When evaluating his hockey club Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas is a believer in how your team stacks up against your division. Evaluating the Penguins across the entire NHL, the Penguins new management team is smart enough to realize this is not a winning formula with what they have in place in all facets. 24 Games in and playing at an 85-point pace is an alarming rate for a team internally that believed it had a roster to push for a 99-100 point season.

From day 1 it was clear with this roster, that type of improvement was going to be predicated on great top-6 play (they’re getting it from first line), above average goaltending (Pittsburgh is getting top-5 goaltending according to some measures) and a Top-5 power play success, Top-10 at worst. We know where things stand on the latter. There’s not enough time to dissect the power play issues. The players and coaches have to eat this. Before even getting into personnel/structure issues, Issue #1 is a group this talented can’t even break into the offensive zone properly and possess the puck, looking like a group of confused players. It’s just in-excusable.

What the Penguins have going for them is when you buy-into the belief of stacking your club up against the division is aside from the Rangers running away from things and looking like a wagon, things are really jumbled up but whether that continues as the season progresses remains to be seen and will be determined by whether Carolina and New Jersey eventually get things together and start to take off……..

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

MORE BUZZ

— As the season has progressed, would anyone blame Dubas or his cohorts if they’ve wondered recently if a new voice would be a problem solver and a bring jolt to this group? Couldn’t blame theme. Hockey is one of those sports where a coaching change often changes trajectories, especially in the short-term. Just look at Minnesota as another example. Minnesota’s season has a little bit of life suddenly. Problem is it’s such a slippery slope for Dubas & Co if they even wanted to put this on the table.

Since Dubas was hired Mike Sullivan has been lumped in To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Around the ten-game mark, whether enforced by management or not is up for debate, Pittsburgh made some structure changes in the neutral zone that gave a blueprint on how this team needs to play. Problem is it seems short-lived, just go review Monday’s tape. The Penguins are bottom-5 in the NHL in odd-man rushes per game, giving up almost six a game as that glaring issue in Pittsburgh’s system just isn’t going away.

Poor Individual performances fall on the shoulders of the staff. Ryan Graves was a big signing by Kyle Dubas. He went six years with Graves believing To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailLatest Pens Buzz: Coaches making decision easier for management on Fehr, Fleury Latest Pens Buzz: Getting Malkin a winger still on priority list for management? Default ThumbnailLatest Pens Buzz: Condon Trade was Asset Management at its finest Latest Pens Buzz: Management not ready to close door on Fleury being long-term goaltender for club