Penguins forward Rickard Rakell is expected to be out six to eight weeks after surgery to repair an injury to his left hand. Oddly enough, it hasn’t been officially placed on IR at the time of this post.
A tough breakthrough for both the team and Rakell, who had followed up a career season with an equally strong start to the current campaign (eight points in nine games, including three goals).
The Pens have drafted a winger Ville Koivunen from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as a replacement. The player from Oulu, Finland started the season with the big boys, but was assigned to the Baby Pens after two games.
Ville’s found his way and then some in Wilkes, with four goals and 11 points in just seven games. Dating back to his cameo last spring, the silky forward has recorded seven assists in 10 NHL games.
After a relatively healthy start to the season, two black and gold regulars have suffered long-term injuries in recent days. Defender Caleb Jones expected to miss eight weeks with a lower-body injury.
Divide the baby pens
Speaking of our top farm club, they started the season with a 7-0 deficit and have also outscored their opponents by a whopping 28-10. The question is: are the baby pens too good for the AHL?
Besides Koivunen, veteran Danton Heinen lit it up with four goals and a league-best 12 points in seven games. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a team like the Canucks were to play for him soon.
Among the children, Tristan Broz And Atley Calvert have four goals each. Avery Hayes has three. AHL Vets Sam Poulin, Valtteri Puustinen And Raphael Harvey Pinard scoring at point-per-game clips, or close.
Ryan Graven, Owen Pickering and rugged rookie Chase Pietila anchor a much-improved defense.
Between the pipes, phenomenon Sergei Murashov (1.40 goals against average and .949 save percentage) was out. Filip Larsson (1.46 GAA and 0.951 SV%) just as good.
It is a very welcome development for the organization as a whole to see the Baby Pens performing at such a high level and speaking of the excellent work Kyle Dubas and his staff have done to replenish the coffers of potential customers in a relatively short time.
I confess…
…I have been checking on the Rangers regularly to see how they are performing under the former Pens coach Mike Sullivan. And take a perverse kind of pleasure from their battle (3-4-2, shared last in the Metro).
Does that make me a bad person?
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