One might think that the worst thing could have happened to this team was losing two or three top six wangers.

And I still kind of think that's the case. Good morning to you. Good. Thursday morning from Tampa, Florida.

I'm Dan Kovach of each of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. And this is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way bright and early every weekday.

If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this.

Penguins versus Lightning here tonight at Amalie Arena.

I'm here covering it for D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

And I'm doing so in a vein, at least for myself, where I look at how the team performed

Monday night in Philadelphia, in turn, how it bounced back

from, you know what, over the weekend, back home. And from there, how all of these various pieces,

including the ones that have been missing, are starting to fall into line. I've got to tell you,

I've never been a general manager of anything. But if I were a GM in the NHL, this would have to be so

fun. You know, you get all of these little parts from all over through various means.

You have certain expectations. You have analytics people telling you how they think it's going to go for individuals, for the collective.

And then you get to now, first week of December, the quarter pole's been passed.

And I'm going to keep pounding this issue. It's not just the wins versus the losses. It's not

just getting ready to take on these bolts who are tied for the conference lead while you're only three

points back of the conference lead it's not just that both of these teams rate in the

NHL's top three for goals given up something we don't talk nearly enough about to me me, it's more the feel of it.

Let's stay with the forwards here since I brought up the top six injuries.

Ricard Raquel gets knocked off the first line, obviously, with a long-term injury.

Busted hand.

The first handful of games gets admirably picked up by Philip Hollander.

...