So the Penguins survived February, but it wasn't pretty. Finishing 6-6-2 in February, the Penguins went through a slew of injuries, made 2 trades with one being a long term acquisition, and saw the debacle on Long Island take place.
Somehow, the Pen's have survived this onslaught of terrible by simply adapting and overcoming. Using a constant up and down stream of Wilkes-Barre boys to keep the line up full of healthy bodies, and a little wheeling and dealing the team has been able to stay in the race, playing .500 hockey. It's been obvious they wouldn't need to do much more than this to make it into the playoffs, but it's the state of the team after getting to playoffs that many are worried about.
Nick Johnson, Arron Asham, Eric Tangradi, and Sidney Crosby are still out with concussion like symptoms. There is absolutely no news on Sidney Crosby, other than speculation. Notably, involving the Jason Arnott trade to Washington, it was speculated that the Penguins were also attempting to get Arnott but nothing ever materialized that Shero liked, so is this because they're worried that Crosby isn't going to be back at all this season, or was it simply to replace Geno for the time being while he is out with his torn MCL? Until Sid ever comes back that question may go unanswered.
Chris Kunitz participated in his first full practice today, and also participated in this month's mustache boy competition. Kunitz lost and is March's mustache boy. Zybenek Michalek is smiling with a lot less facial hair somewhere right now. It is still unknown when Kunitz will be back but it would factor to be relatively soon. Having Kunitz back with new additions Neal and Kovalev along with Letestu being back is a huge help to bolstering the offense.
Paul Martin and Tyler Kennedy will return to action tomorrow night in Toronto, this is good news as T.K went down prior to the game against Toronto on Saturday after practice. Paul Martin was injured by Sharpe of the Blackhawks on the 20th of February, after missing four games there was a noticeably large hole on defense in all of the matches Martin was missing in action. Losing Brooks Orpik also did not help the defensive corps any, after seeing all the previous injuries to the forwards, go figure after trading Goligoski the Pens lose two guys on defense.
Orpik is still on 3 weeks of additional recovery time for a broken finger, but is very expectant of coming back to play for the Pens in April to wrap up the season. Considering there are only 18 games left they need everyone healthy and back for the playoffs.
Brent Johnson is fully recovered and participated in the mustache boy shootout as a goalie. Dustin Jeffrey returned to play against the Hurricanes and Toronto during the back to back play. So the players who have returned or are returning are Dustin Jeffrey, Mark Letestu (19 days healing for a 4-6week injury), Tyler Kennedy, and Paul Martin. Chris Kunitz will join them some time next week most likely.
The biggest question though? Where in the world is Sidney Crosby?
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