There is a very stark divide within the Penguins’ division this year with four good teams and four bad ones
It feels like training camp only recently ended but the Penguins have completed 20 games in the 2024-25 season, nearly one quarter of the 82 game schedule. Time moves quickly in the NHL, might as well stop and take in the latest standings on this Sunday morning.
The Metropolitan Division is splitting into a very stark divide of four good teams (three of which have a .700+ points percentage) and four mediocre ones. The pure point totals make the situation look a little more bunched, but only because Carolina, Washington and the NY Rangers have played a handful less games than teams like Philadelphia, NY Islanders and the Penguins. As such, the top half of the division should soon be pulling away comfortably as they get the opportunity to play more games.
Let’s bounce around the week for a quick check in on everyone.
New Jersey: It was a weird week for the Diablos, they started out losing a home 1-0 game to lowly San Jose, but then bounced back to win to games in a row against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers by a 10-3 total. With, oddly enough, two games in a row at the same building. Strange. Then NJ ended the week last night by getting shutout 4-0 to Florida. Interesting week ahead, only two games but they are big ones (Carolina on Thursday, @Washington on Saturday).
Carolina: The Hurricanes went 2-1-0 on the week, beating Vegas on the road and shutting out Ottawa last night 4-0, with a loss to Utah in the middle. We remarked in a recent game preview that Carolina was charmed to have very few injuries but the worm has turned there. Starting goalie Frederik Andersen will be out longer than initially expected, backup Pyotr Kochetkov is dinged up and Seth Jarvis is now on IR. Injuries aren’t going to sink their season at this point but it will be an annoyance, especially in net.
Washington: The Capitals blew a lead to Toronto and ended up losing in OT but bounced back with an impressive win in Colorado this week. Washington’s 4.19 goals/game is tops in the circuit right now, it’s been all systems go for them in a great start to the year.
NY Rangers: NYR lost one of the most entertaining games of the season so far in a 6-3 contest against the Jets before bouncing back with a win over San Jose this week. The Blueshirts are on the road this week for the daunting Western swing where they’ll visit Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton in the upcoming week.
Philadelphia: It’s been a good stretch for the Flyers, who hold the division’s longest active winning streak at three. They’re living on the margins, ekeing out a shootout win against San Jose, and coming back from a 4-2 third period deficit against Ottawa (eventually an OT win) but they’re finding ways to get results. That’s boosted them back to a .500 points% with some tough games (Colorado, Carolina) on the horizon.
NY Islanders: Like the Rangers, NYI is out west now, putting up a 1-1-1 record against Seattle, Vancouver and Edmonton this week. They’ll finish up in Calgary and stop in Detroit on the way back home. Last night’s game against Seattle might hurt, the Islanders blew a third period lead and couldn’t even get it to overtime, as they usually seem to have the knack to do. The road trip would have been that much better had they gotten at least a point out of it, but they’re still in decent position to survive it.
Columbus: The Blue Jackets broke a five-game losing streak when they thumped the Penguins 6-2 on Friday night, but were unable to gain any traction and followed that up with a 5-1 loss to Montreal last night. That’s a shame for them, especially with some tough teams coming up (Boston, Tampa, Carolina in the upcoming week).
—
Overall the Penguins are 3-3-2 in the month of November, with some demoralizing losses along the way. That’s not good enough with a more difficult back half of the month coming up. But now that Pittsburgh is integrating more young players into the lineup, perhaps they can use the fresh faces and take it a game at a time to see what happens. The bad news for Pittsburgh is that they are likely to be stuck in the lower tier of the division and Friday night’s awful loss to Columbus only confirms that there are no guarantees or easy games for them this year.