|
In a Wild development the power play is... good again? |
|
|
|
|
|
The Penguins held on and picked up a much needed win over the Minnesota Wild 4-3 on Monday night. Every win is a much needed win these days. In 2023-24 fashion the Penguins did their best to try and claw a defeat from the jaws of victory. They led 3-0 and allowed the Wild to come back and tie the game until Sidney Crosby provided the heroics with a power play tally to earn the victory.
Blowing leads is never a good look. Especially for a team desparate for points like the Penguins are. A month ago this would have been a loss. Now? The power play has a pulse and it is a game changer. Pittsburgh picked up another two goals on the man advantage going two for five last night. After 13 games without a power play goal the team has gone six for sixteen the past four games. In those games the Penguins have gone 3-1. It is painful how many points the Penguins left on the table with an inept power play. For now, things are going well and they are winning games via the power play.
Erik Karlsson found himself with a new defense partner. He is now playing with the struggling Ryan Graves. The result was his worst CF% of the entire season.
Graves can’t cut it right now. One of the strengths of this roster is the fact they have Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang. Graves is actively hampering their ability with his quality of play. He needs to find himself on the bottom pairing, or worse. The Penguins don’t have the luxury of sticking with negative results with mid-tier or below players.
With Crosby’s assist on Jake Guentzel’s goal he is now 13th overall in NHL history in points. Era adjusted and it is more impressive
Also worth noting that pace in the right column. Sidney Crosby is one of three players in the triple digits. The other two are Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. And would you look at that, Mario’s the best, because he is.
Valtteri Puustinen has had a successful call up to this point. He earned second star of the game and now has four points in five games since his promotion. He has more skill than the other call up options and for this reason was more appealing to me even if he was off to a slow start in WB/S this year. Talented players when surrounded by other talented players has a better path to success. On a team with a very blah bottom six I’ll take my chances with the players who can do things with the puck. Puustinen fits that bill. The ability for Puustinen to stay in the lineup and contribute would be a huge development for the depth situation. He kinda has to be, there’s no other options.
The Penguins have the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. At some point they are going to have to win some divisional games to claw back into this thing. They are currently 2-3-2 in division. The Hurricanes are currently in the top wild card spot with 35 standings points with 31 games played. Pittsburgh has 31 points with 30 games played.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»