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Brandon Manning To Meet With Player Safety

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The Philadelphia Flyers lost to their biggest rivals in the latest outdoor game, and now may be without one of their top-six defensemen after a late hit in Saturday night’s game.

NHL Player Safety announced that Brandon Manning will have a hearing on Monday morning for his hit on Penguins rookie Jake Guentzel. Early in the second period, Manning hit Guentzel high and late after the young Penguin used his skate to deflect a pass up ice to Sidney Crosby (link to video on Sportsnet’s YouTube page). Guentzel did not see Manning coming, as he was watching the play move up the ice. The hit came approximately two seconds after Guentzel was no longer in possession of the puck. It appeared that Manning had stepped up to throw an open-ice hit, but the puck was moved faster than he anticipated, making his hit interference. Guentzel was not injured on the play.

There was no penalty called on the play, however NHL Player Safety referred to the play as interference in their tweet. Manning has no prior history of supplemental discipline, so while this will probably lead to a suspension, it likely won’t be very long.

The Penguins defeated the Flyers 4-2 at Heinz Field. Guentzel finished the game with a pair of assists, giving him 14 points in 23 games played this season. Manning was held off the scoresheet, save for a holding penalty late in the second.

Penguins Place Kris Letang On IR

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Five days ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins were riding high with a five-game winning streak. Now, they’ve lost three games in a row and will be without their best defenseman for the foreseeable future.

The team placed Kris Letang on Injured Reserve (IR) on Monday morning; Letang left Saturday night’s loss in Detroit after just two minutes of ice-time, in which he scored a goal. The injury came exactly one month after his last injury, which was also a lower-body injury.

In a following move, the Penguins recalled winger Jake Guentzel and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel from the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins. Guentzel has 42 points in 31 AHL games, with three goals and an assist in five games at the NHL level. Ruhwedel has 16 points in 28 games in the AHL, and has a goal and assist in five NHL games.

According to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, these were the lines when the Penguins skated on Monday morning:

Sheary-Crosby-Rust
Guentzel-Malkin-Hornqvist
Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel
Kunitz-Cullen-Wilson

Maatta-Daley
Cole-Schultz
Warsofsky-Ruhwedel-Oleksy

Cap Friendly reports that the Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) savings from Pascal Dupuis and Brian Dumoulin are enough for the Penguins to make the recalls, meaning Letang won’t be out long enough to warrant being placed on LTIR.

Letang has only played a full season once, back in 2010-11. Since then, he’s played just 293 of a possible 452 regular season games. Despite his injury history, Letang has 246 points in those 293 games.

Replacing Letang’s offense will fall to the rest of the Penguins’ defense core; most notably Justin Schultz will need to continue his renaissance season. Schultz has 26 points in 42 games this season, which represents the best offensive pace of his NHL career after several poor years which got him traded out of Edmonton.

Pittsburgh Notes: Cullen, Rust, Jarry, Guentzel

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Penguins center Matt Cullen is the third oldest player in the NHL this season behind Florida’s Jaromir Jagr and Arizona’s Shane Doan.  Despite recently turning 40, Cullen isn’t ruling out playing another season beyond this one, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The decision on whether or not to retire won’t be coming any time soon either, noted Cullen:

“Once I decided to come back this year, that was the only thing on my mind. I know some people can do it, but I’m just not a guy who can have all that stuff in his head. I just want to focus on one goal. Then I’ll deal with that later.”

Through 38 games this season, Cullen has seven goals and seven assists which puts him at a 30 point pace, comparable to the 32 he put up last season.  It’s also pretty good production for a player who predominantly plays a bottom six role who also continues to bring an above average success rate at the faceoff dot to the table.  Cullen admits he’s pleasantly surprised with how he has held up so far:

“I feel really good. I was tired. Of course, everyone’s tired and banged up after the playoffs. I was a little bit. I’ve been really happy with how I feel. My legs feel great. I feel good on the ice. I feel strong. The body feels like it’s holding up really well. I consider myself pretty blessed in that regard. It’s not fun if your body doesn’t feel good.”

With a cap hit and salary of only $1MM, Cullen has been one of the better bargains from this past offseason.  If he holds up over the second half of the season and what he hopes is another lengthy postseason run, he should have several suitors for his services in July if he decides to keep playing.

More from Pittsburgh:

  • When he first came up to the NHL back in 2014, right winger Bryan Rust was so concerned about turning the puck over that he would frequently just bank the puck off the boards and chase it. Two years later, it’s a big reason for his success, writes Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  As analytics suggest dumping the puck in isn’t ideal, Rust’s compromise of banking it ahead and chasing it down has resulted in several scoring chances or drawn penalties.  Through 35 games, the 24 year old is having a career season with ten goals and six assists while spending time on the top line alongside Sidney Crosby; it’s safe to say his approach is paying off.
  • The Penguins will have a pair of prospects representing them at the AHL All-Star Game as netminder Tristan Jarry and left winger Jake Guentzel were named to the game yesterday. Jarry was just recalled to the big club earlier today while Guentzel leads the AHL in goals with 18 and had quite the NHL debut back in November, scoring on his very first shift while adding a second goal later on in the opening period of that game.

