The Pittsburgh Penguins received a boost the other night from one of the best players in their franchise history. Evgeni Malkin had a three point night in a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche. It appears he won’t be the only franchise icon to be returning this week.
All signs point to Sidney Crosby returning to game action after his knee injury in Italy during the Winter Olympics
This is terrific news. While the out of town results haven’t been favorable to the Penguins recently, Pittsburgh has done enough to hold onto second place in the Metropolitan Division in Malkin and Crosby’s absence.
Sid should be ready to go
Over the past week and a half Sidney Crosby has looked strong during his controlled drills. Mitch Marner spilled the beans last week when he said Crosby was suffering from a grade 2 MCL sprain. While I would certainly never compare my hockey ability or hockey fitness to Sidney Crosby I can speak to the recovery of this injury.
I had his exact injury in college. It was about a five week process for me. At the three week mark I could practice on it and look the part in a controlled environment, much like what Sid was doing in his practice sessions. While I was able to run through controlled drills and make cuts this was without the threat of being physically checked. A game environment required more strength due to the various scenarios where you need to brace hard for contact at a moment’s notice.
The final stretch was just building up the strength and making sure your other stabilizing muscles were still functioning properly so you don’t favor the injured leg and create new injuries. With Sid seemingly through this process he should be able to seamlessly return and look like himself, immediately.
Lines back to being balanced
With Sidney Crosby’s return to the lineup the forward group will now return to being properly balanced. No longer will Rickard Rakell be needed to play center, a position that isn’t natural for him. Sid can return to playing with both he and Bryan Rust.
One of the best developments of this year is that Evgeni Malkin was finally given some competent linemates. His line with Tommy Novak and Egor Chinakhov should continue their earned chemistry and provide another legit scoring line.
Ben Kindel will return to playing with his two behemoth linemates in Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau. Mantha has been an x factor this year in what has been a career season for him. Playing with Kindel will not impede or hold him back from continuing to be a scoring threat.
The fourth line is without Blake Lizotte, who will be out at least four weeks. Even so, given the strength of the other three lines a Soderblom-Dewar-Acciari line should be in a position to where they can still be effective.
One of the biggest areas that will be improved will be the #1 power play. Without Sid and Geno it was rudderless and looked disjointed. Even if it doesn’t look crisp tonight (Carolina pretty aggressive on kill) I think they will find their groove soon enough. The second unit of Letang, Chinakhov, Novak, Mantha, and Kindel isn’t too shabby, either.
The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off of a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night. Pittsburgh stole a point against Carolina the last time these teams met last week. This time around both Crosby and Malkin will be in the lineup, just like it should be.
