March Production: Who's Hot, Who's Not

The soon to be new tradition at the end of the month of “Who’s hot/Who’s not”. As you know, the Penguins rocked a 10-1-2 record, so obviously there was a lot more players trending up than down.  Still, the breakout of the past month’s performance is evident, so let’s take the jump and find out, as Frank the Tank might say…Who’s going streaking?

WHO’S HOT

Sidney Crosby: 11 games played; 18 points (6 goals, 12 assists)

--At least a point in every game he played, Crosby is leading the charge to the post-season.  That's what captains do, you know.

Evgeni Malkin: 13 gp; 18 points (5g, 13a),

--Team high 48 shots on goal, a game winner and 18 points.  All despite the fact his normal linemates are going to show up in the "Not" portion of this list.  Just another month for Geno.

Kris Letang: 13 gp; 10 points (4g, 6a)

--Two of his goals were game winners, Letang's previous best calendar month was six points (all assists) in November.

Sergei Gonchar: 12 gp; 8 points (4g, 4a)

--All 4 goals came on the power play for the Sarge.  He missed the one game due to the birth of a new daughter, so maybe the fact the new dad is ticking along despite the sleepless nights could be the most impressive part of his month.

Chris Kunitz: 13 gp; 11 points (5g, 6a)

--Pens were 7-0-1 when he got on the scoreboard and what Kunitz doesn't bring to the scoreboard (when he's playing physical and digging pucks out of corners) has made his teammates even better players.

Marc-Andre Fleury: 12 games (all starts), 9-1-2 record, 1.87 GAA, 93.0 save%, 1 shutout

--Didn’t give up more than 3 goals all month, seven times he yielded less than 2 goals.  The Penguins are putting the burden on Fleury and so far he's responded.  Last playoffs MAF's GAA was 1.97 and his save percentage was 93.3%.  Playoff form indeed.

WHO’S NOT

Ruslan Fedotenko: 13 gp, 5 points (1g, 4a)

--Take out the three point game against the Rangers and it looks worse…Rusty had a plus/minus of +2 so he wasn’t on the ice for many goals against, but considering he played mainly with Malkin, the production has to be there from his wingers

Petr Sykora: 10 gp, 2 points (1g, 1a)

--Hobbled by injury for a couple games, Sykora hasn’t bounced back, looking disorganized on his usual spot on Malkin’s right wing.  It’s sometimes streaky for goal scorers, so hopefully Sykora’s back in the swing of things soon.

Pascal Dupuis: 13 gp, 4 points (1g, 3a)

--Now that he’s not on Crosby’s line, not as big of a deal to lack the production now that he's a 4th liner and PK guy…Still Dupuis had just 15 shots on goal in the last 11 games, surely the team would benefit from him getting that big slapshot on goal more often.

Mathieu Garon: 1 game, 1-0-0 record, 4.00 GAA, 84.0 save%

--Thrown into the fire against the Bruins for his only start, Garon didn’t shine.  But he did get the victory that game.  It’s tough to be a backup goalie, but that’s the way it goes for a backup goalie.