What's worse than Evgeni Malkin on the point for the power play? Why Evgeni Malkin AND Sidney Crosby on the point for the power play!
According to Root Sports reporter Dan Potash via twitter:
@ROOTSPORTSPIT: Letang joins first PP unit but is not on the point. Malkin and Geno are up top...I meant Sid and Geno up top, not Malkin and Geno. -DP
This could be a case of Potash typing too fast or the Pens rotating around to make it SEEM like Crosby and Malkin were back and Kris Letang wasn't, but if this is true, this is going to be a mess.
While Crosby and Malkin both have great vision and passing ability, think of a goal Sidney Crosby has scored. He's probably been within feet of the net. Crosby works excellently down low and near the cage in the high-traffic areas. Same really for Malkin, though his best area is probably a little further back, so he has room to wind up one of his big shots.
Usually it's not a good rule of thumb to have two forwards playing defense on the power play. And it's not a good idea to keep your two most talented players the furthest from the net - where a lot of their shots will be blocked away by penalty killers who are so well trained these days to use their legs and sticks to take away shooting lanes almost as soon as they open up.
We'll see how things look for the Pens PP tonight, but let's cross fingers that things are a little more conventional than what Potash tweeted this morning.