Empty Netters

Bookmark and Share

The Penguins, hockey and more, by Seth Rorabaugh.

Join to add your comments
Guide to commenting

Get ready! The Winter Olympics countdown has begun!
Bookmark: Our Olympics Section
Preview: News, multimedia, photos
Access: Bios, background, schedules
Watch for: Our live coverage.

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

Penguins Blogs/Sites

General Hockey Blogs

General Hockey Sites

Empty Netters Stuff

Pittsburgh Sports Blogs

Atlantic Division Blogs

Northwest Division Blogs

Pacific Division Blogs

Southeast Division Blogs

Northeast Division Blogs

Central Division Blogs

Adams Division Sites

Smythe Division Sites

Norris Division Sites

Archives

Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09

The Penguins have released their significantly less star-studded lineup for tonight's preseason game in Toronto. We guess since those Crosby and Malkin bums couldn't pull out a win last night, they're getting benched:

FORWARDS

Matt Cooke-Jordan Staal-Tyler Kennedy
Chris Conner-Dustin Jeffrey-Ruslan Fedotenko
Nick Johnson-Mike Rupp-Konstantin Pushkarev/Ryan Bayda
Paul Bissonnette-Wyatt Smith-Wade Brookbank

DEFENSEMEN

Jay McKee-Alex Goligoski
Mark Eaton-Robert Bortuzzo
Ben Lovejoy-Nate Guenin

GOALTENDERS

Brent Johnson, John Curry

With Toronto's tougher new roster, the chances of seeing more than a few fights involving the likes of Bissonnette, Brookbank, Rupp, Bayda (above) and others are pretty good.

Note: Tonight's game is once again available through NHL Network in the United States and TSN2 in Canada. A radio broadcast is also available on the team's new HD radio station and through its Web site. We'll attempt another live blog, but nothing is guaranteed.

Update: This is the Maple Leafs' lineup according to the team's radio affiliate:

FORWARDS

Viktor Stalberg-Tyler Bozak-Christian Hanson
Jiri Tlusty-Mikhail Grabovski-Nikolai Kulemin
Jay Rosehill-Nazem Kadri-Lee Stempniak
Jamal Mayers-Wayne Primeau-Rickard Wallin
 
Defence
Tomas Kaberle-Mike Komisarek
Francois Beauchemin Luke Schenn
Ian White-Carl Gunnarson

Goalies

Vesa Toskala, Joey MacDonald

This is a relatively tame lineup by Brian Burke standards considering the likes of Colton Orr and Andre Deveaux are sitting.

(Photo: Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)

Posted Sep 22 2009, 10:11 AM by Seth Rorabaugh

Comments

GhostWalker38 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 10:25 AM

Cool, I hope to have more fight highlights than leafs goals tonight!

PensRock wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 10:45 AM

Hey - don't forget us frozen canucks who -you know- only invented the game. PENS vs LEAFS will be carred on TSN2 up here, and in HD no less!

Seth Rorabaugh wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 11:02 AM

Apologies to those north of the 49th parallel PR.

jai20 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 11:14 AM

If you enjoy fighting and hate talent, tonight's your night.  I've played on better dekhockey teams than the one the Pens are sending to Toronto.

hrc1983 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 1:26 PM

Seth, what is your take on why we have so much enforcer-depth on our team / working through the system?  Godard, Rupp, Bisonette, Brookbank, Boogard... its overkill, right?

PS.  I went to Norwin and worked in the main office of the HS with your mother, great lady ;)

kpa42 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 1:45 PM

I realize I'm not Seth answering here, but I'd guess the enforcer depth comes from Shero wanting people he can plug into the lineup at any given time to try to keep people honest with our big-name guys.  Having two of the league's 4-5 "premier" players in a division with the goons in Philly and in the East with trying-to-turn-into-Philly Toronto...I prefer the actual athletic/speed/skill brand of hockey, but I can see why Ray wants these guys around.

hrc1983 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 2:12 PM

Ok, but isn't one player sufficient for that?  I mean assuming Godard and quite possibly Rupp make the line up, that still leaves Bisonnette, Boulerice, Brookbank and Boogard in Wilksbarre.  I guess the Penguins are trying to re-incarnate the "Killer B's" in pittsburgh.

PensRock wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 2:15 PM

The lineup could also present a test to see how Cookie, Jordan & TK perform as the main attraction.

Eager to see GoGo and new signing McKee hit the ice. Haven't seen them play yet.

Somewhere on the net I'm SURE there is a highlight of that wicked elbow Jay delivered to Lemieux's head during his stay in Buffalo.

kpa42 wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 3:32 PM

Well, of the six players listed, there's maybe 2.5-3 people ready for full-time NHL play at this point, I think.  Rupp and Godard are both capable of serving some tough guy minutes, though Rupp I think is probably a little better at the rest of the hockey game...as much as I love Godsy, he's not exactly Mr. Soft Hands.

Of the rest, I think only Bisonnette is really ready to put in any time on the NHL level, and from what we've seen in the preseason so far, I can't imagine him or ANY of the AHL guys stepping up full-time to the NHL in any way.  Tangradi has shown some goods, but needs to keep developing.  He or Caputi might be good for an injury call up.  But the rest of 'em...put 'em back in the oven because they're still a little on the raw side.

Why Didn't I get to see Roberto? wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 4:00 PM

Seth,

Saw this ESPN insider headline and wondered if you could shed some light to those of us without insider accounts (if you have one)

"Malkin may throw NHL under bus"

http://espn.go.com/nhl/

It was on ESPN NHL's homepage in the headlines section and it was the last posted (in case you can't find it).

Seth Rorabaugh wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 4:27 PM

hrc1983, I'm not sure it's really indicative of any sort of philosophical shift with the organization. Only two of those players, Godard and Rupp, will be in the NHL this season pending injuries. And Rupp can actually play some. He's not a straight up goon.

The others are just there for organizational depth I suppose. If the team can develop a goon internally, that's cheaper than signing one in free agency.

Amazing to think that when Shero took over, they did't really have a goon. Chris Thorburn kind of filled that role by default but he could actually play a little.

Why Didn't I get to see Roberto? ,

Something tells me that was related to the fantastic Q&A Malkin did with Yahoo! where he said he would play in the 2014 Olympics without the NHL's consent.

Why Didn't I get to see Roberto? wrote re: Lineup in Toronto - 9-22-09
on Tue, Sep 22 2009 4:39 PM

Thanks Seth.  Saw that in your assists, but didn't have time to take a glance.  I def will now.  Thanks for the awesome work on the blog.  I know I'm not a huge poster on here or anything, but when I saw that headline I knew exactly where to come for info.