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The Penguins are 16-9-1 and have won four in a row. Can they still be more than a limit team in the playoffs? Can they win a playoff series? Can they be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?
Hey, why not? If Steelers fans can kid themselves, so can Penguins fans.
But here’s what needs to happen:
• Tristan Jarry must be the second best goalkeeper in the East Division, and he clearly is. He doesn’t have to be better than Boston’s Tuukka Rask. Just everyone.
It is doable, especially given the competition: Washington uses children. Semyon Varlamov of the New York Islanders is average, his stats a product of his team’s system. Carter Hart of Philadelphia fell from his pedigree and became a splat.
Jarry mainly has to eliminate bad goals, as the lame Buffalo scorer on Thursday scored just 27 seconds after the Penguins took a 1-0 lead. Even ABBA had its goals at Waterloo and Jarry’s are fragile. Good saves don’t take bad goals out of the net.
• Penguins must stay 100% healthy in advance. It will not happen. But we’re faking it here anyway.
With just one injury, the fourth row stinks. But let’s say that Evan Rodrigues continues to play well with Evgeni Malkin and Kasperi Kapanen. (Rodrigues plays at the level of who he’s on the ice with.) Let’s say Jason Zucker comes back and plops on the third row with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev, making some semblance of that Phil Kessel / HBK vibe. (Zucker has too much of the puck to play with Malkin or Sidney Crosby.)
Then your fourth row can be Jared McCann, Zach Aston-Reese, and Anthony Angello. That’s not really good.
You have to roll four lines. The schedule is too condensed to rely on three.
• The stars have to play well. Duh. “That’s what you get paid for, Braden!” We are seeing signs of it, but more productivity is needed.
• Coach Mike Sullivan needs a plan B tactically.
The Penguins want to play fast, but prove they can’t do it for 60 minutes in every game. Witness Tuesday’s 4-2 home win over the New York Rangers: The Rangers are just as quick as the Penguins, but younger. New York skated Pittsburgh out of the ice in the third period, holding a 15-1 advantage in shots. Crosby’s empty net 33 seconds to go was the Penguins’ only shot. Fortunately, the game did not last two more minutes.
Penguins are not genetically willing or legally mandated to only play in the open. One size no longer fits all. Every NHL player knows how to trap. The Penguins must play the score and the situation. What is more important: to adapt and have a better chance of winning, or to be true to your precious style?
• Penguins should steer more and come out less flat. Fourteen of their 16 wins have come from behind. It is foolishness to think that this can continue.
• The Penguins need to improve considerably in special teams. They are 23rd in power play (17.6%) and penalties (74.4%) and are worse than those numbers. Power play doesn’t build momentum often enough. The PK is blocked several times by a thread. What they’re doing wrong is obvious and frequently discussed, and the Penguins seem reluctant to fix it.
• The penguins need to become stronger and more efficient in both locations. The NHL tends to be heavier. The Penguins embody the charge of the light brigade.
Aside from the random nature of staying healthy, the Penguins should be able to tighten it all up in about a week and be ready for a nice, long playoff streak.
It helps a lot that the East Division is not as good as advertised.
Hart kills Philadelphia. Washington is slow. Boston is excellent defensively and on goal, but the offensive depth betrays the Bruins. The Islanders have won seven straight wins and lead the division. But five of those wins have been against Buffalo and New Jersey. The penguins have their turn to do this.
The Penguins could increase their potential in the playoffs by finishing first in the East and reaping the benefits that come 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.
The Penguins will basically play whatever cards they have. The big repair deal as a precursor to a Stanley Cup you’ve come to expect since then – GM Craig Patrick got Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings in 1991 isn’t here. Ron Hextall doesn’t have a lot of business capital unless he still wants to scoop the future of the team, and this list doesn’t deserve it.
Categories:
Mark Madden Columns | Penguins / NHL | Sports
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