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.
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Wow watching Boston dismantle Philadelphia tonight at the outdoor game was impressive. The Penguins will need to bolster up before or at the trade deadline. I know Philadelphia was missing 6 players due to co-vid but Boston has beat them 4 times this year.
Colorado looks good, Vegas looks good, Toronto looks good, the Penguins will need to add to at least be really competitive.
I don’t know why people were saying Boston was going to be a bottom tier team this year. I knew they were going to be dangerous and they are. They are a complete team.
They honestly look better without Chara and Krug…that is scary…
Two of Ottawa’s 4 wins have come against Montreal. Lol.
Dole company in U.S will be giving $15 per hour in a few months. Npl you should apply to that Banana company incase your KFC does not give you $15 an hour.
Hey Stan any news at your donut shop will you get a paycheck increase soon
Any news on you passing first grade english?
Mattis Ekholm would be a nice addition…..
Pierre Oliver joseph and he can battle it out for 2 and 3 left defense. One of them can play top until Dumo gets back??
Marcus Pettersson can be traded for a forward.
Matheson is looking alot better and finding confidence…look competition is good
E3: Ekholm to the Pens lol. That dude has no shame.
??
NThe rumors on hockeybuzz are laughable. They don’t make any sense and are obviously just sick bait. The pens already have 4-5 lhd and I doubt they should be enough to get him anyway. It’s fun seeing people think he actually has any sources or putting any credence into that site.
Yes but outside Brian Dumoulin Mattias Ekholm is better than all of them… You want to make a deep run you need quality not quantity. it is a short commitment this year and next. As good as Pierre Oliver Joseph has been for the playoffs he should be third pairing .It is a different ball game come playoffs my friend.. As nicely as Mike Matheson has come along (AND HE HAS) Mattias Ekholm is better. You know injuries are part of the playoffs so having Matheson and Rikola as insurance is huge!! Trade young, slow footed, soft marcus Pettersson for… Read more »
I would listen to any phone calls about any player not named Crosby right now. Let the players know that no one in that locker room is safe under this new regime. They looked good these past two games after they finally woke up in the 3rd period of the second Islander game, but I am reserving any pats on the back until they start beating teams like Boston, Philly and Washington consistently and not in a shoot out.
????
Letang with 2 goals and Stan the donut man is quiet
Meanwhile our Russian managed another game with a -2
Wow, you “commented” on a game the Penguins actually won. I am shocked you even knew.
His first two of the season, one on the PP. It’s about time his over paid arse contributed to something other then padding their turnover and PIM stats.
Price’s magic number is 5 tonight.
Correction, 6.
Carramrod148 Like we talked about yesterday consistency. Two games in a row following tonight’s 3-2 win over the always tough Islanders. Jarry again was strong in goal especially in period 1 facing 16 shots. -power play 1 for 1 – Crosby 2 assists – Letang two goals…see if he would just shoot more he would be twice as dangerous. – Tanev strong – defense overall improving -Matheson continues to improve nice goal tonight Like I said a good move or two by management we could be in way better shape. Saw this that the Penguins and Flyers were both in… Read more »
Letang, PP specialist.
Poor Sam(e), his thumb must hurt.
hornqvist scored his 8th last night. hey pens organization, you guys are dumb. you trade a 1st round pick for kapannen, a guy who isn’t as good as hornqvist when you already had hornqvist. hornqvist’s metrics suck because he throws the puck on goal and crashes the net instead of cycling and playing for puck possesion numbers. you guys are morons.
They should fire the GM who made those moves!
Honrqvist was looking a bit long in the tooth in Pitts, he was often injured and his contract was not worth what they were getting out of him. I had no problem when they talked about moving him for those reasons. That being said, the return is still up for debate and maybe a change of scenery and the warm weather is doing him good. I am happy for him!
Most complete game of the season last night 4- 1 win over the Islanders. The offense looked good, the defense looked good, and Jarry was solid…aggressive and challenging shooters,
Letang again some dumb asses passes and turnovers.?
