Fun with games played stats 11/19
Chris Lee has been called up to Pittsburgh, apparently to play tonight against Ottawa if Mark Eaton can't go. Sergei Gonchar, on the other hand, is scheduled to return to the lineup. If Lee plays, how's this for an incredibly misleading stat? The six defensemen in Pittsburgh's lineup tonight will have an average of 283 games of NHL experience per man. It's pretty obvious to see why that's misleading.   Defenseman Career NHL games Sergei Gonchar 938 Martin Skou

All Aboard 11/18
Is it possible for an NHL team, by the middle of November, to play a game with none of the six defensemen that played on opening night? For a while this afternoon, it looked like a real possibility. The Penguins announced Jay McKee will miss two to four weeks with an infected finger. Then Mark Eaton left practice early. Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski and Brooks Orpik were already out. Count 'em up. That's the top six from opening night. Since then, coach Dan Bylsma said he hopes Orpik or Gonchar can return by tomorrow, and it's perfectly reasonable to think that Eaton left as a precautionary measure. I mean, at this rate, he shouldn't just leave practi

Letestu back 11/17
-- Mark Letestu was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre this afternoon, which indicates Max Talbot could be making a return for Pittsburgh on Thursday. Letestu didn't look out of his depth in a brief, two-game NHL stint. He remains in the call-up mix as the season continues. -- Letestu's return will probably be most welcome because two more names were added to the injury/illness list in WBS Pens camp today. Wyatt Smith didn't practice today due to illness and Chris Conner left early with an injury. Coach Todd Reirden didn't offer a lot of details on Conner, just saying the team is monitoring him moving forward. I have no reason to believe either or both will miss Thursday&#

Triage report 11/16
Here's the injury updates from WBS practice today. Keven Veilleux (shoulder) and Ryan Bayda (knee) are awaiting MRI results. Neither injury is expected to be short term. Aaron Boogaard (head) is being monitored for symptoms. Nick Johnson (ankle) did more in practice than he has in recent days and is getting closer to returning. Eric Tangradi skated in practice and reported on Twitter that he's back to eating solid food. Coach Todd Reirden said it was either food poisoning or a 24-hour bug. They're hopeful he'll be ready for Hartford on Thursday. Joey Haddad and Alex Grant didn't get in from Wheeling until very late last night, but they were on the

Saturday Post-Game 11/14
Everyone's heard about the personnel issues Pittsburgh's had the last few weeks. Well, the injury bug got sent to the minors Saturday night. Eric Tangradi was a late scratch tonight in Hershey when he fell ill with flu symptoms (that's a polite way of saying he was throwing up) in the afternoon and stayed at the hotel. More than a dozen friends and family members had tickets to the game too. Ryan Bayda went down in the first period with a leg injury. I didn't see it happen. I only saw him on his knees in the corner afterwards. From what I can gather, he caught a skate while being hit and twisted something. He left the arena on crutches. Aaron Boogaard