The week ahead: This could get ugly for Penguins
The upcoming schedule is loaded with contenders and potential playoff teams.
The past week was not a good one for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Their only win over the past seven games was a shootout win over the San Jose Sharks in a game where they blew a 3-0 lead. They followed that up by turning a 2-0 lead against Tampa Bay into a 3-2 overtime loss (and an ugly one), getting dominated by Winnipeg and then getting humiliated by Utah in what might have been the most bittersweet game of the Sidney Crosby era.
Crosby got his 600th goal, reached his latest career milestone, and then had to skate off the ice while he and his teammates (well, probably mostly his teammates) were booed off the ice in a 6-1 loss to a team that does not even have a name.
Brutal, brutal stuff.
The good news? There are a few days off until they play again.
The bad news? It is not going to get any easier, and it probably will not get any better this week when they actually do start playing again.
The week begins on Wednesday with the annual night-before-Thanksgiving game when they host the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver won the earlier meeting this season (another game where the Penguins blew a 2-0 lead) and should certainly have the talent edge on paper. The one thing the Penguins might have going in their favor for that game is the scheduling advantage. Not only are the Penguins at home and extremely rested, Vancouver is in the middle of an extended road trip and will be playing the second half of a back-to-back situation after playing in Boston on Tuesday night.
Maybe you get a tired team. Maybe you get a backup goalie. You are also getting a team that may not be 100 percent. The Canucks will also be without J.T. Miller who stepped away from the team this week, while Brock Boeser has been sidelined for a couple of weeks.
Maybe all of those factors can meet together at a confluence of good luck and help you steal two points.
The sad thing is, that might be the most likely win on the schedule for a while because look at the next seven games ahead
- Wednesday Nov, 27 vs. Vancouver Canucks
- Friday Nov. 29 at Boston Bruins
- Saturday Nov. 30 vs. Calgary Flames
- Tuesday Dec 3. vs. Florida Panthers
- Friday Dec. 6 at New York Rangers
- Saturday Dec. 7 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
- Tuesday Dec. 10 vs. Colorado Avalanche
Brutal!
Six of those teams were playoff teams a year ago, with Calgary being the lone exception. But even the Flames are a shocking 12-6-3 entering the week, and have already soundly beaten the Penguins this season.
Where is the win there?
I know it’s the NHL and bad teams beat good teams all the time, but the Penguins have not only not shown an ability to beat good teams this season, they are now starting to struggle with and lose to the bad teams.
They have the worst goal differential in the NHL and are seven goals worse than the Sharks.
They have allowed a league-worst 91 goals, 12 more than the next lowest team. They are the only team that has allowed even more than 80 goals.
They are allowing almost four goals per game.
It is about as bad as a team can be already, and now they have an absolute gauntlet in front of them over the next two weeks.
If they win more than two of those games I will be stunned.
The question, again, becomes how much longer the Penguins continue to put off making some sort of a major change if this next stretch of games goes the way is expected, including with the head coach.
No, that is not going to fix it or turn the season around. But the Penguins are far enough removed from any sort of meaningful success (even something as simple as a playoff spot) that nobody should be getting any grace period. If you keep embarrassing yourself and continue to play hockey that is not even remotely competitive you have to have some pride in your organization and make some changes to try and fix something. You owe it to yourself to not embarrass yourself every night.