I was going to post this after the Devils game, before I heard the Neal news and the extent of Staal's injury. It almost seems unimportant in light of the bigger issues we're about to deal with, but in some ways these issues are going to take center stage now without those guys to lean on.

I'm no bridge-jumper, so I'll remain cautiously optimistic as with last year that the Pens will somehow find ways to win. Lately they haven't been, and it's easy to point a finger at the injuries, which are certainly a contributing factor. But the injuries mask other issues as well. These Pens, including the healthy ones, don't look like the Pens of a couple years ago, or even last December. In the later days of Therrien and the early days of Bylsma, the Pens played with determination, but also with skill. Highlight reels featured Pens goals. Passing plays like the Devils executed the other night were fairly regular. Remember the Kennedy goal in game 3 of the 09 Finals? Now, some of that magic is gone, even among players who are capable of it. But without grasping at old intangibles, let's look at some things the Pens are dealing with right now. These are hard areas to fill with a trade because they're systemic, but it may not be Bylsma's fault either.

1) Missing nets - It all comes down to execution for the Pens, as we know, and many of their best opportunities are shot wide or fanned on, or they don't have the strength to get to pucks. The amount of times Malkin alone has missed the net is staggering. It's not just him though. Relating to this is accuracy. The Pens throw pucks at the net, but only Neal really seems to be able to pick a spot. Everyone else shoots and hopes.

2) Sloppy D coverage - Martin was an easy whipping boy back in October and November, but given his improved play before his injury, and his absence in December, it's easy to see it's not just him. Even the injuries on the back end don't quite explain it, because it's just as often Orpik messing up as it is Sneep or Despres. The problem isn't with the defensemen individually but with the five-man D coverage. Last year the Pens suffocated their opponents and never let them get good shots on net. Recently, the Pens have done a good job of limiting shots by holding offensive zone time, but there are too many costly breakdowns that result in opportunistic goals for the other team [incidentally, another Pens problem is that they don't cash in on their own opportunities often enough]. The Rangers blocked shots left and right, they collapsed 5 men deep, they hounded the puck. The Pens seem content with passive positioning, but it hasn't been working. Gotta stop letting the forwards wait for the D to do the work and pass to them at the blue line.

3) Forcing plays/bad passing/general sloppiness - They've done a good job in the last few games of holding offensive zone time, but it hasn't often been dominant offensive zone time. The cycle hasn't looked threatening, for one. Passing has been a huge problem too. There was a shift in the last game where there were about 4 or 5 bad passes in a row that kept forcing them further back into their own zone despite the other team changing and applying no pressure. Passes have not been on the tape. It gets worse in the offensive zone, where the passes are poorly thought out, not looking for the open man. I start to wish the Pens would watch the Flyers and Rangers more, who seem to know what to do to create and then cash in on opportunities. The Pens also rely on crisp passing for their transition game, on which their offense thrives. This, unfortunately, does come back to injury. Nobody was better than Letang on this. But the other D have also been touted for their puck moving/transition skills, and it hasn't been as evident this year. I haven't liked us through the neutral zone at all.

4) Bad line combos - This one is debatable for sure, but Bylsma has been reminding me a bit more of last year's playoffs where he refused to adapt his lines when they weren't making sense. Initially I liked the 14-17-18 combo a lot. It worked well for a couple weeks. But then it didn't for at least 6 or 7 games. Kunitz and Neal wanted to be in the same place at the same time and kept getting in each other's way. Instead of reuniting Kuni and Dupuis and giving some more punch to that line, and instead of reuniting the lethal 26-71-18 line, Bylsma did nonsensical things like put Adams with Dupuis while Sullivan was left on the third line. Now with the injuries, more difficult decisions have to be made, and I'm glad I'm not HCDB, but I will be very disappointed if Tangradi isn't given a shot with Malkin or Dupuis. There's no real excuses about lack of scoring wing openings for him. He plays a similar game to Neal. Either slot him in that spot, or let him play 2nd line, but if they call him up, play him on the 4th line, and put Adams or Cooke or Vitale in a scoring line role, there's something seriously wrong there. Nothing to lose at this point, let's see if Big Dog is worth the hype by giving him the NHL minutes he needs to grow. If he's not worth it, at least we'll know and maybe we can get something for him at the deadline.

It's obviously not as simple as all that, but those have been my observations over the last few weeks. There's any number of other factors to bring in as well, but I don't want to dump on the team too hard, especially given the tremendous odds they have to face. I'll stick with these guys to the end, but even decimated I know they have more in them. Time to get back to the disciplined, structured play from last year, and maybe when we start getting healthy the highlight-reel skill plays will start to come back.

