minutes tonight. I'm really excited to see DP tonight.