Penguins/NHL
Penguins at the Quarter Mark
After Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, the Penguins have hit the quarter mark of the season with a 7-6-1 record.
Some in Pittsburgh, including members of the organization were drinking the kool-aid and saw this team as an elite contender entering the season.
However, a strong consensus around the league on the Penguins is that they were a middle of the road, fringe playoff team.
And through 14 games they’ve lived up to that billing.
In a covid world for a league mirrored with a ton of cancellations thus far, don’t waste your time looking at where the Penguins are at in the standings on a day to day basis, whether they shoot up to third place one or fall back to fifth the next day. All of the focus is on points percentage moving forward with doubts the league can get in a 56 game season.
East Division Points Percentage
1.BOS .786
2. PHI .692
3. NYI .633
4. WSH .607
5. NJD .600
6. PIT .536
7. BUF .417
8. NYR .393
The Penguins currently sit 6th in the division in points percentage and overall in the league, are 18th in points percentage. The Penguins may have 7 wins at their disposal but every game is a challenge to win and it’s such a challenge for this group to put a sixty minute type of game together. That’s what is so glaring right now. Sunday’s 6-3 win over the Capitals was Pittsburgh first multi-goal win of the season and it took two empty net goals to accomplish that.
Pittsburgh has 2 regulation wins through 14 games, tied for last in the league. Even the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings have 3 regulation wins right now. Pittsburgh might be a .500 level team but two regulation wins in 14 games is just something else. The last Penguins team to have two regulation wins or less through the teams’ first 15 games was the 2003-2004 Pittsburgh Penguins who like this year’s Penguins team had two regulation wins through 14 teams.
As evidenced by Sunday’s win vs the Capitals and Tuesday night’s loss, there just has yet to be a point for this group where they can build momentum from one game to another and put complete games together.
Game 15 of the season tonight and it’s a pressure game for the Penguins tonight against the Islanders who have now won five of six games.
To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
