The Calgary Flames may have been in town, but they were not the team on fire. The Penguins laid it on the Flames in a 6-2 victory marking their third victory in a row, a season first.

Thanksgiving is usually the unofficial marker on if teams are serious playoff contenders or not and Pittsburgh still remains on the outside looking in even after these three victories. While it has been nice to watch some functional hockey the past few games I am still reserved about their big picture outlook on the season. For now, they remain in 7th place in the Metropolitan Division with only the New Jersey Devils (27) playing in more games than the Penguins (26). It is going to take a lot of good results to climb back into the playoff picture, three game winning streaks are a necessary part of it. Their upcoming games are the Panthers, Rangers, Maple Leafs, and Avalanche. If they take six out of eight points in this stretch they’ll have my attention.

A big part of this stretch has been competent goaltending in back to back games. Tristan Jarry had one of his best performances of the season and Alex Nedeljkovic carried a shutout until the last five minutes of regulation last night. I realize it isn’t an easy task to perform well given how bad the Penguins are defensively, but it shows when you get the save percentages into the respectable 9’s it can buy the team some time to score some goals and the Penguins have been a solid xGF team this year, albeit with a finishing issue.

Philip Tomasino came over from Nashville in a change of scenery trade and thus far has two goals in only three games for the Penguins. He has done something that hasn’t been done in a decade. Having his first two goals being game winners in his first three games

Philip Tomasino is the second player to score two game-winning goals in his first three games with the @penguins, joining Chuck Kobasew in 2013-14. pic.twitter.com/cAHePoZSRz

— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) December 1, 2024

Now the key for Tomasino will be to not be like Chuck Kobasew for the rest of the season. Those two goals were the only goals Kobasew had for the Penguins that season. He went scoreless for the 31 games he played that season after the hot start. Tomasino has more skill and isn’t 31 years old so I think things will go better. Much like how I’m going to let things play out with the team I’m going to let them play out with Tomasino as things are really early. I think it is a great start and for someone changing scenery it has been as good of a start as you could have wanted. Can’t be bad for his confidence.

Owen Pickering returned from his illness and strung together another solid performance. Through his five games he has a 55.78 xGF% and has played quite well in his lower pairing role. By merit he should be able to stay up with the big club, but there are roster limits and Cody Glass will be returning to the lineup. If the Penguins are going to keep Pickering up they will have to send St. Ivany or Shea down to WB/S as the team has eight defenseman rostered at the moment. Shea is the only one who would have to go through waivers. This opens the possibility of Pickering continuing his development in the AHL. Pickering’s first glimpse has been an encouraging start and regardless of how Dubas plays this it doesn’t change the fact he appears to be on the track to being a competent NHL player.

Rickard Rakell is on pace for 31 goals this season.

Sidney Crosby has 25 points in 26 games and still within reach of a point per game season.

Here’s a tasty nugget, Evgeni Malkin has 22 points in 26 games for a 70 point pace this season while Vincent Trochek has 12 in 23 games played for a 43 point pace.

The defending Stanley Cup champs will be here on Tuesday.

Thanks for reading!

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