Dan Muse had a couple of quotes after Pittsburgh’s loss last night to Montreal that had more defensive lapses and errors that could pretty well describe the Penguins’ month of October.
“Hockey is a game of mistakes, so mistakes are going to happen. But in terms of them being able to get two quick ones, or even sometimes just shifts with multiple chances back-to-back, we need to be better at just kind of controlling that,” Muse said.
“Guys are getting clean looks there at the net, and second opportunities
around the net. Those things are preventable,” Muse said. “So again, breakdowns, mistakes are going to happen, breakdowns are going to happen. It’s just happening too much. Got to correct it.”
Whether or not the Penguins have the talent and ability to correct those issues for a prolonged period is becoming more unlikely. They’ve righted the ship for small periods of time – like a recent three-game stretch from Oct 22-29 where they only surrendered six total goals. On either sides of that stretch, however, they’ve regularly been giving up 4-5 goals per game and that’s just no way to live in the NHL.
As such, it’s starting to get late early for the Pens. As of last night they were 14th out of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference – and the bad news is a team with a .607 points% (Buffalo, with 17 points in 14 games) is sitting below the playoff line currently. Pittsburgh only has 12 points in 14 games.
Let’s take a look at the division and see how things went in the past week for the teams in the Metropolitan Division.
Carolina (2-0-0): This doesn’t even count the 7-0 whopping the Hurricanes put on Winnipeg today. Safe to say as now winners of 12 of their first 16 games this season – and more importantly only two regulation losses – there is no Stanley Cup hangover to be found.
New Jersey (2-1-1): Connor Hellebuyck won both of his appearances with New Jersey, giving up only three goals along the way. Goaltending has been a major factor holding this team back over the last handful of years and that issue appears to have been resolved.
Washington (2-0-0): Good week for the Caps, who pulled off a changing of the guard. They have an Alex with 10 goals in 12 games, but now that is Alex Tuch. Ovechkin only has one goal in his first 12 games and has receded in his final season as a bit player as others have been brought into do the heavy lifting.
NY Islanders (2-2-0): A bit of smoke and mirrors for the Isles – they lost their two games by a combined 10-3 score on the week and managed to pull off OT and SO wins in the close games. Quite to their character of hanging around, they’re finding ways to get some results- aided in no small part by the cheat code that is Matthew Schaefer playing a full five minutes of OT in one game, then scoring the GWG in the other.
NY Rangers (0-1-0): It was a good time for the Rangers to only play one game in a week, where they gave up six goals and lost. NYR has given up 5+ goals in four of their last six games as they navigate life without their franchise goalie, this week will test them with four games (and Connor McDavid surely licking his chops to get after them today).
Pittsburgh (0-1-1): Nothing is coming easy for the Pens right now. Both games played were fairly frenetic and in a see-saw fashion with plenty of chances at both ends of the ice. But they’re not outscoring their problems that much so far this year, in part because as Muse mentioned above – they have way too many issues.
Columbus (1-2-0): The Blue Jackets found a way to beat Philadelphia in OT early in the week, then lost a one-goal game to Carolina and lost by two to Dallas after a late ENG. Goal scoring later on against those tough teams was a problem, only three combined goals in two games isn’t going to parlay well into earning positive results.
Philadelphia (0-1-1): If misery loves company, the commonwealth of PA is in the same boat hockey-wise on the Eastern and Western side. The Flyers won all three of their games on the season so far a little streak from Oct 17-21, then have lost their next three.