Friday's 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers met with such critical acclaim that the Pens put on an encore performance Saturday night vs the Devils. Martin Brodeur's 41-save performance capped off a back-to-back offensive nightmare that saw the Pens throw 80 shots on net and score only twice. The weekend's action left Brooks Orpik with plenty to say.

Check out our photos from the game after the jump.

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As you may have heard, I took a little road trip between Christmas and New Year's this year -- for no good reason besides awesome. The plan was simple: five cities in five days to watch ten teams play five games. So on Boxing Day I hopped in my car just outside of Toronto and started my trip. I traveled through 1 province, 10 states, and also DC (plus another state if you count my trip home for Christmas...). I put almost 3000 Km on my car, found out that Amtrak can actually run on time if it tries, and discovered some absolute gems in the world of hockey. In a word, it was splenderific.

Follow me after the jump for excessive ramblings on everything from the games I watched to the arenas I watched them in, the fan-bases I watched them with, and the former Penguins who played in them. And also a poll.

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The following is a list of college hockey games that will be televised (national or local) that feature a Pittsburgh Penguins Draft Pick.

Note that Beau Bennett had wrist surgery on December 8 and may not play in some of these games.

The stats for all these players can be found here.

NBC Sports Network is formerly Versus.

This information came from uscho.com but the TV Networks can change any of this at any time.

January 7, 8:05 ET, Big Ten Network, Notre Dame (Bryan Rust) @ Minnesota

January 13, 7:35 ET, CBS Sports Network, Western Michigan @ Notre Dame (Bryan Rust)

January 13, 8:35 ET, NBC Sports Network, Minnesota-Duluth @ Nebraska-Omaha (Josh Archibald)

January 13, 9:35 ET, Root Sports Rocky Mountain, Bemidji State @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

January 20, 7:00 ET, Time Warner Cable Sports New York, Dartmouth @ Cornell (Nick D'Agostino)

January 20, 7:00 ET, New England Sports Network (NESN), Providence (Alex Velischek) @ Boston University

January 20, 7:05 ET, NBC Sports Network, Michigan @ Notre Dame (Bryan Rust)

January 21, 7:35 ET, CBS Sports Network, Michigan @ Notre Dame (Bryan Rust)

January 27, 7:00 ET, NBC Sports Network, Yale (Kenny Agostino) @ Harvard

January 27, 7:30 ET, CBS Sports Network, Colgate @ Cornell (Nick D'Agostino)

January 27, 8:05 ET, Big Ten Network, St. Cloud State (Ben Hanowski) @ Minnesota

January 28, 8:05 ET, Fox Sports North, Minnesota @ St. Cloud State (Ben Hanowski)

January 29, 4:00 ET, Fox College Sports, Providence (Alex Velischek) @ Merrimack

February 3, 7:30 ET, NBC Sports Network, Cornell (Nick D'Agostino) @ RPI

February 3, 7:30 ET, CBS Sports Network, Providence (Alex Velischek) @ New Hampshire

February 3, 8:05 ET, Big Ten Network, St. Cloud State (Ben Hanowski) @ Wisconsin

February 3, 9:35 ET, Root Sports Rocky Mountain, Colorado College @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

February 4, 7:00 ET, New England Sports Network (NESN), Vermont @ Massachusetts-Lowell (Scott Wilson)

February 10, 7:00 ET, Time Warner Cable Sports New York , Yale (Kenny Agostino) @ Colgate

February 10, 9:35 ET, NBC Sports Network and Fox Sports North, Minnesota @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

February 11, 7:05 ET, Comcast Television Michigan, Notre Dame (Bryan Rust) @ Ferris State

February 11, 9:05 ET, Root Sports Rocky Mountain and Fox Sports North, Minnesota @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

February 17, 7:30 ET, NBC Sports Network, Dartmouth @ Yale (Kenny Agostino)

February 17, 7:35 ET, CBS Sports Network, Notre Dame (Bryan Rust) @ Miami Ohio

February 17, 8:05 ET, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Denver (Beau Bennett) @ Wisconsin

February 17, 9:35 ET, CBS Sports Network, Nebraska-Omaha (Josh Archibald) @ Colorado College

February 18, 8:05 ET, Fox Sports Wisconsin, Denver (Beau Bennett) @ Wisconsin

February 24, 8:35 ET, CBS Sports Network, Michigan State @ Notre Dame (Bryan Rust)

