Penguins/NHL
How Much Concern should there be with the Penguins?
How to evaluate the Penguins this season has often been a tricky spot because of them being the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions, they rightfully deserve the benefit of doubt.
And that still exists until the postseason begins and we’ll find out whether the Penguins always deserving the benefit of the doubt remains the case or not very soon.
Pittsburgh’s 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday night was about as bad as it could get from a performance standpoint this season, considering the Red Wings have been a team over the last two weeks that has basically quit on the season.
The struggles were in all facets for the Penguins, including offensively where the Penguins only generated 13 shots through the first 45 minutes of play.
Offensively it was just one of those nights a team like the Penguins will have every once and a while.
Defensively is a different story as troubles continue.
Pittsburgh has a number of issues defending right now ranging from poor gap control where they’re getting crushed on zone entries, pinching too aggressively in the offensive zone without proper forward support and a lack of focus defensively has too much puck watching happening in their own end when the opposition establishes a cycle that has the Penguins struggling mightily to defend high-end danger chances 35 ft in.
While having to switch up your No. 1 and No. 2 pairings right before the playoffs isn’t ideal as the main decision behind that is trying to fix Kris Letang’s game defensively, sources say, a lot of the Penguins issues right now defensively are fixable/coachable areas in tightening up the gaps and forwards being motivated to play the neutral zone the right way and in their own end would change a lot of things and help shore things up.
However, the interesting dynamic with the Penguins looking extremely vulnerable defensively over the last several weeks to odd-man rushes is whether teams have figured out the Penguins attacking system To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Standings continue to tighten up on the Penguins
Penguins @ Devils Tonight and as the Capitals start to pull away with the division lead, Pittsburgh is now more so playing to stay in the 2nd-3rd place spot.
This is a huge game for the Devils who with a regulation win would move two points behind the Penguins. New Jersey has won three straight against the Penguins.
EASTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF RACE
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
1. Washington Capitals | 77 GP – 99 Pts – 43 ROW
2. Pittsburgh Penguins | 77 GP – 92 Pts – 41 ROW
3. Philadelphia Flyers | 78 GP – 92 Pts – 37 ROW
ATLANTIC DIVISION
1. Tampa Bay Lightning | 76 GP – 106 Pts – 45 ROW
2. Boston Bruins | 75 GP – 105 Pts – 44 ROW
3. Toronto Maple Leafs | 77 GP – 99 Pts – 39 ROW
WILD CARD
1. Columbus Blue Jackets | 77 GP – 91 Pts – 37 ROW
2. New Jersey Devils | 76 GP – 88 Pts – 35 ROW
— As Connor McDavid is headed towards winning the Art Ross Trophy for the second consecutive season, now 6 points up on Nikita Kucherov and 9 points up on Evgeni Malkin/Claude Giroux, Malkin’s MVP candidacy that was redhot a few weeks ago has now taken a hit.
1. Connor McDavid | 77GP-40G-62A-102Pts
2. Nikita Kucherov | 74GP-38G-58A-96Pts
3. Evgeni Malkin | 73GP-42G-51A-93Pts
4. Claude Giroux | 78GP-27G-66A-93Pts
5. Nathan MacKinnon | 69GP-38G-54A-92Pts
To sway voters Malkin was going to have to continue to his run he was on and finish a strong 1st or 2nd in the points race.
There’s too many players bunched up with him that don’t have a Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel around him who could also finish top-10 in points and as stated before, that will hurt Malkin with voters.
Voters love good stories and there’s a lot of them, Nathan MacKinnon among them if he gets Colorado in the playoffs, 2nd in the NHL in points per game.
Claude Giroux has Philadelphia headed back to the playoffs and is tied with Malkin in points, another good story of taking a bubble team to the playoffs. Hard to overlook him if he finishes top-3 in scoring.
Brad Marchand leads the NHL in points per game, has 82 points in 61 games for a Boston team that was expected to be good but not this good like they’ve been with the 3rd most points in the NHL.
There’s also Alex Ovechkin who’s having a great season with an NHL leading 45 goals and is 12th in the NHL with 83 points. If he gets to 50 goals, how can he not be a finalist?
— Our condolences to Jim Rutherford and his family on the loss of his mother.
The Pittsburgh Penguins offer our deepest sympathy to Jim Rutherford and his family on the passing of Jim’s mother, Dorothea, early this morning.
She was 89. The Rutherfords appreciate the great care she was given at the Matthews House Hospice in Alliston, Ontario.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 29, 2018
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Samw, how old were you when the Pens won their first Cup?
No surprise -5am can’t answer this… he doesn’t remember them… he was still breastfeeding! Then again that probably went on until deep into his teens so that renders the original jab moot lol
Sam thinks 7+ million for 34 points is a solid deal.
Sam sucks
Did I honestly just read a post where Sam said he was right most of the time but we’re too dumb to notice? I mean we all know he’s 1 of the dumbest people on the planet but there’s no way he can actually be that unintelligent that he thinks he’s right most of the time.
Dumbest ? You drool on every washed up players. This is coming from a guy that vision tk as top 6 orpig as a legitimate top 4 and DB as the beer coach
You mean like Rick Nash?
