The schedule certainly gives them an opportunity to do that.
Well that certainly could have gone better.
After a promising win over an Edmonton Oilers team that has been one of the best in the NHL over the past month, the Pittsburgh Penguins faced a huge set of home games against the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Two teams they are competing with in the Eastern Conference for a Wild Card spot.
Two teams that were sandwiched around them in the standings.
Four potentially big points that could have set the stage for how the second half of the season could have gone, and four potentially big points at home just before the start of an extended seven-game road trip.
Getting two points felt like a must.
Getting three or four points could have been significant.
Instead they got zero points, and in rather humiliating fashion. After getting blown out by Ottawa on Saturday, they pretty much controlled Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay, were the better team for most of the game despite having a depleted lineup that was without two top-six forwards (Evgeni Malkin and Michael Bunting) and probably deserved at least a point. But because of another stinker of a game from Tristan Jarry and a brutal, horrendous turnover by Noel Accairi in the closing minutes they ended up coming away with nothing.
They have now quickly lost six of their past seven games (at least three of those have come in overtime or shootout) and are now falling back out of the playoff race after briefly making it look like they might play their way back into it.
Now we will get to see how much fight this team actually has and how much ability they have to bounce back this week.
The first two games to open the week should — emphasis on should — be winnable games.
It starts on Tuesday with one more home game, this time against the Seattle Kraken.
The Kraken have been one of the worst teams in the Western Conference this season and enter the week having lost 11 of their past 15 games, including five of their past six. The Kraken, quite honestly, do not do anything particularly well. They are one of the league’s worst 5-on-5 teams across the board, ranking 27th or worse in total shot attempt share, goals scored share, expected goal share, scoring chance share and high-danger scoring chance share. Across the board they are a bottom-five team during 5-on-5 play. They do not defend well. They do not score a lot of goals. The only positive thing they really have going for them is the fact starting goalie Joey Daacord is having another strong season.
Beyond that?
They have largely stunk.
Not only that, they have actually played worse over the past 10 games in all of those areas than they have for the season.
Given that it is a home game and that Seattle is in the middle of an extended east coast road trip, that is two points the Penguins need. No excuse for not getting them.
It will be a similar story on Friday when they open the road trip by traveling to Buffalo.
While the Sabres have played a little better over the past week or so, they are still one of the worst teams in the NHL — again — and seem stuck in a perpetual rebuild that has no end in sight.
If the Penguins are going to stay in this thing and play, these first two games of the week are the type of games they absolutely need to win. When you have a chance to play bottom-tier teams, you have to try and stack points when you can.
I know the Penguins, as currently constructed, are not a contender or a top-tier team themselves, but they are at least a tier above teams like Seattle and Buffalo in the way they at least push the pace of play and can score on the power play. They do some things well. They can create chances and outplay teams at 5-on-5. They just can not get a save from their goalies when they need one.
Even so, I don’t think it is a stretch to want to expect four points through the first two games of the week.
That will be necessary because on Saturday they play the second half of a back-to-back, on the road, against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
Everything about that is going to be a challenge for the Penguins, from the fact Washington has been one of the best teams in the league this season, to the fact it is the second half of a back-to-back with travel against a rested team.
As tough as that game is, and as tough as a seven-game road trip can be, the schedule is actually fairly manageable over this next stretch of games.
Starting with Tuesday’s game against Seattle only three of their next 12 games are against teams currently in a playoff position. That includes seven upcoming games against teams in the bottom-seven of the league-wide NHL standings.
There is still a path here. They just need to start taking advantage of it. They need to bounce back from a wasted weekend opportunity. It has to start on Tuesday against a struggling Kraken team.