TribLive’s Seth Rorabaugh joins the “Breakfast With Benz” podcast for his weekly Penguins chat. And we’ve got a ton of ground to cover.
First off, what’s going on with Kris Letang? How bad is his injury?
No one seems to have a clear answer there. So we at least try to figure out how the Penguins will cope without him. John Marino could get top-pairing minutes with Brian Dumoulin while Letang is out.
If that happens, that raises the question of who skates with Jack Johnson on the bottom pairing. That might result in Juuso Riikola playing on his off-side. Or we may see Chad Ruhwedel for the first time this year.
Then there’s the power play. It needs to be fixed. Fast. Or, at least, it needs a few opportunities that result in finishes. The man-up unit is in an 0-for-20 drought even though, functionally, it seems to be doing some good things.
We also try to figure out if we should be concerned about Evgeni Malkin’s injury status again.
And most importantly, can the Penguins score a few against the New York Islanders this time? Mike Sullivan’s team is in Brooklyn Thursday, looking to get a small measure of revenge for last year’s playoff sweep.
But good luck cranking up the offense against this team. New York has won 10 in a row, and they have allowed a league-low 30 goals.
Seth and I tackle all of those topics and more.
