Risking Niski and Benny on the Jet

The Penguins have a nice problem: What do we do with all this talent? With Brooks Orpik and Dustin Jeffrey back in the line-up, Kris Letang returning from his two game suspension for Saturday’s game against New Jersey and Geno and Sid’s returns on the horizon, we are rolling deep. In fact, if the hockey gods quit taking a giant dump on the Pens, we may have a team at full health for the first time since January of last season very soon.

Tomorrow night, if all goes well, Tanger will be expected to be reunited with line-mate Orpik. As much as I enjoyed watching line Engo-Tango (Engelland and Letang), this pairing will put Tanger back on the right where he is used to playing and allow him more freedom to get in on offensive plays while Orp sticks with his role on the D.

 Someone has to sit. Even with Brian Strait out with a hyper-extended elbow, the blueliners are overflowing from the bench with all at full health from the permanent active roster. Right now it looks like Ben Lovejoy will have to ride the bench.

Benny, Matt Niskanen, Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin have all played in each of our first 9 games of the season. Benny’s coming up short. So far, Benny has looked rather lost on the ice, making poor decisions with the puck and generally not contributing much.Of the four, Ben has served the most time in the sin bin. 

We all jobbed Niski (Yeah, I spell it with an “i”. I like it better that way. Started it the day we acquired him.) in the pre-season, given his less than stellar start with us last year, but Niskanen has all of us eating our words. Thank, Baby Jesus. Next to Engo, he is the second most improved player this year. (I don’t count Neal as an improvement but that’s for a totally different blog.) 

Niski’s +/- is 1. He has a goal and 2 assists and just generally looks closer to the first round draft pick that Dallas picked up in 2005. Maybe he just feels more comfortable with Bylsma’s system now. But he is definitely stepping up, especially taking shots. He leads all of our D-men in shots on goal with 21. He is releasing quickly from the blue line, not wasting any opportunities to put the puck on the net, blocking shots and skating more aggressively. Niski is also drawing far less stupid penalties than he did last season, with only 4 minutes so far, compared with Ben’s 9. Benny also has yet to register points.

Looks like Matt’s jobber nickname “Riskanen” has been subdued. If Ben doesn’t do something to improve his game, he may be on a jet to Wilkes-Barre…if not further away when the trade deadline nears. I’d hate to see that, but he needs to find the player that appeared in the second half of last season and bring him back to life.

It's only October, but unfortunately for Benny, it looks like starting tomorrow he may be the odd man out.

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