Crosby had a nice goal, Malkin looked alive 2 assists, 3rd line strong, and Matheson continues to get stronger…maybe a good move after all….Ceci looked good too !!!!
A shrewd move or two by new management we can compete. We need to follow that up on Saturday..
Slow down there… It was one good game against the Islanders. We have seen this before. Wait until they do this consistently for a few games straight. I believe this is their 3rd regulation win of their 8 wins. Their vets are suffering from lack of training camp, Malkin’s laziness, Letang’s stupidity and Jarry’s first full season as a starter. They need more then a few pieces.
Btw… Crosby’s 1,000th game tomorrow. An article about it would be nice.
That’s what I said if you read all the way through ! It says we need to follow this up again on Saturday..:) It was by far the best overall team performance of the season. – A regulation win against a good team. – We were physical – Goaltending was strong – Penalty kill was much better We still could cut turnovers and not pass on good shots for that extra pass,,,…but a start in the right direction which is what I said. I didn’t say we were going to win the cup but a good move to acquire some… Read more »
this team doesn’t have the assets to go after a better d. agree that they need a center. jankowski showed up for game 1, but has been nothing since. also, where do you plan to play this d man? they have too many d as it is
Of course we do…..
Marcus Petersson is now an excellent trade chip.t
Dumoulin Pierre Oliver Joseph Mike Matheson are all better on the left side….and we have Rikola for insurance.
Marcus Pettersson 24, can get us a nice bottom 6 center or wing.. There are a lot of teams tat could use a 24 year old top 4 top 6 dman. We CAN clear $4.025 million off the books. Plus we have a second round pick in this years draft.
The following year is when we have all our picks back…so use what we have now..
Hall is interested in staying in Buffalo. Either this is a ploy to get more money elsewhere or he just does not want to play during the postseason and collect a pay check.
Hall is about as much interested in staying in Buffalo as Sam the Man is on here posting anything related to hockey.
Fraud murray took the blame of the loss vs the leafs. Magic number was 7 for that night
Good for him.
O m G You actually posted something hockey related…it’s a miracle
Yeah Matt Murray did not look good last night. He has had a rough start but not much help either..
He’s been playing a lot and came off the bench cold plus it’s Ottawa. What do people expect? The Canadian division is scoring in bunches bc the goaltending and defense has been shitt. These teams will be shut down when they play defensive minded teams come the playoffs.
I hear you but he doesn’t look right….too many soft goals.
Hope he turns it around he was a good Penguin..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4aCTPtl_Y
No one will click on that link.
Dude, really? Your mom must be proud.
Malkin is really bad. Jesus just goes through the motions. Enough is enough.
I missed the game, what did or didn’t he do?
He got better as the game went on, but sometimes he shows no urgency.
Glad finally you are seeing Malkin is a fraud. If only you never turned off your TV sooner in the past
Top 15 all time in PPG and top 3 amongst active players in PPG. He looks terrible this year. Letang has looked terrible for years.
I must say Malkin looked like he had a pulse last night with two assists in the 4-1 win. Look he still makes dumb passes, still skates circles, and turns it over tooo much but he looked ok last night.
Trade the stick boy
Personally, I think it’s all on the Zamboni driver.
get rid of the russian and letang, open up cap space, problem solved
People think it’s that easy. They both have a massive cap hit, you will have to take back or retain money to make the money work, they both have another year left on their contracts, they are both in their decline, the salary is not going up, teams that are in the playoff hunt will probably make minor tweaks so as to no hurt their chemistry, any trade made during the season will require quarantining and Mario wants Geno to retire a Pen. Should be a no problem. I still think lack of training camp and summer workouts are hurting… Read more »
buy those jokers out. they suck. mario wanting geno to retire a pen is david moreheist propaganda. don’t fall for that.
We are stuck with Letang and Malkin until after next year when their contracts expire..