The gauntlet starts tonight. The next five games will be within the Metropolitan Division. This from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Also wrote last night about just how insane the Metropolitan Division is right now: https://t.co/CkkEAN7ARq pic.twitter.com/2dlnbmA6zt
— Jason Mackey (@JMackeyPG) December 20, 2016
•Five NHL teams had 20 wins entering Monday. Three of them reside in the Metro. (Rangers, Penguins, Blue Jackets, all with 20)• Five of the top seven point-getters are Metropolitan Division teams (Rangers 47, Penguins 45, Blue Jackets 44, Capitals 41, Flyers 41)
• Those same five have all enjoyed winning streaks of five, seven, nine, six and 10 games, respectively.
The Penguins will face the Rangers and Blue Jackets once during this five game stretch, but that doesn't mean the stats about the Capitals and Flyers are irrelevant. Pittsburgh playing without Letang, Daley, and to a lesser extent Kuhnhackl will hinder the team's ability to play at their best. If Pittsburgh starts dropping points during this stretch they could find themselves dropping fast from their current comfy spot at the top of the division. There isn't a ton of wiggle room with literally every single divisional team playing well.
Tonight's opponent started the year on fire. It felt like the New York Rangers were scoring on every shot and that is because their shooting percentage was otherworldly. That was never going to last and it hasn't. Here is a look at both Pittsburgh and New York.
The shooting has cooled down for New York and the Penguins have been the team on the rise lately. That is just one part of the equation though. New York has vastly improved in another category which has less variance than shooting percentage
These are the possession trends for each team. While New York was getting by on hot shooting despite playing below average early in the year that has flipped. New York has started to play better and Pittsburgh has started to trend down.
Goaltending has been pretty similar for both teams throughout the season.
I noted some Pittsburgh injuries above. The Rangers will also be missing an important piece. Rick Nash has re-injured his groin and will not be available for tonight's game. Rick Nash is tied for the team lead in goals with 13. Mika Zibanejad remains out of the lineup with a broken leg. The Rangers have very good forward depth and while it isn't ideal for them to be missing these players I would argue they will have an easier time replacing them than Pittsburgh will with Letang and Daley. The defense depth just isn't there for Pittsburgh, especially for Letang.
Chad Ruhwedel off the ice before Steve Oleksy, which indicates Ruhwedel will make his Penguins debut tonight.
— Jonathan Bombulie (@BombulieTrib) December 20, 2016
It appears Derrick Pouliot will be back in the lineup while Steve Oleksy will be ceding his spot for Chad Ruhwedel. This will be Ruhwedel's first NHL action while not playing on an intentionally tanking Sabres team.
After going pointless against Los Angeles Sidney Crosby had an assist against Toronto. He is only six points behind Connor McDavid for the league lead.
Marc-Andre Fleury was great in his last start even if the final goal was partly on him for his whiffed poke check. He will not get the start tonight. It will go to Matt Murray. This is further evidence the Penguins have moved away from their 1a 1b approach to goaltending. Murray is the starter.
After sitting out for four consecutive (healthy) games in a row for the first time in his career Henrik Lundqvist has taken the goal cage back for three consecutive starts. He has only allowed three goals in those starts
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Brand new Hockey Hurts Podcast discusses why the Avalanche are still terrible, how the Blue Jackets have had success, how Pittsburgh will navigate their defense injuries, and what goes wrong for NHL teams when they are on a 5 on3. You can find that here
Thanks for reading!