The Pittsburgh Penguins captain is just one goal away from another major career milestone.
There are not many positive things to say about the Pittsburgh Penguins performance from the past week.
On paper, it looked like an opportunity for them to potentially stack some points against some of the league’s worst teams, while hopefully avoiding another embarrassing lost to one of the league’s best teams (Dallas).
In the end, none of that happened.
They were absolutely humiliated on home-ice against Dallas by giving up six first period goals on their way to a 7-1 loss, and then managed to collect just three of a possible six points against the trio of Detroit, Columbus and San Jose, needing a shootout to beat the latter after losing a 3-0 lead …. the seventh time in 20 games they have blown a multiple goal lead.
Part of me wants to say that maybe that shootout win against the Sharks extended head coach Mike Sullivan’s job security for a little longer, but another part of me says that is a stupid thought. Because, my goodness, if the outcome of a shootout against one of the worst teams in the league impacts your decision-making your process is probably already screwed up. So it’s easier just to think his job security is rock solid despite everything happening on the ice.
Either way, it is time for another look ahead at the next week and the schedule does not really get much easier, even with the continuation of the current home stand.
The positive here — Sidney Crosby is just one goal away from scoring the 600th goal of his career. So at least there is that.
The week’s schedule opens on Tuesday with another tough game against a playoff team from a year ago, Tampa Bay, and a visit from old friend Jake Guentzel.
Guentzel is off to a strong start with 17 points in 16 games, but the real star in Tampa Bay — again — is Nikita Kucherov, who is already up to 26 points in 16 games. There is also a chance the Lightning could be getting Brayden Point back after he missed a few games as he returned to practice this week.
The Lightning are not as dominant as they were at their peak over the past decade as their core players have gotten a little older and the salary cap has cut into their depth. But they still have some elite, high-end players at the top of the lineup. This is also the type of team (a good one) that has outclassed the Penguins all season.
They get another one on Friday night when the Winnipeg Jets visit Pittsburgh. The Penguins already played in Winnipeg earlier this season and allowed a 2-0 lead to turn into a 6-3 loss.
Winnipeg got off to the best 16-game start in NHL history with 15 wins, but they have followed that with back-to-back lopsided defeats against Tampa Bay and Florida. They have another game against the Panthers before coming into Pittsburgh.
Make no mistake, Winnipeg is a good team. It was a playoff team a year ago and there are some really, really good players on that roster. But I am not quite ready to completely buy them as being the team they were in the first month. Connor Hellebuyck is obviously the game-changer in goal, and as long as he keeps playing the way he has been they are going to beat a lot of teams, and their top-line forwards are outstanding. But I also think there was a lot of smoke-and-mirrors with the start, not only with Hellebuyck masking a lot of flaws, but with the fact almost every player on the roster was shooting over 12 percent, with several topping the 20 percent mark. There is some regression to be had there.
With back-to-back losses, and getting them at home, maybe the Penguins are catching them at the right time here?
Reminder, however: In 10 games against playoff teams from a year ago the Penguins are 1-8-1 and have been outscored 46-18.
They then have another back-to-back situation when they host the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday.
Utah was the early talk of the league with its fast start, but it has significantly cooled off in recent weeks, especially as injuries have mounted on defense with Sean Durzi going out of the lineup and John Marino not yet making his debut with the team. But there is still a lot of young talent there that might give the Penguins defense some fits. Dylan Guenther, Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller is a strong core.
I would like to think the Penguins could surprise you this week, but Utah seems like the most winnable game here. Keeping the Tampa Bay and Winnipeg games close would at least be some progress.
The real big story to watch this week, however, is Crosby’s pursuit of career goal No. 600. He scored his 599th career goal on Saturday against the Sharks, and is just one goal away from becoming just the 21st player to ever score 600 goals in the NHL. With three games at home, including two teams (Tampa Bay and Utah — when it was based in Arizona) that he has had a lot of success against, the odds are good that he will get it at some point in the next three games.
He has 24 goals in 49 career games against the Lightning and 13 goals in 24 career games against Arizona/Utah. He also is probably overdue for a goal just in general with only one goal on his past 24 shots on goal.