Shriveling Penguins No Match for UTC

Sometime during the Penguins dismal/disgraceful/humiliating (pick your adjective) 6-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club last night, on home ice no less, it occurred to me that this black-and-gold bunch very much resembles an expansion team.

I’m not talking about the Golden Knights, mind you, who were successful right out of the chute, but rather the woebegone, old-time expansion clubs like the 1974-75 Capitals, who went a blisteringly bad 8-67-5.

While I don’t think we’ll match that Caps squad for sheer ineptitude (we already have seven wins), I do think we have a chance to be epically awful.

Like those expansion teams of yore, we’re a clunky conglomeration of ill-fitting parts. A jig-saw puzzle whose pieces don’t sync up.

Hall-of-Famer Phil Esposito, general manager of the fledgling Lightning back in the ‘90s, once noted if you have a bunch of 30-somethings on your fourth line, you’re in trouble. Well, last night our fourth line consisted of Noel Acciari (33), Kevin Hayes (32) and Matt Nieto (32).

In particular, I don’t understand the press to get Nieto back into the lineup.

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