February 24, 8:35 ET, Fox Sports North, Minnesota @ Nebraska-Omaha (Josh Archibald)

February 24, 9:35 ET, NBC Sports Network, North Dakota @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

February 25, 7:05 ET, Comcast Television Michigan, Michigan State @ Notre Dame (Bryan Rust)

February 25, 8:05 ET, Fox Sports North, Minnesota @ Nebraska-Omaha (Josh Archibald)

February 25, 9:05 ET, Root Sports Rocky Mountain, North Dakota @ Denver (Beau Bennett)

March 2, 8:35 ET, NBC Sports Network, Denver (Beau Bennett) @ Nebraska-Omaha (Josh Archibald)

Thursday night at Consol Energy Center wasn't about the battle for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. It wasn't even the usual grudge match between two cross-state rivals. It was all about the return of two former Penguins, both legendary in their own way. And what a return it was for Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr. While both received much different greetings from the fans (constant boos for Jagr, a smattering of boos that turned into a standing ovation for Talbot when a video tribute to him was played on the big screen), they both ended up making important contributions in Philadelphia's 4-2 victory. Check out our photos from the game after the jump.

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I'm by no means a capologist, so I was wondering if someone could explain to me how the long-term injury reserve works. For example, if Sid goes on the LTIR, the Pens still pay him his $8.7, but does it come off the cap? Last season, this gave us room to bring in Kovalev. Hopefully Sid is back sooner than later, I was just wondering how it works. Any insight is much appreciated!

Again, going with the theme of injuries, I'm trying to get a little interaction from everyone, and to help you pass the time. I saw someone post something somewhere that the players injured right now would make the ultimate Cup team, and would most likely win the whole thing. With that said I'm going to look at the injured list, which you can find here again courtesy of Yahoo. Here are my lines.

Forwards:

Simon Gagne - Sidney Crosby - Brian Gionta

David Booth - Stephen Weiss - Devin Setoguchi

Guillaume Latendress - Scott Gomez - Ian Laperriere

Daniel Carcillo - Nathan Gerbe - Patrick Eaves

Defense:

Chris Pronger - Kris Letang

Shea Weber - Marc Staal

Mark Giordano - Tyler Myers

Goalies:

Brian Boucher

Rick DiPietro

Goalie pickins' were slim, of course, but I would try everything in my power to get my boy Pechurskiy on to this team. I think my D corps are the strongest, mixture of strength and mobility, offense and defense. My forward lines could maybe use a little jumbling, but can you imagine this team? Almost makes you want to try and see if it's doable on NHL 12.

Let's see what everyone else thinks.

Is the reason for the cucussions that the game has gotten so much faster? I think that is part of the reason. Players are bigger and faster. The rules changes to allow more open ice skating has put players at risk for blind side hits. The strict enforcement of no hits to the head will decrease the amount of head hunting. The medical precautions when a concussion is suspected will decrease the number of 2nd hits which can make it even worse. But is that enough?

Hockey players wear helmets that are inferior to even high school football helmets from 20 years ago. Why can't hockey take football's lead and develop and mandate better helmets for all players? Is it that hockey players do not want to look like aliens? Develop better helmets with more padding/suspension, paint them black and put the logo on the right side only. You'll fit right in.

I agree player safety should be priority #1, but the equipment companies have a role to play.

Penguins' Engelland suspended three games for hit on Kruger

So, the Hammer of Shanny is laid upon us again... Losing another defenseman for a few games seems like the rule rather than the exception these days.

Maybe one game more than what I thought, but a suspension was warranted here. Just a bad decision by a fine a clean defenseman. I just hope some of the other guys gets healthy soon... A bit tired of this recall of healthy bodies from WBS on a nightly basis.

Thoughts?

(Editor's Note: There is no evidence behind these trades. It is mere speculation/"would you if you could?" sort of talk. - FrankD)

Paul Martin, , and a third round pick for Luke Schenn and Carl Gunnarson.

Evgeni Malkin for Corry Perry and a first round pick.

Aron Asham and a third round pick for Steve Ott.

Chris Kunitz and a first round pick for Devin Setoguchi.

Sidney Crosby for Rick Nash and a first round pick(1st)

Matt Cooke and Evgeni Malkin for Brian Boyle, Derek Stephan, Brandon Dubinsky, Mike Rupp, and a first round pick.

Paul Martin and Zybenek Michalek for Ryan McDonaugh, Micheal Del Zotto, and a first round pick.

Marc-Andre Fleury and a second round pick for Tuuka Rask and Milan Lucic.