Penguins' Fedotenko remains erratic until playoffs
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Penguins forward Ruslan Fedotenko has recorded 16 points this season.
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Ruslan Fedotenko has pretty fair hands and instincts, and he isn't shy about venturing into high-traffic areas.
He is the kind of winger who could be a difference-maker for the Penguins, and his history says that he quite possibly will be.
In a few months.
Probably not before that, however, even though he is filling a top-six role on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Luca Caputi.
• Game: Penguins at Minnesota Wild, 8:08 p.m. today, Xcel Energy Center.
• TV, radio: Versus, WXDX-FM (105.9).
• Probably goaltending: Marc-Andre Fleury for Penguins. Niklas Backstrom for Wild.
• Penguins: Own all-time record of 1-2-1 in Xcel Energy Center. ... C Evgeni Malkin does not have goal in eight games. ... Are 7-0 when tied at second intermission.
• Wild: Rallied from four-goal deficit in third period to defeat Chicago, 6-5, in shootout Saturday. ... RW Martin Havlat has seven-game points streak. ... Have given up first goal in 19 of past 26 games.
• Hidden stat: Backstrom, pulled Saturday, is 9-0-1 in past 10 starts after failing to finish a game.
While Fedotenko has earned a reputation for producing well under the pressure of the playoffs -- he scored both of Tampa Bay's goals in its 2-1 victory in Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup final against Calgary -- his work during the regular season is reliably ordinary.
Fedotenko enters the Penguins' game against Minnesota at 8:08 p.m. today with eight goals and eight assists in 44 games, good for a ninth-place tie with Pascal Dupuis in the team scoring race.
Fedotenko, who has missed two games because of injury, is on pace for a 29-point regular season. That would be his second-lowest output in his nine winters in the NHL, but he never has had more than 41.
All of which raises this question: Is Fedotenko a run-of-the-mill player who finds a way to elevate his game when the stakes rise, or is he a quality talent who underachieves unless he has the motivation of chasing a championship?
"I don't have the answer for that," general manager Ray Shero said. "His game seems to be raised in the playoffs all the time [when] he plays in them.
"There are stretches during the [regular season] where he plays the same way and other times where he's not as good. I'm sure every coach he's had has had the same question, as far as the consistency factor and all those things.
First Published January 11, 2010 12:00 am
