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Penguins leave San Jose empty-handed

January 21, 2018, 10:45 AM ET [38 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The road trip is over and after a 2-1 regulation loss to the San Jose Sharks the Penguins return home taking only two out of a possible six points on the trip. They remain in a playoff spot. They are the second wild card for now. They also remain the team that has played the most games in the conference. This will be an interesting week to track the standings because the Penguins only have two games in the next nine days. We will start to see if any of these other teams chasing them will make the most of those games in hand.



According to Hockeyviz projections Pittsburgh is at a 58% chance of making the playoffs.

The game last night featured two goaltenders on top of their game. Aaron Dell outdueled Casey Desmith for the 2-1 victory. It was Smith's second straight outing giving the team great goaltending. A nice start to his NHL career. This is the caliber of goaltending that has been missing for a large portion of the season. Even with that you aren't going to win too many games scoring a single goal. Conor Sheary scored very early on in the game and that was it for Pittsburgh. Sheary's goal was his ninth goal at 5v5 this year. No other Penguin has more. Both Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel also have nine.

The Jake Guentzel experiment at center was put on hold because the team wanted to use Jean Sebastian Dea in that role. Dea played 7:58... combined in both games. Seems odd to keep Daniel Sprong out of the lineup to have Dea average under four minutes per game. Pittsburgh's latest winning streak was being propelled by Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel. They need more from the depth guys. Riley Sheahan back with the third line, Dea playing under four minutes a night, and Daniel Sprong watching it all isn't the recipe for that.

Sprong was in a point drought, but he wasn't hurting the team. In his eight game sample he leads all Penguins in CF% at 62.98. Whatever perceived defensive deficiencies exist with Sprong won't matter all that much if you are in the other end 63% of the time. Sprong's 1.79 points per 60 at 5v5 is second best on the team right now even with that drought. Nobody has been worth a damn at even-strength this year outside of Malkin. Even Kessel is all the way down to 1.56 which is third line stuff. The power play remains the team's life blood.



The team may not prefer to use Guentzel at the center position, but until they make a trade he's their best option and balances the lineup better (assuming Sprong plays). The third line center position was a known position of need since last June. Seven months later it still is.

Ian Cole was a healthy scratch again. I'm all ears for an explanation that makes sense.

Last night wasn't a lineup that gives the team the best chance to win and that really should be the focus given how the standings look.




Thanks for reading!
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