MVN: Most Valuable Network

Last season Brooks Orpik had quite a roller coaster year. There were several times where he played so poorly that he was benched, basically to think about what he had done.

Later in the season, after the Penguins had made some trades, he was placed on a line with Sergei Gonchar and it seemed as though something finally clicked. He was hitting people more often, jumping up on the offensive attack, and doing both while being caught out of position and backpedaling much less frequently.

All of that improvement seemed to culminate in the playoffs against Detroit in what is now commonly known as "The Shift":

So why am I talking about Orpik? The name Staal is in the title, not Orpik. Well, I'm beginning to wonder if the same thing may have happened with Jordan Staal against those same Detroit Red Wings this past Tuesday night.

Detroit scored five minutes into the third period to take a 5-2 lead, and it looked like they were beginning to pull away. The Pens kept scrapping, and just under two minutes later, Evgeni Malkin scored to cut it to 5-3. Staal scored on a rebound a minute after that, and suddenly it was 5-4.

Detroit kept charging as well to make it 6-4, then Staal started flying all over the ice. He scored on another rebound with just over four minutes left in regulation to cut the score to 6-5, then slammed home a hat-trick with an empty net behind him and 23 seconds on the clock to tie the score.

Coach Therrien then sent Staal back out, and he kept attacking, drawing a penalty for obstruction with only three seconds left in regulation that gave the Penguins a 4-on-3 advantage at the start of overtime.

The team didn't score, but got a number of great chances and used that power play to successfully shift the play into Detroit's end. Time began to wind down and it looked like a shootout was in order. Then, with just over a minute left, Pavel Datsyuk - reigning Defensive Player of the Year Pavel Datsyuk, had his pocket picked by Staal, who fired the puck to the near wall to Ruslan Fedotenko for the game winning goal.

So let's recap that. Three goals, including the game tying one with less than 30 seconds left, then a penalty to give the team momentum heading into overtime, then a steal off one of the best defensive players in the league before setting up the game winner. It isn't quite "The Shift" perhaps, but the same concept. maybe the switch finally flipped for him.

Two games later, he scored two third-period goals to help the Penguins record their sixth consecutive win.

The problem for Pittsburgh is that they've now seen flashes of what he is capable of, and the true realization of those flashes may never happen. With both Crosby and Malkin on the team, Staal will never be more than a third line center.

In order for him to really reach his potential, the Pens will either have to spend the money necessary to have third line wingers good enough to be first or second line guys, or they have to trade Staal to a team where he would get the chance to be a first or second line player (pretty much any other team in the league).

Jordan Staal may have finally turned the corner...right onto someone else's roster.