re: Fresh Ice! NHL Season-Long Thread, Part 2

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It’s not as if the Penguins don’t know.

It’s not as if Jim Rutherford, a hockey man for more than a half-century, doesn’t see it from the press box. Or Mike Johnston, a career coach, doesn’t see it from behind the bench. Or all the many capable evaluators on both men’s staffs haven’t noted it in report after report.

They all know Chris Kunitz is … well, if he isn’t done, then for sure he’s not getting anything done.

And concurrently, they all must know this terribly uncomfortable situation for all concerned requires a real solution sooner rather than later.

Man, that’s no fun to write. It never is when criticizing an athlete, a person who’s achieved so much. And Kunitz has achieved more than most in the sport, between his 223 NHL goals and 510 points, his Stanley Cup in 2009 after arriving in a beauty of a trade a couple months earlier, and his stick-it-to-the-world huge goal in Canada’s gold-medal championship in Sochi last winter.

But that player, sadly, no longer takes the ice.

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Why not Kasperi Kapanen?

And yes, this is serious. He’s only 18, he’s still a little on the thin side, and his next NHL shift will be his first. But the team’s most recent first-round draft pick, who would be available as soon as his Finnish Elite League team is out of the playoffs, has been playing among adult pros for years now — and playing well — and he’d be one of the Penguins’ best skaters and shooters the moment he goes over the Consol boards.

If not now, then … well, why not now?

This team is built for the now. We hear that all the time, so let’s see it in action. Think big. Think about Crosby being healthy, Malkin being the same once he returns, and having Marc-Andre Fleury enjoying a career year, then ask why the organization wouldn’t put Kapanen in this position?

Whatever the solution, it’s got to be clear to all that rolling Kunitz — or Bennett, for that matter — onto regular shifts and power plays is akin to slamming one’s head repeatedly into a goal post.

Down that route lies four-and-out.

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