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Some clarity after a false front

January 1, 2025, 6:11 PM ET [16 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Things are usually feeling pretty good until they don't when talking about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. This is how the last stretch of Penguins hockey has felt. The good feelings were strong and now fleeting. The bad losses a dose of reality to an aging team.

The Penguins were a good reminder that even sketchy teams can put together some stretches of wins over the course of the season. With last night’s loss against the Detroit Red Wings they have now lost four out of the last eight games and back to bleeding games played without collecting points.

The losses are from the Senators, Devils, Islanders, and Red Wings. Three of those losses are just bad losses. The kind that can’t happen when you already have games in hand and are chasing points. In a way this is a good thing because the Penguins won’t be disillusioned into trying to buy. They can continue to focus selling pieces off of the roster. Per Moneypuck their playoff chances are at 5.4%. They can lean into selling. They can keep leaning into playing the Matt Nieto’s, and Noel Acciari’s of the world. It doesn’t really matter. The season remains a collect future assets kind of thing.

Kyle Dubas and Mike Sullivan need to get on the same page and alligned with what their actual goals are at this point. It should be to create lineups which facilitate extracting whatever perceived value they can out of the players they plan on trading. Drew O’Connor has had a bad season. He scored two goals last night. Keep putting him in positions to score goals so he can be traded for more. Leave Rickard Rakell with Crosby. He’s had a really nice season and you might get someone to take that contract off of your hands. Matt Grzelcyk is almost a .5 point per player right now and has run a decent second power play Keep force feeding the situations for points. Michael Bunting has had a tale of two halves. Keep him with the better players and try to milk out whatever you can. It is the prudent thing to do.

Further making things difficult for the on-ice product is the loss of Kris Letang



On a brighter note today is the anniversary of a very memorable day in Penguins history



Penguins will get the Florida Panthers on the road on Friday.

Thanks for reading!
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