Atleast they are NHL young defensemen instead of 2 career AHLers like the Ducks had...
Shoulder problems again. His surgery might have gone wrong in the summer..
We have Beau Bennett too. Serious competition right there. No one can beat Bennett in injuries, IMO. Not even Maatta.Poor guy
he might be the unluckiest player in the NHL.
Does not look depleted to me. Looks way better!
We have Beau Bennett too. Serious competition right there. No one can beat Bennett in injuries, IMO. Not even Maatta.
2 top pairing defensemen replaced by rookies, yeah looks way better
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
We have Crosby and Malkin so we're not allowed to complain.
Am I doing the normally typical response right?
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
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.
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
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)
What happened to Maata?
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.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!
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.