The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to an impressive start and look to be Stanley Cup contenders.

They started off the season with an impressive 26-12 record.  The road to success however is apparently plagued with injuries, as the penguins are suffering losses to their starting lines.

The Penguins’ defense has had to undergo the most change in their defensive game, starting five rookies.

True rookie defensemen Olli Maata is showing his worth, starting on defensive line number one with Matt Niskanen. He has two goals and seven assists, having an impressive start to his first season in the NHL. He will also be playing for the Finland hockey team during the 2013-2014 winter Olympics, at the age of nineteen.

Other defensive rookies are Brian Dumoulin, Robert Bortuzzo, Philip Samuel, and Simon Despres. They have showed their skills leading the Penguins on a five game win streak.

The Penguins affiliate team, the Scranton Baby Penguins have had eight call ups. A call up is when the junior team, such as the baby penguins, sends a player up to play for the NHL version of the team. Usually they average 4-6 call ups per year, but have already managed 8 call ups in the first half of the season.

“It must be something in that Scranton water, because so far they have been impressive, it’s not an easy transition to make from the minors to the majors,” said head Coach Dan Bylsuma in a recent interview.

The Penguins offense has also suffered from injuries, losing star players Evgeni Malkin, Beau Bennett, Pascal Dupuis, Paul Martin, and Kris Letang. As of right now, the Penguins are starting a rookie from Scranton in offensive and defensive lines 3, and 4.

There have been about 12 line changes this year due to significant injuries, leading to fourth liner Joe Vitale being moved up to line number one with Sidney Crosby and Kris Kunitz to fill the Right Wing spot that Pascal Dupuis has left.

The Rifleman James Neal has also stepped up to receive his fourth career hat trick helping the Penguins improve their record to 29-10-1.

The lead goalie Marc-Andre’- Fleury leads the NHL with most goalie wins with 22, and three shut-out wins. Also helping the Penguins amount to 24 wins is backup goalie Jeff Zatkoff getting seven wins on the road and only two losses in his nine starts.

All in all the Pittsburgh Penguins have amounted to a great deal this season so far, even though they have been plagued with injuries and game suspensions. They not only continue to thrash most of their opponents but they also do it with finesse.  I am not saying they will win the Stanley Cup, but I think they can pull off some wins in the post season.