3 Up 3 Down 11/14-11/18

Writers Note: Last week there seemed to be a bit of confusion about the format of this column, so I wanted to take a few lines to explain the intended format for this column. This column is supposed to highlight who had a good week statistically in comparison to their season average. I know the argument will be made that it is such a tiny sample size, but I will counter that the sample size is exactly what I want, a weekly snapshot of who is hot and who is not. If you are losing 70% of your faceoffs for the week shouldn't we say you are having a bad week? With that said, the following is a listing of three players who just finished a great week, and three players who had a bit of a tough time this past week.

3 UP

It was hard to narrow the list of great performances this past week down to three. There were many great performances I did not use, Evgeni Malkin's first star performance against the Rangers ,or Beau Bennett's best game of his career immediately comes to mind, but that is the nature of things when the team goes 3-0 on the week. So without any further ado, here are my choices for three players trending up for the past week.

Brandon Sutter

What a week for Sutter? He posted a 1 goal, 1 assist, +3 line for the week. But it was his work in the faceoff circle against the Rangers that really stood out. He went 15-2 against the Rangers, and .611 FO% for the week. He also chipped in 6 hits on the week, and helped a surging third line score multiple goals against Les Habitants Tuesday night.

Marc-Andre Fleury

I took alot of heat for putting Fleury in my down rankings last week, I still stand by that rating. His vital stats were down last week (even if it was his team's fault), thus the rating. This week his vital stats are way up. Marc-Andre Fleury was huge against the Rangers this week, he made timely saves to keep the team in the game, and came up roses in the shootout. But his(and the his defense's) most masterful performance was his 27 save shutout in Montreal Tuesday night. It was his fourth shutout of the year, and helped propel him to a .965 save percentage on the week. Great week by the Flower.

Steve Downie

Another of the 3rd liners who had a great week, Downie was exceptional in all phases of the game this past week. He was physical without going over the line (8 hits with only 4 PIM), he was able to score (1 goal, 1 assist), and he played significant amounts of time (13:08 average ice time). What more could you ask out of a third liner?

3 Down

This is really splitting hairs here, because the team as a whole has played really great this week. So I am left with two down, and one is not really a person.

Zach Sill

Statistically speaking Zach Sill had an unremarkable week. In his only game of the week he played roughly 7 minutes of ice time and did not really do anything to standout one way or the other. He is a fourth liner, and really his stats are in line with what you would expect. The problem is the Pens really need a winger to step up to help fill the void left by Dupuis, maybe I am being unfair to Sill here by projecting the drop off in skill on him, but there it is anyway.

Health

Yeah I know, not a person, but who else had a crappy week? Health really kicked the Penguins ass this week when Pascal Dupuis' blood clot was revealed to the public. On the flip side though health also brought Olli Maatta back to us so I guess it was not all that bad this week for health.

Corsi Relative/TOI Competition vs. Offensive Zone Starts for the Game Range.