With the Pittsburgh Penguins sitting second in the NHL\u2019s Metropolitan Division as the Olympics break approaches, the presumptuous among you ask if they\u2019re capable of a playoff run.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s far from certain that they\u2019re capable of making the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Their last three games confirm such.<\/p>\n
They flirted with disaster in Saturday\u2019s 6-5 home win over the New York Rangers, conceding four third-period goals and nearly blowing a 5-1 lead. If that game lasts five more minutes, the Penguins lose.<\/p>\n
They played an utterly uninspired 60 minutes in Monday\u2019s 3-2 defeat at the hands of visiting the Ottawa Senators. Only a quality performance by goalie Arturs Silovs prevented a rout.<\/p>\n
In the latest installment, the Penguins\u2019 5-4 overtime loss at the New York Islanders on Tuesday, their problems were many and they were great.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Stuart Skinner was rotten in goal. He didn\u2019t concede all bad goals. But they weren\u2019t difficult goals, either. Right by him and right through him. After a good run during the Penguins\u2019 six-game winning streak that expired with the loss to Ottawa, Skinner has allowed 10 goals on the last 34 shots he\u2019s faced. Yuck.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Penguins led 3-2 and 4-3 but kept giving back the lead. They allowed a goal with 2.3 seconds left in the first period. They couldn\u2019t keep the puck out of their own net at the crunch.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Penguins were sloppy and made lots of mistakes. Egor Chinakhov is the team\u2019s hottest scorer with eight goals in 17 games since joining the Penguins via trade with Columbus. He had already scored but passed up a nailed-on chance to try and thread a pass for a tap-in. Brett Kulak had a flailing turnover that led directly to the Islanders\u2019 overtime goal. Those errors were exemplary of a bad night.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sidney Crosby is struggling, and did so again at Queens. Crosby has just one goal in eight games and seems rattled, a rarity.<\/p>\n
The Penguins mostly had the better of the play Tuesday. It was a wasted opportunity to open up some cushion over the Islanders and the teams below them in the Metro.<\/p>\n
As it is, the Penguins are one point ahead of the Islanders, five points ahead of Columbus and Washington.<\/p>\n
So the playoffs are far from assured, let alone a playoff run.<\/p>\n
The home defeat versus Ottawa was perhaps the most disappointing performance of the season.<\/p>\n
It seemed like the Penguins\u2019 six-game win streak got the better of their egos, and they mailed in that night\u2019s effort. Coach Dan Muse was clearly frustrated at his postgame press conference.<\/p>\n
To apply what Herb Brooks said, these Penguins aren\u2019t talented enough to win on talent alone. Nowhere close, if a P.S. can be tacked on.<\/p>\n
Every point matters for the Penguins. They need to realize that and play accordingly every game. Every period. Every shift.<\/p>\n
If they don\u2019t \u2014 and they certainly didn\u2019t in losing to Ottawa \u2014 that\u2019s how you miss the postseason by 2-3 points, get a mushy middle draft pick and utterly waste the season.<\/p>\n
Instead of having a playoff run.<\/p>\n
(You know how else you miss the playoffs by 2-3 points? Have a 4-12 record between overtime and shootouts. Ouch.)<\/p>\n
The Penguins have positives that apply most nights: four lines that fit, one of the NHL\u2019s top five players in Crosby, a resurgent Evgeni Malkin, an emerging game-breaker in Chinakhov, young legs in Ben Kindel, decent size in Justin Brazeau and Anthony Mantha, goaltending with backbone, a few defensemen who can move the puck, systematic competence.<\/p>\n
But those positives need to be applied every night and for 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s impossible, then the Penguins need to come as close as they can.<\/p>\n
A sidebar: It\u2019s amazing how the NHL never protects Crosby, still the face of the league at 38. He clearly got butt-ended at a faceoff by the Islanders\u2019 Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who plays like a rat.<\/p>\n
No call.<\/p>\n
Even if it was unintentional, it\u2019s still a butt-end.<\/p>\n
And it wasn\u2019t unintentional. Pageau goes way down on his stick for draws, exposing the butt end. Then when he flails for the puck, the butt end catches the opposing center and \u2026 oops. Sorry.<\/p>\n
Between ignoring that, Bryan Rust\u2019s three-game suspension and a lot of calls and non-calls that haven\u2019t favored the Penguins, they\u2019ve been getting the short end of the officiating stick recently. And the butt-end of Pageau\u2019s stick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Pittsburgh Penguins sitting second in the NHL\u2019s Metropolitan Division as the Olympics break approaches, the presumptuous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-450223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}