PF-Wed Preview/Roundup

Lots of stuff going on right now around the league and with the pens.

Sabres, Panthers and 'Canes all lost last night in regulation, which makes these 2 points that much more important. Pens fans know the Isles always seem to play the penguins close and hard. They are not a team that will simply roll over, just because they are dead last in the league. 

To make matters worse, Sid is out for the game with a sore groin. On the other hand, the oft-maligned Ryan Whitney is out for personal reasons. Pesonen has been called up, and it is a safe bet that Bylsma, who worked with Pesonen up with WBS a lot, will certainly give Peso more of a crack than Therrien did. But lets not underestimate that Pesonen may be running out of NHL tryout's. If he can't start getting it done soon, he most likely will be on his way back to Finland before the end of summer. 

Bylsma's run and gun/aggressive style didn't pan out against the Isles a week or so ago, and it should be interesting to see where it gets the pens this time. 

Otherwise around the league and other misc. stuff going on:

-Rangers visit the Leafs tonight. Tortorella is behind the bench for the blueshirts as they try to get revenge for the loss the Leafs handed them at MSG. Silver lining for the Pens throughout all of this is that the Rangers have been tanking hard. If things keep up, it won't require as dramatic a turnaround for the Penguins to make the playoffs--just consistency, even mediocre consistency.

--Chris Cooley (oh, him?), who apparently is now the expert on Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, dumped him in his blog (which pensblog points out is basically run by his brother) and in a moment of shock...went on to make the oh so ballsy claim that Crosby is overrated. Gee, how original. Pensblog went on to carve him out a new one. So Cooley's brah and Chris himself took to the internet and airwaves to throw themselves out there as martyrs for the cause. Big mean Penguins fans picking on the poor old DC sports scene.  

--Trade deadline is right around the corner...no huge rumors yet, but I'm sure ridiculousness isn't far off.

Go Pens.