The Upside of Injury

The Pittsburgh Penguins are hurting.

In last night's contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins roster looked more like an AHL roster than a NHL one.  Despite that, the Penguins skated away with a 3-1 victory - a trend of late as the Pens have won 9-10 - the one loss being the heart breaker to the Boston Bruins - and are doing with about half an actual NHL roster.  The Penguins injury problem though is troubling, only getting worse last night in that forward Jayson Megna will be out probably the rest of the week if not more with a lower body injury sustained last night.  All these injuries though could be just what the Penguins ordered.

No one can forget a few season ago when the Penguins line up was so injury plagued that the team was relying solely on Jordan Staal and his line mates (which consisted of departed forwards Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke) to score enough for the entire team.  Sidney Crosby was out long term.  Evgeni Malkin was out long term.  There was no real positives to be gained form the situation.  This time though, things are different.  It feels different.  The Penguins are not relying on any one line or person to achieve what the injured (or in James Neal's case suspended) stars did when they were in the line up.  The whole team is coming together and chipping in one gritty goal at a time and it's working.  The defense, down to one actual top 6 defenseman in Matt Niskanen, is playing beyond so far beyond it's years it that it looks like the Pens don't even need their fallen D regulars back.

So often around Pittsburgh you hear of how strong Pittsburgh's organization depth is, especially on D.  The problem is that all that talent is left to stagnate in the minors because the Pens have such a strong product already on the ice that it would be almost impossible to change it for any one player.  This recent brash of injuries has allowed the Pens D depth to do what they were always projected to do - win at an NHL level.  Matta, Dumoulin, Despres and Samuelsson all seem like NHL material and at least 2 of them would be on the starting rosters of any number of NHL teams.  Their play up to this point, although small, has been very impressive and during this time of the injury plague - it can only get better. This brash of injuries, horrible to the roster regulars, is a gift for those "depth" D in the Penguins organization.  This is the chance for them to improve their skills at the highest level possible and prove that they belong here so that next trade deadline or offseason the Penguins won't need to go after a big name free agent - they can save money and upgrade from within.

On a short side note, the Penguins forward depth is no where near what the D is but has impressed me none the less.  Specifically Megna and Connor who look like they should be on this roster instead of the likes of Chuck Kobasew.  Also, the Penguins no longer need to keep aging defensive forward Craig Adams - Zack Sill has shown me in this brief stint that he is the equivalent of Craig Adams except younger and, relatively, cheaper.  He should be on the Pens starting roster after Adam's contract expires.  His play thus far has warranted that.