Penguins/NHL
Some Quick Hits out of last night’s Penguins 3-2 loss to the Panthers:
*ROAD WOES: The Penguins road woes continued Saturday night and have now lost 7 of their first 12 road games on the season, and are 5-5-2 away from home. The loss was the Penguins third straight road loss and Pittsburgh has now lost 5 of 6 on the road.
Under .500 vs East: The Penguins boast one of the best records in the NHL at 11-6-3, 25 pts, through 20 games. An interesting stat: The Penguins are under .500 against the Eastern Conference.
Pittsburgh is 6-0-2 against the Western Conference and only 5-6-1 vs the Eastern Conference.
STAAL LEADS THE WAY IN LOSS: Jordan Staal collected his 10th goal of the season in the loss and was the Penguins best player on the ice once again. He garnered high praise from head coach Dan Bylsma after the loss: “He was leading the way, right from the shift he scored the goal on,” Bylsma said. “A lot of his play in the game, he was our best performer tonight. At the halfway point of the game he took the team on his back, PK, power play, defensively, but also offensively. It was a big effort.”
JOHNSON HAS LOST 5 of 6 STARTS: Brent Johnson showed improvement in goal last night (28 saves) but he has now lost 5 of his first 6 starts to open the season. In his last three starts, all losses, Johnson has given up 12 goals on 86 shots.
PENALTY KILL TAKING STEP BACK: It was bound to happen and the Penguins have taken a slight step back on the penalty kill after playing on such as a high. The team last night gave up 2 power play goals or more in consecutive games for the first time this season.
