Tonight’s Home-Opener Brings Odd Roster Moves; Marks Milestone for Pittsburgh, CONSOL, Penguins

Consol Energy Center (rwoan / Flickr)

Tonight will mark another milestone for the city of Pittsburgh, the Penguins, and their fans with the very first regular-season game and home opener ever played at the CONSOL Energy Center.  Those watching will witness history-in-the-making and those fortunate enough to attend tonight’s sold-out event (the Penguins 167^th consecutive sell-out) will become part of that history.

I’m anxious to get the season underway and watch how Ray Shero’s off-season decisions play out for the team as it progresses.

Eric Tangradi (FreeballinPGH / Flickr)

One of those big decisions came yesterday with the NHL deadline for teams to solidify their roster of 23 players and it’s submission to the league by 3 o’clock.  However, the surprise for Penguins fans wouldn’t come until a few hours later when Eric Tangradi, who had previously been told had earned a spot on the roster playing on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Mike Comrie for the majority of camp, was re-assigned to Pittsburgh’s ECHL affiliate in Wheeling and goalie Patrick Killeen was brought up.

Speculation* is that one of the Penguins goalies is hurt and the trip is shorter to Wheeling than Wilkes-Barre / Scranton (where the team’s AHL affiliate is located), but an article in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports otherwise noting that it’s expected Tangradi will return to the lineup today in time to participate in tonight’s home opener [*LATE EDITS: Penguins recalled Tangradi earlier today and he participated in this morning's skate; Dan Bylsma also explained the moves which had to do with Arron Asham's injury and the uncertainty of whether or not he was well enough to play tonight].

Mike Comrie (GOSH@ IMAGES / Flickr)

My concern is not for Tangradi because I’m assuming if speculation is confirmed that he’ll return to the Penguins NHL roster shortly and pick up where he left off.  Rather, I’m more interested in how his linemates, Malkin and especially Comrie, adjust to this significant change since they were successful at developing line chemistry with Tangradi throughout training camp the past few weeks. Until I see otherwise, I remain optimistic that Malkin won’t miss a beat and hoping that Comrie follows suit since Malkin has the uncanny ability to make whoever he plays with elevate their level of play (perhaps if the PPG’s article ends up proving correct we may not have to worry about it at all).

It would be somewhat unfortunate for this unforeseen line change to affect either of their performance especially since Comrie was off to a great start.  His pre-season performance was exceptional and makes quite a convincing argument that he could have a breakout season wearing black and vegas gold (notching an impressive 5 points – 4G, 1A – in the five pre-season games he played).

Regardless of whether or not Tangradi participates in tonight’s game, I am hopeful that this line will prove to be productive for the Penguins and play a significant role in the team making a legitimate run to ultimately bring Lord Stanley back to Pittsburgh.

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