The Penguins are 16-9-1 and have won four consecutive games. Can they still be more than a borderline playoff team? Can they win a series of playoffs? Can they be a legitimate candidate for the Stanley Cup?
Hey, why not? If Steelers fans can be wrong, Penguins fans can.
But here’s what needs to happen:
• Tristan Jarry must be the second best goalkeeper in the eastern division, and that is evident. It doesn’t have to be better than Boston’s Tuukka Rask. Just everyone.
This is doable, especially due to the competition: Washington is using children. Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders is average, and his statistics are a product of his team’s system. Carter Hart, from Philadelphia, lost his pedigree and shattered.
Jarry mostly needs to eliminate bad goals, like the goalkeeper Buffalo scored on Thursday, just 27 seconds after the Penguins took the 1-0 lead. Even ABBA had its Waterloo, and Jarry’s goals are unstable. Great defenses do not take bad goals from the net.
• Penguins need to stay 100% healthy from the start. This will not happen. But we are pretending here, anyway.
Even with an injury, the fourth line stinks. But let’s say Evan Rodrigues continues to play well with Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen. (Rodrigues plays up or down on the ice level.) Let’s say Jason Zucker comes back and settles on the third row with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev, creating an appearance of that Phil Kessel / HBK vibe. (Zucker has a lot of records to play with Malkin or Sidney Crosby.)
So your fourth line could be Jared McCann, Zach Aston-Reese and Anthony Angello. This is not terrible.
You have to roll four lines. The schedule is too condensed to rely on three.
• The stars have to play very well. Duh. “That’s what you get paid for, Braden!” We are seeing signs of this, but more productivity is needed.
• Coach Mike Sullivan needs a plan B tactically.
The Penguins want to play fast, but are proving that they can’t do that for 60 minutes with each game. Witness the 4-2 home win on Tuesday over the New York Rangers: the Rangers are as fast as the Penguins, but younger. New York skated Pittsburgh off the rink in the third period, holding a 15-1 lead over shots. Crosby’s goal with an empty net 33 seconds from time was the Penguins’ only shot. Thankfully, the game didn’t take two minutes longer.
Penguins are not genetically willing or legally obliged to just play openly. One size does not fit all. Every NHL player knows how to set a trap. Penguins need to play score and situation. What’s more important: adapting and having a better chance of winning or being true to your precious style?
• Penguins need to lead more and come out less flat. Fourteen of his 16 wins came from behind. It is foolish to think that it can continue.
• Penguins must improve dramatically in special teams. They are 23rd in the power game (17.6%) and in the death penalty (74.4%) and are worse than those numbers. The power game does not create momentum often enough. The PK is repeatedly blocked by a wire. What they are doing wrong is obvious and often discussed, and the Penguins don’t seem to want to fix it.
• Penguins need to be more resilient and effective in both slots. The NHL is tending to get heavier. Penguins sum up the charge of the light brigade.
In addition to the random nature of staying healthy, Penguins should be able to squeeze all of that within a week or so and be ready for a long and enjoyable sequence of playoffs.
It helps a lot that the Eastern division is not as good as advertised.
Hart is killing Philadelphia. Washington is slow. Boston is excellent defensively and on goal, but the offensive depth betrays the Bruins. The Islanders have won seven games in a row and lead the division. But five of those wins were against Buffalo and New Jersey. Penguins have a turn to do that.
Penguins can increase their playoff potential by finishing first in the East and reaping the rewards that go with it.
It’s hard to imagine them beating Boston in a best of seven. But they would have a legitimate chance against anyone else.
Penguins will basically play the cards they have. The big deal mending as a precursor to a Stanley Cup you’ve been waiting for since then GM Craig Patrick hired Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings in 1991 is not there. Ron Hextall doesn’t have much commercial capital, unless he wants to further destroy the team’s future, and this list doesn’t deserve that.
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Mark Madden columns | Penguins / NHL | sports