Penguins shuffle lineup
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The slumping Pittsburgh Penguins shuffled their defense Monday by demoting Noah Welch to the minors and calling up two defensemen. Pittsburgh, which has lost five of six to drop to 13th place in the Eastern Conference standings, recalled Alain Nasreddine and Micki DuPont from their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) farm club and sent Welch to the minor league Penguins.
“These are guys that bring different aspects to our hockey team,” coach Michel Therrien said. “Nasreddine was playing really well defensively. He was used to (being matched up) against the top players in the AHL and played with some success there. DuPont is good on the power play and moving the puck, and he has a good shot.”
Both players will be available for Tuesday night’s game against Florida.
The 26-year-old DuPont had three goals and nine assists in 23 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but hasn’t played in the NHL since appearing in 18 games with Calgary from 2001-03.
“We’ve got a good team down there; we put together a lot of wins,” DuPont said. “We were playing well as a group of defensemen, and I felt good about my game.”
Nasreddine, 31, had three goals and five assists for Wilkes-Barre. He has 24 games of NHL experience, six with Pittsburgh last season.
Welch, 24, had one goal and one assist in 17 games with Pittsburgh after starting the season with Wilkes-Barre.
“It’s important for him to play a lot,” Therrien said. “I thought lately he kind of lost his confidence, and when you lose confidence, your ice time goes down because we know you’ll make mistakes.”
The Penguins are 4-7-4 since starting the season 7-3. They dropped into fourth place in the Atlantic Division after losing to New Jersey and the New York Islanders last weekend.
“Whether it’s a message being sent (by management) or not, I’m not sure,” leading scorer Sidney Crosby said. “But I don’t think anybody takes anything for granted here, and I think that’s an attitude we all have.”