Pens Beat Sabres 4-3; Maybe they do have a first line?

By Finesse

We spend so much time worrying about the winger Sid doesn't have that we often fail to appreciate the winger he does have.

Pascal Dupuis has gone from a throw-in piece of the Marian Hossa trade who had 0 points in the Cup run of 2009, to an incredibly effective and efficient "winger for Sid."  He doesn't snipe like James Neal, and he doesn't put up numbers at the pace that Hossa would have but he works as hard as anyone in the league and it pays off time and time again.  His speed makes him not only one of the most relentless forecheckers in the league, but also one of the fiercest "backcheckers" while the puck is still in the offensive zone.  Even if the opponent gets the first pass by the first forechecker, Dupuis is picking pockets by the blue line and mopping up every loose puck.  And now he's added the Finish to his game.

What a player.  And what a line.

A few other brief thoughts after the jump...


- Pens are 8 for 32 on the power play since Paul Martin first manned the point in the 5-2 win over Washington on February 7th.  If the Pens ever finished a season with a 32% power-play, they'd have the President's Trophy locked up by March 15th.  Kudos to Bylsma for bucking the conventional wisdom that your best defenseman (Letang) has to also man the #1 PP unit.  Or maybe it shouldn't be conventional wisdom?

- But lets give Letang credit where it's due.  His assist on Dupuis' second goal was the best backhand pass we can remember by a Penguin not named Sidney Crosby.  He's playing terrific.

- Same for Flower. The healthy competition from Vokoun is suiting Flower well.

Making a case for Da Onus in this year's playoffs.

- It's frustrating to watch Beau Bennett get juggled among lines on every shift.  Bylsma, we presume at the direction of Shero, is often way too quick to change line combinations just because a line has a bad shift.  The luxury of having two #1 centers is that you can sacrifice one of their lines (Malkin's, in this case) for a game to let Bennet have a legit opportunity to play 15-18 minutes with the same two people.  And the best part is that if Bennet is who we hope he is, it wouldn't be a sacrifice at all.

- Maybe Bennet isn't the answer to the gaping black hole on Malkin's line.  In fact, we don't know what the answer is.  But we do know what it's not: Tanner Glass.  If he was offered $1 million to interfere with his own teammates, he couldn't have done a better job than he did on one shift in the second period.

- The Prime Minister.