The Pittsburgh Penguins have clinched the number one seed in the Eastern Conference, and they have done so without quite of their star players in the lineup. For the most part of the last month they have been without players like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Paul Martin, and Kris Letang.
So I say that why even bring them back during the regular season when they are healthy and risk them getting re-injured. Let them take the time to get all the way back to one hundred percent and ready for the playoffs. I know there are those of you who think that you can’t just throw them into a playoff environment when they haven’t played in a game in a while. These guys are some of the top athletes in the world, they’ll do just fine if they were to be held out until then.
There is no reason to have Malkin playing right now, and have him re-aggravate his shoulder like he has already done twice since the injury happened. Any hit could send him to the locker room for who knows how long. He’s considered by many to be the second best player in the world so let him get fully healthy or at least give him the few extra days of rest until the playoffs.
Really the only player I could see making a case for letting them play is Paul Martin and that’s cause he’s been out for a full month. He broke a bone in his hand that required surgery and has been out since before Crosby. He’s might be the only one out of these players to need to get back to it.
James Neal has been out since receiving an elbow from Michael Del Zotto a couple weeks ago. The elbow seemed to knock Neal out almost and gave him a concussion. Concussions are a serious thing these days and you have to be very careful with them. So you certainly shouldn’t rush him back, we have all seen what happens when you do that with what happened to Crosby. Let him get as many days as possible to be symptom free and back to feeling normal.
Letang has missed some time with a broken toe and other minor injuries. He’s been in the lineup a lot recently before missing a game the other night because of food poisoning. I’d say let him get some rest and back to full strength for a long playoff run hopefully.
And now for the most important injury out of all, Sidney Crosby. Crosby was struck in the face by a puck almost a month ago and it broke his jaw. He has been skating with the other injured players before practice and from what has been said seems to be looking great. There is no timetable for his return and there shouldn’t be any rush. As we have seen the Penguins are plenty capable of winning without him, and should be able to win their first round playoff matchup without him. Wait until he can come back and has the confidence to do so, and when he does it’s going to be scary how good this team could be.
I understand that if you take all these players out then the Penguins will just be playing with a bunch quality role players and won’t have much star potential on the ice, but who cares. The rest of the regular season means nothing for them. Yes I know that the President’s Cup is still up for grabs, but take this into mind, the last team to win both the President’s Cup and the Stanley Cup were the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. Since it was first given out in the 1986 season only seven teams have won both, so the odds are not on that team’s side.
