The Penguins are coming off of one of their worst losses of the season. The Maple Leafs embarrassed them to the tune of a 7-0 blowout. Given the opponent I can’t imagine it sat well with GM and President Kyle Dubas.
There isn’t a lot of sand left in the hour glass at this point. The Penguins are running out of time to “turn it around…. They have wasted so many points the past few months it is amazing they are only five points off the wild card. Five points doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is. They have four teams to climb past in order to get into the wild card. What about this team makes you think they are going to rattle off a four or five game winning streak? Because that’s what you need to get back into the swing of things. Overtime games do not lend itself to volatility in the standings. It makes chasing down teams incredibly difficult.
There will be some lineup changes for tonight’s game against Minnesota
The Penguins have adjusted their top-four defense pairings, and Rakell and Acciari did rushes.
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) December 17, 2023
Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Smith-Malkin-Puustinen
O'Connor-Eller-Zohorna
Harkins-Acciari-Carter
Johnstone-Gruden-Hinostroza
Pettersson-Letang
Graves-Karlsson
Ludvig-Ruhwedel
Joseph-Shea
When the team was healthy I wanted to see Rakell back with Crosby. It appears we will see that tonight. I still like Rakell as a player even with his horrid start to the year in the goal scoring department. He was still doing a lot of the things successful goal scorers do like getting open and earning high-danger chances. I expect a motivated Rakell and with how Crosby has played this year I think we get some tangible results this time around.
It is Erik Karlsson’s turn to get the Ryan Graves experience. If Graves can’t make it work with Letang or Karlsson then it is likely a Ryan Graves problem. He only has five more years left at 4.5M on his deal. Ron Hextall deserved his criticisms for his bad moves. This Graves contract is playing out like the Granlund acquisition. There’s nothing to be had for the cap hit being paid. Just a void. The fans are getting upset about it
Tonight’s game may be the last time Marc-Andre Fleury plays in Pittsburgh. He’s 39 years old and this is Minnesota’s only scheduled trip to Pittsburgh. I don’t forsee a Penguins Wild Stanley Cup Final so it is conceivable this is it. There’s a lot of history with Fleury between the fans, players, and organization. We might be seeing the final chapter tonight.
Thanks for reading!