The Pittsburgh Penguins have emerged red hot from the Christmas break, winning all six of their games in regulation and outscoring their opposition by a combined score of 29-13. When a team gets on that kind of roll, the reasons for success are almost unlimited. 15 different players have recorded at least three points during the streak, and a couple more like Yegor Chinakhov and Evgeni Malkin have chipped in during the partial amount of time that they have been a part of the lineup.

Here are six of the biggest reasons why the Pens have found success.

It starts at the top, the team is following the leader. And their captain is most definitely showing the way. Sidney Crosby has recorded 11 points (4G+7A) during the six-game winning streak, a part of his personal eight-game point streak where he’s produced 14 points (5G+9A). Crosby has multi-point games in each of the last four contests, including an overtime goal against Columbus. He’s hardly the only one pulling the rope in the right direction but that kind of output that includes out-scoring the opposition 11-1 at even strength while personally picking up nine points on the team’s 11 goals scored while he’s been on the ice is a massive place to start.

The so-called ‘fourth’ line is peaking after last night’s game against the Devils that saw Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte score goals. Their 70-72 5v5 minutes in the last six games is slightly more than the Mantha-Novak-Brazeau line (who have played in the 65-68 minute range), so it’s been a fourth line in name only, it’s more of a defensive line that has been completely tipping the ice in Pittsburgh’s favor. All of Dewar, Lizotte and Acciari have 21-23 defensive zone starts in the last six games, the next highest forward is Ben Kindel with nine. Despite the territorial disadvantage, the line ranks as the top three players in expected goal percentage on the team in this streak, all north of 60%. As evidenced by last night’s game they are chipping in offensively – all have been on the ice for at least five 5v5 goals. Perhaps more importantly given their starts, goals are not going in their own net as frequently (Acciari has been on ice for two 5v5 goals, Dewar and Lizotte only one).

Newfound high-performing defensive pair

Speaking of ice time, Kris Letang (at almost 119 minutes) and Brett Kulak (115) are by far the 5v5 TOI leaders on the team during this streak. It was a very rocky start to the season for Letang, but he’s now playing his best and steadiest games alongside the veteran Kulak who has slotted in nicely from the December trade with Edmonton. Letang has seen his 2.61 goals against/60 rate from the start of the season through Christmas slashed down to 1.51 GA/60 during the winning streak. Beyond the high-profile swap of starting goalies that the Pens and Oilers made, there’s a reasonable case Kulak’s inclusion in the deal has been the most meaningful part of it so far. Pittsburgh was desperate to add a legit NHL defenseman to their left side and the recent results with Kulak and benefit to Letang show how much that lifted the whole team.

We’ll pair up the duo of Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell here. Karlsson has been the best player on the ice for many stretches (well, perhaps independent of No 87). His mastery and control of games has been on full display with crisp puck movement. Karlsson leads the team with three power play points in the last six games, a clear sign his puck touches and decision making running the point is paying dividends. Everything about his game is in top form, which makes it truly fun to watch with his effortless style and high-end skating that still ranks among the elite in the sport.

Rakell has rounded into form with the team during this streak, getting back into the swing of things after returning from a long injury absence in mid-December. Rakell is the team-leader in shots (21) by a pretty comfortable margin over this six-game stretch, a good indicator for him about being active in the attack where he’s picked up five even strength points during the winning streak. Rakell’s return sets the lineup really well to not only give Crosby two viable top-line wingers but also allow others to slot into places they can be more effective.

It’s been said you could change the name of sport of hockey to goalie due to the importance of the position; naturally that’s been a factor for the Pens in their winning streak. Pittsburgh remains loyal to their goalie rotation, which helped the team to success early in the season in October. The even splits have been working, especially when it comes to riding the Stuart Skinner wave as of late. Skinner has only allowed three goals in his three wins during the streak, posting a .957 save% and playing excellently. That wave may crest and recede with time, a new factor is emerging is workload. Skinner played 50, 59 and 51 games with Edmonton over the past three seasons, in addition to starting him in 23 of the first 31 games this season before they traded him. Less could be more in terms of Skinner slotting in as a 1A playing a pace of 40 games a year instead of the clear No 1. he was with the Oilers.

Arturs Silovs, allowing 10 goals in his three games for a .868 save%, has not been as impressive statistically as Skinner, having a bumpier time with some redirections from immediately in front of him and some weird occurrences like pucks bouncing off the stanchions of the glass. Silovs has seen a 8.8 expected goals against, which might be an indicator the 10 goals allowed isn’t as brutal as some other stats point to. Silovs hasn’t been in top form but has gutted out enough to earn half of the wins in the streak – including two OT games along the way.

The Penguins have scored 11 high danger goals on 68 chances during their streak and overall are shooting over 15% at all strengths. Overall on the season Pittsburgh ranks ninth with an 11.4% shooting%. Converting chances into goals is the name of the game, right now the Pens have been doing just that. Crosby and Justin Brazeau are among the league leaders in shooting percentage this season, both have stayed hot with four goals a piece in this streak and pushed up their season marks even higher.

Brazeau’s linemates of Anthony Mantha (three goals, shooting 25%) and Tommy Novak (two goals, shooting 20%) have been right there with him as an opportunistic and lethal trio during the streak. Bryan Rust, not mentioned yet but surely a big factor in the team’s recent success, has kept up with three goals and an 18.8% conversion rate. As mentioned above, the ‘fourth’ line is on a heater, Lizotte has two goals on four shots, Acciari and Dewar each have two more goals and healthy shooting percentages of 18.2% and 14.3% respectively. Overall, 15 players are shooting over 10%, besides Ben Kindel (0 goals but four assists in this winning streak), almost literally every Penguin player is in a groove right now. When every line and virtually every player all get hot at the same time, well that’s when you can outscore your opponents 29-13 and start stacking wins.

That’s six factors, there of course could be many more to showcase. Rust has taken over games at times, the Mantha-Novak-Brazeau line has been as instrumental as anyone else, the power play is at 33.3% during the streak, coaching decisions and adjustments along the way have paid off. When a team gets going like this, the saying about success having many fathers is true. Streaks, by definition, don’t last forever, the challenge now for the Pens will be to keep this rolling for as long as they can and see where it takes them.