Even though the Pittsburgh Penguins week ended with a tough loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon, it was still a mostly successful stretch of games as they gained five out of a possible
eight points. The results were mostly good, but the process behind those results was a little inconsistent.
They mostly carried the play against the St. Louis Blues over the final 40 minutes of their game on Monday.
They dominated the Minnesota Wild on Thursday with one of their most complete games of the season.
But they also played terribly for most of the game in Philadelphia even in earning a point, and had some bad luck and sloppy moments in Winnipeg to snap their eight-game point streak.
Now it is on to a new week that will begin on Monday in Toronto, where they will conclude their four-game road trip before returning home for one game on Thursday against the Washington Capitals.
Then they have their second set of back-to-back games over the weekend when they travel to New Jersey for their first meeting of the season with the Devils, before returning home for a rematch with the Los Angeles Kings.
The Penguins won the first meeting of the season in Los Angeles by a 4-2 margin.
Even though all of these teams should be playoff teams on paper (all of them were playoff teams a year ago), New Jersey is the only one that is having much success in the standings this season.
The four teams rank fourth (New Jersey), 19th (Toronto), 21st (Washington) and 25th (Los Angeles) in the league-wide standings table by points percentage, which probably is not what any of them were expecting at any point in the season.
That does not mean it is going to be an easy stretch of games.
Toronto has struggled so far this season following the offseason departure of Mitch Marner and the fact they really did not bring in a lot of talent to replace him. Their goaltending has also been some of the worst in the NHL, while they rank sixth in the NHL in goals scored per game and 27th in goals against per game. Given that the Penguins are also prone to playing some very high-event hockey, there is a good chance Monday’s game could turn into a track meet.
Do the Penguins have the players to outscore Toronto?
The Washington game on Thursday is the one that is going to be really fascinating, mostly because I am curious to see what that home crowd is like.
The crowds in Pittsburgh have been energetic this season, but mostly small. But with the Penguins off to a better start than anybody could have anticipated, and with Washington and Alex Ovechkin always being a big draw against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins, there is every reason for there to be a larger, more exciting crowd. This team deserves a big crowd. That matchup deserves a big crowd.
Even though the Capitals have struggled in the standings this season, they do have the second-best expected goals share in the NHL behind only the Colorado Avalanche. The process is there, even if the results are not.
They have also been a vastly different team depending on who the goalie is. While Logan Thompson has been one of the most productive goalies in the league this season with a league-leading .935 save percentage, Charlie Lindgren has been awful with an .880 save percentage.
Which goalie they face will play a big role in how that game plays out.
The Penguins are also getting a big scheduling advantage with that game as they will be home and rested for several days, while the Capitals will be playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel.
New Jersey has been a tough place for the Penguins to play in recent years, and the Devils are off to a fantastic start in the standings with a 9-4-0 start. Jack Hughes is also back in the lineup and healthy and playing at an MVP level so far.
The Penguins might be catching them at the right time, however, as the Devils enter the week having lost three of their past four games.
On Sunday, Anze Kopitar will be making what will probably be his final trip into Pittsburgh, barring a Penguins-Kings Stanley Cup Final series this season. It is still early, but the Kings seem to have taken a step backwards this season and are not only struggling to score goals, but are also struggling to defend after paying big money for Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci in free agency. They have a 5-4-4 record, but have only won two games in regulation (against Chicago and San Jose, two of the worst teams in the NHL) and have already played seven overtime games out of 13 games on the schedule.
The Kings will be starting a six-game road trip on Sunday and will be coming off two consecutive days off. The Penguins will be playing the second half of a back-to-back with travel.
Even though a lot of these teams are struggling so far in the standings, this is still going to be a difficult and challenging week for the Penguins. If they can split the week and get four points that would put them at 10-5-2 at the 17-game mark, which would still be a 106-point pace over 82 games. That would be far better than anybody anticipated or hoped for at the start of the season. At this point it seems like a realistic goal.
