Trending up/trending down
by Hooks Orpik on Dec 28, 2009 9:56 AM EST
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PrintA new Monday feature, think of it as an interim report for the monthly grades and awards we give out..
Trending Up:
Sidney Crosby: Early in the season Sid was struggling with taking needless "frustration" penalties (slashing or chopping an opponent, hooking someone after the whistle, etc), which saw him pile up 39 penalty minutes in the first 24 games. However, in his last 14 games, Crosby's taken but one minor penalty.
Marc-Andre Fleury: Has a .919 save percentage so far in the month of December, his best of any month in the young season.
Sergei Gonchar: Want a sign the power-play's starting to turn the corner? Sarge has 6 PP assists in the last seven games.
Bill Guerin: The Penguins are 10-0-0 when Guerin scores a goal this season. He's scored goals in four games so far this month.
Trending Down:
Tyler Kennedy: TK scored in his first game back from injury on Nov 28th, but didn't register a point in the next 11 games before being sat down as a healthy scratch last night against Toronto.
Ruslan Fedotenko: Has 1 goal, 0 assists in his last five games and only 8 combined shots in that timeframe. Fedotenko needs to shoot to be effective, and right now he's not getting enough pucks to the net.
Alex Goligoski: Doesn't have a goal since November 3rd, in the past six games only has 1 assist and his shots are down as well (only 4 in that stretch). Has lost PP minutes, so he's going to have to break out this slump the old-fashioned way.
STAT of the DAY:
This didn't fit into a trend, but it's too good not to share....Kris Letang has scored just 6 goals in 111 games of the season before the all-star break (.05 goals per game), that includes this season where he only has one goal. After the all-star break, Letang's got 13 goals in just 63 games (.21 goals/game). There's no all-star game this season due to the Olympics, but how much do you want to bet after the two week break #58 starts filling the net a lot more?
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Good new feature, Hooks
I’d rather see Fedotenko benched than TK… (that is of course if Godard plays)
Tenk isn’t doing anything right in the last few games and Kennedy always brings a lot of energy, well may be not points lately, but it’s still something…
You have to see it for yourself...
Love the new feature.
The TK benching suprised me, but we have a few guys, TK, Feds, Superstar, etc that are not performing offensively right now. How about a late December call-up of Caputi or Tangradi and subsequent healthy scratch to (hopefully) light a fire under these guys arses?
I don’t think Tangradi’s ready, he’s only played 24 games as a pro (none at the NHL level) and would probably not fair too well in a big role in Pittsburgh right now.
Caputi, on the other hand, has a little bit of NHL experience, is WB/S’s leading goal scorer and been described as one of the best and most consistent forwards all season.
I would like to see a Caputi call-up, but I’m not sure if it’ll happen anytime soon, barring injury. The Pens use vets they trust like Fedotenko and Dupuis because even when those guys aren’t producing points, they aren’t making rookie mistakes (out of position or turning pucks over) that will hurt the team.
You come at the king, you best not miss.
by Hooks Orpik on Dec 28, 2009 12:06 PM EST up reply actions
Definitely true about Tangradi… I watched the WBS game against Albany last night and he’s still finding it a bit hard to mix it up with the “big boys”.
Anyway I’d love to see the coaching staff be a bit less conservative and give guys like Letestu, Caputi and Jeffrey a chance to play 5-10 games in Pittsburgh. I really don’t see it as such a high risk move.
You have to see it for yourself...
I just wonder where natural centers like Letestu or Jeffrey would fit, though Jeffrey has been sliding over to LW this season.
Nick Johnson, who had a great training camp, is back from injury and playing really well of late too, I see him as a kind of poor man’s Ryan Malone. Wouldn’t mind seeing what he could do in the NHL either.
You come at the king, you best not miss.
I don’t see them all together in Pittsburgh at the same time, but my other point (somewhat heretic, may be) is that both Jeffrey and Letestu are better face-off men than Malkin, Staal and Adams… so one or two of the latter could play wing…
Johnson has been all over the ice and racking up the points in WBS since he came back from his injury… he’s got enough AHL experience already and would be interesting to see how will he do as a 3rd/4th line winger in the NHL
You have to see it for yourself...
I would be OK with anybody being called up. I just threw out the names of the supposed “can’t miss” guys. Right now, we are blessed with tremendous depth at both the NHL and AHL level. Why not find out who can be a good offensive threat come playoff time. There is always a trade market for guys like Talbot, Dupuis, Adams, TK, etc if we score with bringing up Caputi, Johnson, Letetsu, etc and they work out.
Every year I say I’m going to check that out and actually play and every year I forget. Wish I could tell ya, but if it is a x8 I’d say that seems like some sort of error. Or a late Xmas gift of sorts.
Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com and twitter.
I’m worried about all the guys that are trending down. I was surprised that TK was benched, but it’s probably just HCDB sending a message…don’t be surprised if Feds sits if he can’t produce on the first line.
I think GoGo will break out of his slump eventually…what worries me is that I sometimes forget he’s playing when a mere month and a half ago, every time he was one the ice, it seemed like he did something good.
871
I don’t know if anyone is failing harder this season than Max. To be honest though, the guy had a subpar regular season last year before his Cup heroics, but man, he’s looking pretty bad out there.
I can’t believe Sid is the goal-scoring machine this year. Definitely their most consistent player all year long…well, maybe him and MAF.
"Drew Breeeeeeeees!" "Oh, yeah."
don’t you have to be up at some point during the season to trend down. I love Max, but he hasn’t had it all season, which I think is to be expected after such a major surgery and lack of activity.
But i also don’t think Max have ever been the sort of explosive type that he’s unfortunately had expected of him since G7. A bad year (see also: year of recovery from surgery) may be just the thing to help reset his counter and let him ease into it again next year or in the second half of this season. It’s almost like people have to forget how well he played in the Finals to really appreciate the kind of player Max is. Right now expectations are much higher than I think Max can, or could ever, deliver.
Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com and twitter.
I wasn’t surprised TK was benched. He hasn’t looked right at all since coming back from injury. I’d even go as far as to say I’m a bit disappointed with his effort out there but I really do think it’s more than just his abilities being strained. I really think he is still fighting through some pain or an injury of sorts.
Yes, I too am a bit upset about Max too. If anything he has more patience from fans than others may because of his gregarious personality and G7 heroics, but that sort of stuff eventually teeters off and it will get to a point where fans want to see more than just replays of the SCF.
In a way I really think the Olympics break will do a big favor for some of these guys, Max and TK being only two of the few I think will really benefit from the time off. Of course, I also think some of the Pens players ranked on their national teams may be at a higher risk of exhaustion and injury than others, but what other NHLer isn’t?
Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com and twitter.
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