Taking stock of Penguins' health, goaltending and trade mentality at break

A break for the Pittsburgh Penguins means a break for our hockey beat writer Seth Rorabaugh.

But not before we get one more podcast out of him prior to the All Star game. While the rest of hockey returns on Monday, the Penguins don’t come back until Jan. 31.

And they skated away on a bad note, with a listless 3-0 loss in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

Seth and I discuss what went wrong there and where they look to be better coming back against the Flyers again when their schedule resumes a week from Friday.

One hope is that the injured Penguins who have been out for a while may return that night or shortly thereafter. Seth gives us status updates on Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin, Dominik Kahun and Nick Bjugstad.

The goaltending has been solid of late. We forecast how Mike Sullivan may deploy Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry after the break.

Then there’s the difficulty of the schedule immediately. The quality of competition is dense. And a lot of it is occurring in the Eastern Conference and in the Metro Division.

Finally, we try to determine if — or when — Jim Rutherford may make a trade before the deadline.

Listen: Tim Benz and Seth Rorabaugh catch up on the Penguins as they go on their break