Roster Moves: Noesen, Barberio, Mueller

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The Anaheim Ducks have decided to bring up Stefan Noesen from the San Diego Gulls today as Rickard Rakell missed the morning skate with an upper-body injury. Noesen is a big, angry winger who can contribute at both ends of the ice but has faced injury throughout his young professional career. Selected in the first round in 2011, Noesen has only played in 116 games over the past three and a half seasons but is fully healthy and ready to make an impact at the NHL level. He’s played two games on emergency call-ups in the past, but was held scoreless in each. This year he’s collected 11 points and 28 penalty minutes in 18 AHL contests.

  • Mark Barberio has been sent back to the AHL by the Montreal Canadiens after six games with the big club. The 26-year old defenseman recorded a single assist and four penalty minutes in his time up with the club and will now wait for his next chance. A veteran of 139 NHL games, Barberio hasn’t been able to carve out a spot for himself with the Canadiens since signing as a free agent in 2015. The move likely means that Nathan Beaulieu is ready to come back after taking a puck to the throat two weeks ago.
  • The Canadiens have also sent Charles Hudon down to the AHL. Hudon had been called up earlier this season but suffered a broken sternum in practice on November 25th and was placed on injured reserve. The young forward played in just three games and recorded two assists prior to the injury.
  • While the Canadiens send down a defender, the San Jose Sharks have brought one up. The team recalled Mirco Mueller today though it’s not clear what the corresponding move will be.  The 21-year old Mueller was the Sharks first-round pick in 2013 (#18th overall) and broke in as a youngster in 2014-15 before spending most of last year in the AHL for more seasoning. In 16 AHL contests this year, Mueller has six assists and six penalty minutes. The Swiss-born defender has drawn rave reviews for his calm, safe play in his own end and is expected to develop an offensive game as he matures.
  • In Pittsburgh, the Penguins have sent both Jake Guentzel and Derrick Pouliot to Wilker-Barre/Scranton ahead of their matchup Thursday against the Florida Panthers. As Bill West of TribLive reports, the Penguins didn’t want their young players just sitting on the sideline. While Guentzel and Pouliot have been held out of the lineup for different reasons, they’ve played just six games combined in the NHL this season and at 22-years old can still benefit from the added ice time in the minors. Pouliot, coming back from a lower-body injury had recently completed a conditioning stint with the WBS Penguins and will now likely skate on their top pairing.

Snapshots: Three Stars, Kunitz, Leivo

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The NHL has named its three stars of the week for November 14-20: Jeff Carter, Cam Ward, and Nicklas Backstrom.

3. Backstrom had four goals and four assists in four games. Five of those points in the Capitals’ 7-1 win over the Penguins, which represented a career-high for Backstrom. He now has 17 points in 20 games.

2. Ward went 3-0-0 last week, with a 0.964 GAA and one shutout. He’s on a four-game winning-streak, which is his longest since the 2014-15 season. Thanks to Ward’s efforts, the Hurricanes are climbing out of the Eastern Conference basement and are just three points out of a wildcard spot.

1. Carter scored the winning goal in all three of the Kings’ victories last week, as they went 3-1-0. Carter had four goals and six points in those four games, and scored the winning goal in three consecutive games against Edmonton, New Jersey, and Anaheim. He cracked 600 career points with his second-period goal against the Ducks on Sunday. Carter now leads the NHL with five game-winning goals this season.

In other news around the NHL:

  • The Penguins have placed 37-year-old winger Chris Kunitz on Injured Reserve. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Kunitz is considered week-to-week with a “lower-body injury.” To fill Kunitz’s roster spot, the Penguins have recalled Jake Guentzel from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL. Guentzel has 17 points in 16 games with the AHL Penguins. Kunitz was initially hurt against Washington on Wednesday, but played in both of the team’s games over the weekend, posting three assists.
  • Toronto Maple Leafs winger Josh Leivo is still not ready to return to the lineup, according to coach Mike Babcock (via James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail). Leivo was recalled from a conditioning stint with the Marlies and practiced with the NHL club on Monday morning, but has not been cleared to play yet. Leivo will continue to practice with the Maple Leafs but as a non-roster player. Because Leivo would require waivers to be sent down to the Marlies, the Maple Leafs appear content to temporarily leave him in limbo rather than lose a good young player. When a Twitter follower asked how Leivo can be healthy enough to play five games in the AHL but not healthy enough to play in the NHL, Mirtle just shrugged. Leivo has 8 points in 28 career NHL games (none this season), and 124 points in 171 AHL games.

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