Momentum is only as good as the next shift, the next play and the next game. That is important to keep in mind for the Pittsburgh Penguins going into Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens — and their next two games this week — after their back-to-back tough losses against the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks. There is a school of thought that losing two games, in the manner in which they did, and only getting two points instead of four points, could be some sort of season-defining turning
point.
There is always the possibility of that. Those were not just random defeats to good teams.
Those were gut-punch defeats to good teams that you outplayed by a significant margin for the majority of the game. Those were defeats that you were in total control of. They were also defeats that kept replaying a similar narrative that has happened all season with a blown third period lead and an overtime/shootout loss.
In a lot of ways the game on Tuesday night against Anaheim was highly encouraging.
They showed us they were able to bounce back from a tough loss just a couple of days earlier, and responded with perhaps even stronger showing than the one they had in Dallas (which, up until that point, might have been one of their best games of the season given the opponent and the context of the road trip). They mostly limited one of the highest-scoring teams in the league, dictated the game, bounced back from a deficit of their own and put themselves in a position to close it out.
Then everything fell apart at the end of regulation.
It is not a stretch to say they were rattled in overtime by what happened at the end of regulation, and that 1:44 of power play time illustrated that perfectly. That was a team that had no confidence. That was a team that was shaken to its core. They played like it, and despite having some quality chances and wide open looks in overtime were unable to get the win.
Then the shootout went exactly as everybody expected it to go, right down to Sidney Crosby trying the exact same move that never works.
It is easy to look at all of that, within the context of the week, and within the context of the season as a whole, and say, well, this team might be cooked.
I know this is not the type of thing people want to hear after games like that, but there were still a lot of things the Penguins should be taking away from those games. Specifically the fact that they did play great hockey for the overwhelming majority of them, and did so against two really good teams. In Dallas, they did so against arguably one of the two or three best teams in hockey, which came after road regulation wins at Philadelphia and Tampa Bay.
There is mounting evidence to suggest that there IS a good team here. A flawed team, to be sure, but still a good team that is capable of hanging with and going toe-to-toe with the best teams in the league.
This is very much a trust the process situation, because lately the process has been outstanding and almost everything you want to see from a playoff team. The attention to detail needs to be better. The situational awareness needs to be better. But those things are, in theory at least, easier to fix than getting a team to play better overall. They have the hard part right. Now they just have to finish the rest of it.
This is also an example as to why I think it can, and will, be beneficial to have veteran players that have won before around a rebuilding team with young players. A team that is constructed primarily of young players still trying to find their way in the NHL might look at those two games and very much let it ruin their season. Having winners around that have been through adversity, tough times and worked/played their way through it is important. There is a value in that.
The Penguins still have four more games on this home stand, including three more this week. All of them are against opponents they should be capable of beating.
They are still in a very good position in the standings, and still enter play on Thursday with the seventh-best points percentage in the NHL and the third-best points percentage in the Eastern Conference. It is easy to look at the point totals and get concerned about how close things are and how little margin for error there is right now, and there is some truth to that. To a point. But games played matter, and the Penguins have still played fewer games than any other team in hockey.
Like I pointed out on Monday, they are one point ahead of the Rangers, while having played four fewer games. They are tied with the Devils in two fewer games. Only two points behind the Islanders in three fewer games. They have put themselves in a good position, It could be a better position. They have put themselves in situations and given themselves opportunities for it to be a better position. They can still continue to do that as long as they do not let these recent games disrupt their progress. They have given themselves a cushion and are playing better.
Over the past eight games the Penguins have 11 out of a possible 16 points and the fifth-best points percentage in the league over that time. They have the third-best expected goals share during 5-on-5 play during that stretch. Yes, they have given away some points in that time and could, and should, be better …. but they are still collecting points. A lot of them. They are right there. Keep going with it. Keep doing it. Keep playing that way. Keep trusting the process.
