For the first time since October 20, the Pittsburgh Penguins outscored their opponents by four goals on Saturday with a 6-2 win over the St. Louis Blues. The Penguins now have seven wins in their last nine games as they work their way back up the standings. As of this writing they are tied for third with the New York Islanders and are three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes. Everyone is staring well upwards at the New Jersey Devils, who have the second-best record in the League.
Kudos to Kasperi Kapanen, whose hat-trick against St. Louis represented a big breakthrough for the beleaguered right winger who has had a hard time justifying the contract extension he was given this past offseason. After a couple stints as a healthy scratch, his shooting percentage over the past three games is 40%: four goals on ten shots. Not exactly sustainable, but if there’s one guy who the Penguins sorely need to get going on a regular basis, it’s Kapanen. Any team that has hopes of a long playoff run needs three consistently productive lines, and Pittsburgh’s third line of Jeff Carter, Brock McGinn, and Kapanen has been consistently unproductive if anything. Now, if Kapanen can keep that shooting percentage up (right now it’s at 19.2%; his career high was 16.2% with the Penguins two years ago), Pittsburgh will be in good shape!
Tonight the Penguins face another team they’ve hung six goals on this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets, in the second of four meetings between the two teams this season and the first of two in Pittsburgh. Columbus is more or less where we expected them to be, nine points out of a playoff spot and is just three points ahead of the team with the worst record in the League, the Anaheim Ducks.
A slew of injuries to key players isn’t helping matters, most notably the likes of defensemen Zach Werenski and Jake Bean, and forward Jakub Voracek. Voracek in fact may not be back in the NHL ever again, as the 15-year veteran is recovering from yet another concussion. It’s always shitty when health problems derail a player’s career, but the issues seemed to escalate quickly for a guy who played 98.7% of his teams’ schedules in the first twelve seasons in his career. He was scheduled to hold a press conference yesterday, so it’s probable we have a better idea of his future already. (Ed: Voracek will miss substantial time for Columbus this season, but is not ready to call it quits yet.)
