It's been quite a hiatus for me, I have had a lot of personal issues to get in order...but you're here to read about hockey.  So, I'll come right out and say it: I don't believe the Penguins are currently built to make the playoffs.  They have one heck of a talent level.  However, that talent doesn't mean anything if they can't control the puck, and especially win an important faceoff in enemy territory.  Before December, the Penguins were kicking butt and taking names, looking to have slowed only slightly from the previous season-a sure-fire choice to make the playoffs.  Then the proverbial wheels fell off.  Most Penguins fans, myself included, link this sudden drop off with the loss of Mike Zigomanis. 

Zigomanis was just a no-namer that Ray Shero plucked off wavier when his name first came across.  However, as the season began to get underway, it became terribly apparent that there was a reason for this move by the GM.  Before Zigomanis went down, he was amongst the League's elite in faceoff percentage...In fact, he lead the league as of December 02, 2008 with an impressive 63.7% winning percentage in the faceoff circle.  However, when he went down with an unknown injury (which I will probably rant about the NHL's new policy on that in a later posting), at that time just the latest in a string of unfortunate injuries that had only managed to slow the team, it proved to be a much bigger loss than previously expected.  As of writing this, the Penguins sit in 10th place, having just fired their coach in an attempt to shake up the players, and are currently 20th in the league in faceoff percentage.  Quite a change.

So how do the Penguins help this?  I recently had a thought cross my mind, which lead to some research.  Who do I think can be the answer to the Penguins' prayers?  Yanic Perreault.  I can actually hear people as they read this: "What?"  Yeah, I guess I'm psychic like that.  But hear me out.  Mr. Perreault is infamous around the league for his skill at the faceoff.  So who do they have to trade to get him?  No one.  He's currently sitting as an unrestricted free agent, and I couldn't find anything saying he's retired.  So why isn't he signed?  Good question.  He probably wanted too much money to be attractive to most teams, and the questions remains  of how much time does the almost 38-year-old have before he becomes ineffective. 

However, the Penguins really only need someone for this season.  Next year Mike Zigomanis will be back from his injury, presumably.  Interestingly, in my research I found that one of the people who Zigomanis spent time on a team with actually was Yanic Perreault, likely learning from his skills.  While the time away from the game likely hurt his ability, the Penguins might be able to sign him to a one or two year deal, perhaps throw an option year on there as the second, for relatively cheap, if he still wants to play NHL hockey.

It's just a quick fix, and only a thought, but an incentive laden contract might be enough to give the Penguins the faceoff specialist they need to make the playoffs, and with a little luck, maybe even advance a time or two.