The Pittsburgh Penguins have an opportunity this week to collect some points against some rebuilding teams.
If you would have told me going into this past week’s slate of games that the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to walk out of it with three out of the six points, I probably would have taken it considering the way they had been playing and the schedule they were facing. They probably did not achieve those three points the way I would have envisioned it (I figured they beat the Islanders and maybe steal a point from the Capitals), but they managed to at least tread water for the week and maybe start to build a little momentum. After losing six games in a row they are at least 3-1-1 in their past five games, and now return home for an interesting week of games.
The first big story line for the week — goalie Tristan Jarry is back, creating a log-jam at the position with him, Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist.
How is Mike Sullivan going to handle that workload and juggle the playing time?
At some point you have to give Jarry another chance and see if you can salvage something from him this season and over the course of that contract. As bad as he has been, you can not just permanently keep him on the bench.
Nedeljkovic has struggled when not getting an opportunity to play against one of the league’s worst teams.
Blomqvist has probably been their best goalie and might give them their best chance at this exact moment.
Realistically speaking, Nedeljkovic is probably the goalie that should be the odd-person out here. You have relatively little invested in him, he is not a meaningful part of the future, and unless he is doing what he did at the end of the 2023-24 season and playing out of his mind to give you your best chance to win there is no reason to be giving him meaningful playing time at this moment.
Based on Monday’s morning skate, it appears that Blomqvist is getting the call to start the week.
Regardless of who plays, this is an interesting week for the Penguins because the back half of the week presents them with an opportunity to maybe get a few more points and keep building some momentum to maybe dig out of this early hole.
Before they get to that point, however, they have to get through one of the best teams in the NHL on Monday night — the Dallas Stars.
On paper the Stars are one of the best overall rosters in the league with a couple of All-Star level players at every level of the roster. Jason Robertson is an impact player and one of the most exciting forwards in the league to watch, Miro Heiskanen is a Norris Trophy level defender and Jake Oettinger can steal games when he is on top of his game.
They have been in back-to-back Western Conference Finals and should be on the short-list of legitimate Stanley Cup contenders this season.
While their offense has not consistently clicked yet and their power play has struggled, they are an outstanding defensive team and enter Monday allowing the third-fewest goals per game.
The Penguins have been mostly dominated against playoff teams this season, but if they can follow up Friday’s win in Washington with another win against a legitiamte contender on Monday that would be a nice little step of progress.
Regardless of what happens against Dallas, the second half of the week is where the Penguins have to collect some wins as Detroit and San Jose come to Pittsburgh with a one-game trip to Columbus sandwiched in between them.
None of those teams are particularly good, and the Penguins have already beaten Detroit this season on the road.
Those three teams rank 23rd, 27th and 30th in the league in points percentage and are three of the worst defensive teams in the league, while the Red Wings enter Wednesday’s game having scored just nine goals in their past six games,
Even with the Penguins struggling the way they have this season, it should not be asking too much to ask for at least five points out of those three games. Columbus and San Jose are short on talent and deep into their rebuilds, while the Red Wings just have not been able to make any progress under Steve Yzerman’s rebuild.
The other intriguing thing to look forward this week will be an up close look at No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini when the Sharks visit the Penguins on Saturday. He has only appeared in four games this season due to injury, but the stage has not been too big for him so far. He already has three goals, an assist and 12 shots on goal, including a dominant performance against Minnesota this past week where he scored a pair of goals and have seven shots on goal.
Dallas is going to be a challenge, but they need to feast after that given what sort of schedule looms after this week. Stack points when you can.