Pens' Abuse Red Wings (Again) To Close Pre-Season at 5-1

The Pittsburgh Penguins wrapped up their pre-season last night the way they started it.

By beating up on their biggest Western Conference Rival, the Detroit Red Wings.

As they did when they opened up the pre-season (and the CONSOL Energy Center) by romping over the Wings 5-1, they took their abusive act to the road last night and whipped Detroit, 5-2, in their own building.

On a night when the Pens' played without Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Brooks Orpik, and the Wings' played with most of their big guns, including Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit was no match for Evgeni Malkin and company.

Geno had a goal and 3 assists to finish the pre-season with 6 points in 4 games, and his linemate, Mike Comrie, continued to be an offensive force for Pittsburgh, scoring two goals.  Both tortured Red Wings' netminder Chris Osgood in the game.

With his production last night, Comrie finished the pre-season with 4 goals and 5 points in 4 contests.

Alex Goligoski and Chris Kunitz had the other goals for the Boys of Winter in the game.  Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 22 of 24 shots in the Pittsburgh cage.

With the victory, the Penguins finished the pre-season with a 5-1 record, with the only defeat coming at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks on the road on Friday night, when the Pens' fell 5-2.

At this point, it looks like the Penguins are in mid-season form, and ready to open up the regular season on Thursday at CONSOL against the arch-rival Flyers in front of a national television audience.  The buzz is probably going to blow the roof off of the new building that night.

I'll have a season preview later this week before the opener, but prior to that, the Penguins have some roster decisions to make.

Cuts are expected later today or tomorrow, but there still isn't a great degree of clarity as to what Pens' GM Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma are going to do.

It looks like Mark Letestu is bound to stick, and that's a decision that I don't think will disappoint anyone.  Letestu has been one of the Penguins' best players throughout camp and the pre-season, resolving any real questions about whether or not he should be on the roster.

The most interesting decisions, however, are going to be whether the Penguins keep power forward Eric Tangradi and rookie blueliner Simon Despres.

Tangradi finished off a solid camp overall with some decent performances over the weekend.  He's been a fixture most of the time throughout the pre-season with Geno and Comrie on the second line and provides a big body and net-front presence the Penguins desperately need up front.

Sources indicate, however, that there are still mixed feelings in the organ-I-zation about whether they should keep Tangradi or send him down to Wilkes-Barre for the first part of the year, so finding out whether The Big Dog eats in Pittsburgh or across the Commonwealth starting later this week remains to be seen.

As far as Despres is concerned, he's impressed Penguins' brass with how quickly he's developed on the blueline.  Like Tangradi, he got in both exhibition games this weekend and continued to not look out of place.

If the Penguins keep Despres, they have until the 10th game of the year to decide to send him back to Junior hockey (he's ineligible to play in the AHL with the Baby Penguins) or keep him for the whole year and count this year as his first under the 3-year entry level contract he signed. 

I've continued to maintain that the Penguins could do worse by keeping him around.  Over the last 4 seasons, they've kept both fellow defenseman Kris Letang and Staal when they were in the same situation.  At the 10 game mark, Staal stayed, while Letang went back to junior hockey and dominated both there and at the World Junior Championships.

If Despres gets sent down -- whether now or at the 10 game mark -- the Penguins will be looking for that from him, too. 

The difficulty is that Despres already is dominating at the Junior level.  Last season, he was like a man amongst boys with the St. John Sea Dogs.

Then he played better in the playoffs.

What's working against Despres is that the guys he's in competition with for the 6th and 6th spots on the blueline -- mainly Ben Lovejoy, Deryk Engelland and Andrew Hutchinson -- are all ineligible for waivers, which means they have to clear before being sent down, and I know there's some concern among management as to whether they'll all get through.

Tangradi has a similar problem up front, actually, because the Penguins have 13 forwards on one-way contracts right now.

What's working FOR #42, however, is the fact that Staal is likely to start the season on the long term injury list, which means at least 10 games. 

The same fate could befall new winger Aaron Asham, who suffered a shoulder injury of still unknown severity on Friday night against the Blackhawks and could be out a while. 

In fact, it concerns me that the Penguins don't yet have a clear handle on the scope or nature of Asham's injury.  That suggests his absence is more likely to be measured in weeks -- or, perhaps, months -- rather than days. 

In any event, that, too, could help Tangradi stick, at least initially. 

It also might keep Tyler Kennedy around for at least a little while longer.

TK had a real good weekend against Chicago and Detroit --- particularly last night against the Red Wings.  He created multiple scoring chances, and hit two posts. 

I'm still uncertain whether he has a long term future here, but it looks like he's going to stay in town for now.  He's still serve himself well to get more back to being aggressive on the forecheck and in the corner, rather than try to just be a scorer.

As soon as I receive word on the players the Penguins have both cut and kept, I'll get the news up, so check back often.

Until then ....