Bold Predictions for the 2011-12 season

4. Ray Shero will drop acid and acquire a big name like Shane Doan or Ales Hemsky at the trading deadline.

Lol, nice.

1. The Penguins will go over their Vegas over/under of 101.5 points this season, and will finish in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference.

I’ll do you one better – Pens win first seed in the East!

5. Deryk Engelland will play more games this season than Ben Lovejoy.

Hope not – Lovejoy’s a much better all-around player.

7. Tyler Kennedy won’t match his goal/points total from last season

Agreed – with more competition in the Top 6 and healthy Sid/Geno, TK will have lower stats this year.

8. Evgeni Malkin will not lead the Pens in all of goals+assists+points categories this season

Maybe – Neal might give him a run for goals scored, but Geno’s gonna kill it in overall points – Geno for the Art Ross this year!

My predictions:
Eric Tangradi plays 20 games as a call-up when Sullivan and Kunitz are injured.
James Neal scores 35+ goals.
Letang finishes 2nd in Norris voting to Drew Doughty.
Cooke gets Shanna-banned once, but comes back.
Staal scores over 25 goals playing on the second line.
Despres plays nine games when Orpik and Engelland are injured, and impresses.

I could be a jerk and say that I think half those things will happen but not say which ones… :)

(For the record, those things are 1, 3, 6, 7, and 9. I’d love it if 10 is true as well, but that’s just too risky a call to make.)

Craig Adams will get 1000% more praise than deserved on the Pensburgh comments section!

Someone will say, did Crosby come back too soon?

while others will wonder why not all of the Pens are not scoring at a ppg pace.

That’s the only prediction I’ll make that matters. =)

Tyler Kennedy won’t match his goal/points total from last season.

Sadly, I think this one might be right. I really, really hope not. But we’ll see …

Also, how ’bout some Letestu love?
Mark Letestu will not be a one hit wonder, and will become a force in the faceoff circle.

1. Sullivan scores nine goals on the PP with a bunch of assists to boot, but never really gets going at even strength and winds up with ~45 points. (This still might prove enough to beat out Jagr, though.)

2. The Pens’ PK is just as good as it was last season, earning the best kill-rate in the league for the second year in a row.

3. Paul Martin receives more PP time than anyone expects him to, seeing as he’s the only left-handed defenseman we’ve got, and he posts a 40-point year. Conversely, Letang gets fewer opportunities due to Sullivan’s presence, and struggles his way to 50 (still a very good total, of course).

4. Joe Vitale is a very pleasant surprise. He winds up with a stat line similar to Letestu’s last year, with ample PK time and great faceoff numbers to boot. Letestu’s playing time ultimately suffers as a result.

5. Matt Niskanen causes people to stop clamoring for him to be traded.

6. Arron Asham is removed from the active roster for non-injury reasons at some point.

7. Crosby sits another month and a half, but posts the best PPG rate in the league upon his return and finishes top 10 in the league in scoring.

What say you all?

Cooke goes the entire season without suspension
Niskanen develops into a solid bottom 4 D
Neal tops the 40 goal plateau
Stall nets 30 goals and wins the Selke
Letang gets a Norris nomination
Fleury wins the Conn Smythe

‘cept 2 and 6
Cookie is off to a good start showing he can be effective w/ his new style of play
and as much as I’d like to see it happen, the Vegas O/U on Sullivan is 45 GP

to add a prediction: Dustin Jeffrey earns a Top role by mid-season

Cooke will score 2 goals in the first game.

Mark my words