Pens Points: Pens Fall in Minnesota 4-1

The Pens lost to Minnesotta 4-1 in the fifth preseason game. Here is an excellent and very detailed recap from Penguins Sauce. Here are all the goal, penalty and player assessments from the PensNation.

Jason Pominville had a hat trick, but the first star of the game was definitely Ilya Bryzgalov, who spent his time taking selfies with fans. With Kuemper and Backstrom in place and Harding eventually returning, his days on a PTO are numbered. Get this man into a broadcast booth, or give him a TV show or something. Hell be cheap too; the Flyers are paying him for the next 75 years.

Five questions with Zach Parise. Good thoughts and best wishes for his dad, although the prognosis is grim.

From here the Pens go to Detroit for the final preseason game, where they will hopefully be joined by their captain just in time to have some more Mike Babcock conversations during a 2-3-0 preseason. For his part, Babcock said to the Detroit Free Press that he doesn't think this is his final year in Detroit.

Was this the end for Jeff Zatkoff as a Penguin? Many are thinking that. He didn't play better than Greiss this preseason, that's certain, and there's only room for one of them. If he is sent down he would have to clear waivers, which is not likely to happen.

I'm not super comfortable with Gary Agnew running our PK, but there it is. What does he plan to do with it?

Kris Letang, Kris Letang. What will we get out of our mercurial defenseman this year? Ask me an easier question.

If you didn't get to it yet, here is the SBN NHL season preview. Here are the staff predictions for divisional races, playoffs and individual awards. There is fantastic content there.

Here we go. Rogers is cutting the fantastic HNIC montages. No, no, no, no, no.

Bob MacKenzie goes one-on-one with Connor McDavid, and we get to meet Jack Eichel, the new face of American hockey. Something is wrong with this kid. How can you be from Massachusetts and be a Canadiens fan? At any rate, finish #30 this year and you are guaranteed one of these two guys. This is the year to suck with style. One of these teams will be the lucky loser this year.

If Carolina trades Eric Staal, what was the whole point of the Jordan Staal exit from Pittsburgh? That kid should have just stayed put and we'd all have lived happily ever after.