Usually, a blackhole will swallow stars and everything else nearby. The Penguins are indeed a black hole this season, but also incredibly inept, thus useless against the Stars from Dallas. The visiting team put and absolute thumping on the overmatched Penguins in the first period scoring a total of six goals. It isn’t hyperbole to say that it might be the worst period of hockey played in this era of Penguins hockey (excluding playoff meltdowns). It was the worst home period of hockey in franchise history as far as goals against.
Thing eventually slowed down and for you glass half full folks out there the Penguins won the second period of play 1-0. It was their lone goal of the game and the final result was 7-1. Bad Penguins are bad.
This was Joel Blomqvist’s first shoddy start of his career. He did not last long. He let in three goals on only eight shots. His overall save percentage went from a .913 to .904 just like that. I have no concerns about him moving forward. The team was a train wreck in front of both goaltenders. Alex Nedeljkovic came in and was immediately scored on.
Notably, Tristan Jarry was a healthy scratch for this contest and I think it was 100% the right call for him. I think the decision makers knew what a tough task the Dallas game was going to be and throwing Jarry back into this fire would be the equivalent to adding gasoline. Could you imagine if Jarry had the same start as Blomqvist? It would have been a dark dark timeline for him and in this case likely not his fault at all. The Penguins did the right thing holding back on his return debut. The Penguins now have Detroit, Columbus, and San Jose as their next three opponents. I would start Jarry the next game and have him play two out of the three assuming the first start isn’t a disaster. The fact is they have to play him. Him sitting out as a healthy scratch with three goaltenders isn’t going to get the Penguins any closer to moving on from him. Furthermore, if he continues to play awful you might as well lean into it. This is a lottery caliber team. Losing is winning. So either Jarry plays well and his trade stock goes up, or the Penguins get to keep adding to their lottery probability.
I’m going to need Evgeni Malkin back on Sidney Crosby’s wing or I’m not sure there’s much of a reason to watch this team on a night to night basis. I’m good with the losing. I’m not good with being completely bored. Just let them get their points in while the team continues to lose. Let’s not pretend the team is “competing” or building towards something. They were designed to suck and they do. There’s a reason they allowed the Sharks to have the #14 overall pick last year. They knew they were going to be worse this year. It was planned. So throw us a bone. Get Sid and Geno back together for entertainment reasons and slap Rakell with them to juice his numbers for a future trade.
There are no moves coming to help the 2024-25 Penguins. If you’re still holding out for hope you are going to be left disappointed. This is a crash and burn season which the Fenway Sports Group tried to put window dressings on. I have a strong hunch this is exactly why the Sidney Crosby extension took so long. He had to come to terms with the reality of the situation before extending his deal in Pittsburgh.
For the first time in close to two decades you can start researching top prospects because the Penguins are likely going to land one.
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Programming note: It appears Bluesky is picking up traction. I will likely be more and more active over there. So far so good. Way better vibes @ryanwilson.bsky.social
Thanks for reading!
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