Pittsburgh Penguins

Column: Penguins find healthy perspective

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Detroit Red Wings v Pittsburgh Penguins

Blake Comeau is congratulated on his first-period goal by Evgeni Malkin and Simon Despres. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

None of this has been all that complex.

In fact, if surveying the Penguins’ problems spanning this starcrossed 2014-15 season, it can pretty much be condensed to these 15 words, spoken by Patric Hornqvist late Wednesday after that 4-1 rout of the Red Wings at Consol Energy Center: “We’ve got one hell of a hockey team.”

Wait for the other seven words. They followed a brief pause.

“When we’ve actually got our hockey team.”

Oh, yeah. The guy doesn’t just take a straight line to the net, you know.

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On location: Penguins 4, Red Wings 1

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Getting ready for faceoff …

Game: Penguins (30-15-8) vs. Detroit Red Wings (31-12-9), 8:10 p.m., Consol Energy Center

Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (25-11-5, 2.25) vs. Petr Mrazek (12-4-1, 2.50)

TV, radio: NBC Sports (national), 105.9 the X

Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes

UPDATE 7:32 p.m.: The Penguins will play Blake Comeau and Beau Bennett tonight. The scratches are Zach Sill and Christian Ehrhoff. The top two lines are what you’d expect, with Comeau back on the No. 2. Brandon Sutter will center Bennett and Nick Spaling. Maxim Lapierre will center Steve Downie and Craig Adams.

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Podcast: All Penguins w/ Madden

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Here’s the podcast of my weekly visit on 105.9 the X with Mark Madden, this one at the Blue Line Grille across from Consol. Not surprisingly, we went all pucks.

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Morning Java: Home improvement

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

From someone who gets stuck watching way too much HGTV as background noise, here are three wholly unsolicited home improvement suggestions for our big-league sports facilities.

Tuesday 12 Qs: Borts, Big Mac, Brandon, baseball

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Robert Bortuzzo and the Canucks' Zack Kassian fight Saturday in Vancouver. -- GETTY

Robert Bortuzzo and the Canucks’ Zack Kassian fight Saturday in Vancouver. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Welcome to Tuesday 12 Qs, our chat that takes place each week at 9 a.m. and offers you a chance to carry the conversation. (Which undoubtedly is a great idea given how sensationally I’m recovering from seven flights in six days!)

Use the comments below to submit an entry. No more than one per person, please. Submit early if you prefer, and I’ll pick from that batch to get rolling, then monitor new entries once we go live.

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UPDATE 9 a.m.: And away we go …

turk482: Everyone seems focused on a top-six winger, but watching the Pens in some recent struggles, it seems that they miss the physical presence of a Brooks Orpik-like defenseman more than another winger. Neither Robert Bortuzzo, Scott Harrington or Rob Scuderi seem to fill that need. Should this be their trade deadline focus?

DK: It is, actually, as I reported from Western Canada. And yes, it absolutely should be.

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Column: Packing up Penguins’ pluses, minuses

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Steve Downie can’t get the puck past the Canucks’ Ryan Miller Saturday night in Vancouver. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — “Ugh,” Brandon Sutter was saying, or something that sounded suspiciously like that. “Nothing there. Just nothing. Maybe the first 10 minutes.”

Yeah, maybe not even that.

Canucks 5, Penguins 0.

And it wasn’t anywhere near that close.

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The visitors looked fatigued, frustrated and — let’s face it — they played lousy on top of all that. It made for one seriously flat finish to a Western Canada trip that opened Wednesday with a take-care-of-business shutout of the awful Oilers and peaked Friday with a full-throttle shutout of the contending Flames.

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On location: Canucks 5, Penguins 0

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Getting ready for faceoff …

Game: Penguins (30-14-8) vs. Vancouver Canucks (28-19-3), 10:08 p.m., Rogers Arena

Goaltenders: Thomas Greiss (5-2-3, 2.60) vs. Ryan Miller (24-13-1, 2.41)

TV, radio: Root Sports (local), CBC (Canada), 105.9 the X

Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes

UPDATE 8:10 p.m. Mike Johnston strongly suggests Beau Bennett and Scott Harrington, both healthy scratches so far on this trip, will play tonight. We’ll see.

9:57 p.m.: Neither Bennett nor Harrington will play. They’re the scratches again. Weird. Johnston really went out of his way to make it sound like they would.

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Column: Kunitz must be more than a mirage

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Chris Kunitz lunges through a pack of Flames for a loose puck Friday night in Calgary. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

CALGARY, Alberta — Marc-Andre Fleury carved another slice of franchise history with his eighth shutout, this on 21 saves in the Penguins’ 4-0 snuffing of the Flames Friday night at Scotiabank Saddledome.

“I’m proud of it,” Fleury said afterward. “It’s a good feeling.”

No doubt, but the best feeling among the visitors?

Sidney Crosby scored two sensational goals, on a one-handed tip off the rush and on a partial-break rocket past Jonas Hiller.

“I felt good,” the captain said. “It felt nice to get rewarded.”

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Again, no doubt. But the best feeling of all?

Be very certain that belonged singularly to one seriously beleaguered Chris Kunitz, he of the three primary assists, relentless wheels and exceptional puck decisions.

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On location: Penguins 4, Flames 0

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BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

CALGARY, Alberta — Getting ready for faceoff …

Game: Penguins (29-14-8) vs. Calgary Flames (29-20-3), 9:08 p.m., Scotiabank Saddledome

Goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (24-11-5, 2.30) vs. Jonas Hiller (17-14-2, 2.31)

TV, radio: Root Sports, 105.9 the X

Online: GameCenter / Multimedia / Official game notes

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News/views: Penguins pushing Bennett hard

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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.

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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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