Beau Bennett will be scratched tonight in Calgary for a second consecutive game. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

CALGARY, Alberta — For what the Penguins announced would be an optional skate this morning at Scotiabank Saddledome, it sure wasn’t optional for Beau Bennett. He remained on the ice even after the injured players, the backup goaltender and the coaches.

That signified two things, both meaningful:

• He won’t dress tonight against the Flames, marking a second consecutive healthy scratch, a scenario few would have thought possible not so long ago.

• The coaches are doing more than sending a message.

This was Mike Johnston’s explanation, given while Bennett was still on the ice: “We wanted to spend some time working with him on the ice, so we spent some time working with him. And then there’s the thing where your team is playing well and you’ve got to make a change if you’re going to bring him back in the lineup. We want to develop Beau. He’s a good, young player. He’s going to be a big part of our organization. Part of that development is getting him some extra work on the ice.”

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James Neal and Patric Hornqvist, traded for each other last summer, duel along the boards Sunday. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

News: The Penguins fell hard to the Predators, 4-0, in a faceoff with the NHL’s best team.

Views: This was a strange game for a slew of reasons.

Chief among them was that the home side largely dictated the flow, while the visitors sat back in Peter Laviolette’s standard 1-2-2 and waited. The Penguins mostly — and rightly — pressed the attack, and they created their share of chances, even outright breakaways on Nashville backup Carter Hutton. Maxim Lapierre and Nick Spaling clanged clean shots off the pipe behind Hutton. There were three power plays, too. Didn’t matter. Five shots, zip to show for them. This opponent, built on powerhouse defensemen Shea Weber and Seth Jones, blocked, saved and cleared.

“We talk about competing, but you’ve got to compete offensively, too,” Mike Johnston said afterward. “A team like Nashville, they’re going to keep you to the outside.”

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Maxim Lapierre celebrates a December goal in St. Louis against the Panthers. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

News: The Penguins just traded fourth-line centers with the Blues, acquiring Maxim Lapierre for Marcel Goc.

Views: Not much to see here. Goc is better on faceoffs, and they’re equally productive offensively — which is to say not at all — so this clearly came down to simple preference for grit over a specific skill set. Lapierre has only 16 penalty minutes this season, but he’s usually in the 60-70 range. I won’t begrudge Jim Rutherford and the coaching staff seeking more sandpaper.

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The Penguins and Flyers scrapped after Zac Rinaldo blindsided Kris Letang last Tuesday. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

News: Zac Rinaldo, the Flyers’ hired thug who blindsided Kris Letang last Tuesday in Philadelphia, was just suspended eight games by the NHL.

Views: That’s it?

Wow, I mean, you think you’ve seen maybe Exhibit A for a repeat offender willfully injuring an opponent, then not only expressing zero remorse but actually publicly gloating about it and then, on top of all that, blowing off his hearing with the league … and somehow the NHL’s Department of Hilarious Inconsistency gets eight games out of that.

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