NHL News Break

Alex Ovechkin, Zach Parise, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Rick Nash, Michael Cammalleri, Ilya Kovalchuk.  The Seven Players listed are all great left wingers in the National Hockey League, yet left off the list is someone you may not have heard of yet.  Dustin Penner is the name of the player who has had 45 and 47 point seasons in his five-year career with the last three in Edmonton.  This season Penner already has 36 points in 32 games and at this pace Penner is on he could see 70 points by season’s end, dare I say 80.

With 18 goals to match Penner’s 18 assists, Penner has been asked by the Canadian Olympic Team to try out for the team after being snubbed by Team Canada last summer.  One thing can be said for sure, Penner is a sharp-shooter.  He is not taking a tremendous amount of shots, although he probably should be considering the game he shot the puck 11 times October 22nd versus Columbus produced 2 goals, 3 assists, 5 points, a plus-3 rating, and last but not least 2 penalty minutes (yes we count them as good things: e.g., you come out of the penalty box and you take over and score, thus momentum shifts are why PIMs are important).  Penner is blazing hot with goals in his last three games, to match the 3 assists that matched his goal last night in the Edmonton victory at St. Louis.  Fact: Edmonton is 5-0 thus far in December.  If the playoffs began today, Edmonton would be out, but the standings in the West are close and Edmonton is right in the thick of the playoff race.  Thus, the NewsBreak’s recommendation for DP, shoot the heck out of the puck, especially with Ales Hemsky gone for the season.