Last season during the stretch run and through the playoffs my game day attire always included two important items. The first was my powder blue Brook’s Orpik jersey. The second, underneath that, was my powder blue #48 T-shirt.

Tyler Kennedy, aka Mr. Kennedy, aka Turbo, turned a lot of heads last season playing on the third line with Staal and Cooke. As the season wore on the impression he made on the Penguins team grew and culminated with a strong performance throughout the playoffs. This season? Well, Tyler Kennedy seems to be off to a hot start that few predict he will be able to maintain – all while still playing on the third line.

Kennedy, by all accounts undersized for NHL players, has through six games racked up 4 goals, 1 assist and a +5 rating. Just to put that in perspective, that is as many goals as Sidney Crosby and the same total points (5) as Crosby and Gonchar (second behind Evgeni Malkin with 7 pts).

Tyler Kennedy on pace for 68 points including 54 goals? Well, don’t get too excited. Those sorts of numbers might be out of his reach when it comes to goals but 68 points for a winger that keeps seeming to defy expectations is certainly not. His shot is deceptive. His tenacity nearly unmatched. His passion to grind for pucks is up there. His talent to hold onto a puck in the offensive zone rivals that of some of the Penguins best players.

And Kenney sits on the team’s third line. Yep. Believe it. Just as Jordan Staal is without a doubt the best all around third line center in the league, Kennedy is high on the list of top third line wingers. He is one of those players that easily has the talent to play on a second line for nearly any other team in the league. Not first line talent – although he continues to show that on some lesser teams he may very well be able to fit into that role. And every game that goes by he keeps making the case that he is better than where he is.

Last year, the streaky, diminutive winger for the Penguins amassed 15 goals and 20 assists, along with a +15 rating in the regular season reveling in his role as a third liner for the eventual Stanley Cup Champions in just 67 games. That is a point in nearly every other game he played. In the playoffs and 24 games he had 5 goals and 4 assists (-1 rating). Yeah, that is not as good as his regular season performance (just .375 ppg compared to .522 ppg) but that was also playing against four of the best teams in the league over that span too.
With all this good news, it is hard to believe that there is a potential problem here. But there is. IF Mr. Kennedy keeps improving and keeps playing hockey the way that he plays hockey come contract time it could cost the Penguins a pretty penny to resign him. A good problem to have? Maybe.