Pens Points: Not Much to See Here

Not much going on news wise as the Penguins continue their bye week. The players have a few more days off before the team returns to practice at the end of the week to prepare to set off on the second half of the season.

The bye week will last a little longer than originally planned. The team announced last night that the start of their Sunday game against the Tampa Bay Lightning has been pushed back to 5 PM to accommodate the Steelers playoff game. [Penguins]

After leading the voting since the beginning, Pens’ captain Sidney Crosby has been selected as the captain of the Metropolitan Division squad for this season’s All-Star game to be held in Los Angeles. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Since being called up as an injury replacement, life has been pretty kind to Penguins’ defenseman Chad Ruhwedel. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Sidney Crosby can do it all on the ice, but one area he really excels at it his ability to skate and create space for himself that allows him to utilize his full complement of weapons. [Trib Live]

For all the talk of Crosby and his season so far, it is his counterpart Evgeni Malkin who has the lead in the NHL scoring race. Malkin was honored for his play, being named the NHL’s second star for the month of December. [Penguins]

News and notes from around the NHL...

Tuesday night marked the return of Shea Weber to Nashville since the summer blockbuster that sent him to the Montreal Canadiens for P.K. Subban. The Predators honored Weber with a video during a break in play. [Puck Daddy]

The Columbus Blue Jackets won their 16th game in a row Tuesday night. They are now one win shy of tying the Penguins’ league record of 17 consecutive victories. [The Cannon]