Should Penguins Youth be Served?

To say it’s been an unusual season thus far for our Penguins would be putting it mildly.

A piping hot 8-2-2 start, as encouraging as it was unexpected, raised expectations that this group might possess playoff pedigree. A limbo bar that has since been ratcheted down closer to the floorboards on the heels of a ghastly 1-5-4 slide.

Indeed, the way things are going? It feels like we’ll be hard-pressed to win a game here and there. Especially since we face one of the more difficult schedules the rest of the way. Hardly conducive to qualifying for the playoffs on both counts.

While I have no doubt the team will recover somewhat when Evgeni Malkin and Blake Lizotte return from IR, should our priorities change? Should developing youngsters take priority over making a playoff push?

At the present, the Pens seem to be walking the line, to borrow from country music legend Johnny Cash. Yes, there is some development taking place, most notably with the “Kid Line” of Ben Kindel, Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen.

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