Still a better fit then sheary. When rags are retaining portion of his salary
Just because he is older then sheary doesn’t mean he is not good. Like fleury and Murray
Why does retaining salary it matter for Nash but not Kessel? Because he’s Canadian, I’m assuming.
Don’t forget about Marty St Louis a week before he retired. Sam wanted to give a guy a multi year contract when he was looking to leave the game. He thought it would be a better idea acquiring 2x Stanley cup champion Phil Kessel.
Chemistry and 3rd line looked pretty good tonight. Can’t wait for brassard to come back and anchor the 4th line.
Sadly It will never happen.
At what point does everyone agree that sam is clearly cheering for the team to lose?
Has been that way since she’s been on here. She roots for Sid, Montreal and French Canadians.
It’s just funny that he thinks them losing this year erases the back to back wins and somehow justifies the hate for the players he dislikes despite their key contributions to those cups
It’s more funny than anything. I just thank goodness I wasn’t born with those genes every time he posts.
I think now that the games starting to matter more our Russian is on vacation. Must be sad he didn’t have his annual vacation this season when he takes off for 20-25 games
never mind wont say anything about being pushed around or stars having to handle it…nope wont say it. Like talking to rocks. No long term effect about being pushed around. Or maybe wait till the playoffs.
I wonder what zerotool thinks of new Jersey 1st goal. How did the Russian and chubby looked on that goal. Oh wait let’s blame letang since he was on the ice
Describe it for me… I forgot after Shearys second
Just watched it again to confirm something… While the joint turn.over was atrocious what the fuckk was Letang thinking bailing on being the last guy back? He stays back he slows the play somewhat and the trailer that was catching up probably disrupts the play lol
how scary does the phrase activating Letang scare you?
How does the phrase Letang is the Penguins #1 defensemen scare you?
Yep but you do know he is going to score in OT now lol.
ATT Sportsnets sucks get some better infrastructure.
Time to play 90’s penguins hockey for Mr barrasso.
Our defense is fucking atrocious.
You are just noticing this now? It’s been shit all year and losing Cole made it worse.
Glad you just been watching pens hockey recently. Been the case since the early 90’s. Team invests and focuses on offence. They have the mentality star players will win the the cup everytime some years works and most years doesn’t. Lucky to have legends like Mario, jagr ,Crosby played in order to take those risks
In the time frame you just described no team has won more championships…. wow you’re a fucken dumbass!
Murray promised pens will need 4 tonight in order to win and not 5. He is still not sure when he will switch to that magic number 5 yet or use in next year instead
Can you cite where this promise was made? I don’t remember seeing it anywhere.
You don’t need to see it you. Once they are down by a couple you tend to turn off your TV anyways
That makes no sense on any level.
Well you might be right lol
Funny when pens were down people blamed fleury for soft goals yet when Murray plays and they are down by few no one blames his soft goals and yet blame the Defence
I’m right most of the time but clowns here wait that one in a million im wrong so they rub in to your face. Like sheary suckkks yet he scores they get exited to rub it
I get “exited” that despite him “sucking” he will flirt with 20 goals again. “I’m always right” must be French for “im a fucken idiot”
Sheary!
Now drool baby drool
That’s creepy.
You really should be better at this with all the time you devote to it.
Letang!
Wow nice answer from our 3rd line center i mean 4th line center.
Classy move by the Devils doing a moment of silence for Rutherford’s Mom.
Ok bored and laid up post op what is the predictions tonight anyone? other than Sam’s “Pen’s need 5”
we needed a 3rd line center even thought we had one,
We needed another number 1 goalie even thought we had one
Won’t matter with Letang working as a double agent!
“Only French Canadians can be considered starting goaltenders” – fatsam
As long as Letang stays healthy everything will be ok. Come the playoffs he will play 60 min shifts plus he will act as Iceberg between whistles at both home and away games. He will also drive the Zamboni during intermissions while interviewing Pierre McGuire.
Brassard is out?
Brassard sneezed on Murray, Murray is now out with a concussion. DeSmith got mad at Brassard for having to play so he punched Brassard in the face. Now he has a concussion too. Letang is still healthy though.
They are built to win 4-3, 5-4 games ? They seem to be losing those games more then winning them and OT does not count. There is no 3 on 3 in the playoffs. The only thing that will fix Letang’s defensive woes is to bench him and replace him with a remote controlled traffic cone. I still have no idea how Schultz is a +20 on this team.
Well guess I’ll be back here with you guys for a little while since DK put me on timeout again.
I left when Gajtka did… between that, Yohe and the rest of the nonsense I figured why support the page. PGH Hockey now has all those cast aways tho lol
Honestly I really only go there for Lance’s Pirates coverage and to get under DK’s skin.
I’ve been trying to see if I could push him enough to just ban me but obviously he has no interest in giving up the $$$$.
So DK’s not worth it?
It’s been a revolving door for awhile. It’s no use liking any of the writers
Haha. What did you do? I take a shot at Dejan every chance I get but he hasn’t scolded me in years.
I said I think someone in the Pirate’s front office must have slept with Dali because he writes about the Pirates like a scorned lover. This is the 4th or 5th time he’s put me on time out for calling his anti-Pirates bias into question.
Ouch. Going after the wife. Bad move.
All is fair in loving and blogging.
Dali is fair game after all the stories came out about the site. Attacking her- brilliant