The Pittsburgh Penguins have now lost six games in a row and a seven out of their last eight. As of right now they are sitting outside the playoff picture. Before last night’s 5-2 defeat to the Vegas Golden Knights the Penguins had a 50.5% chance of making the playoffs per Moneypuck. This morning the number sits at 44.4%. The team is currently in a tail spin. Injuries aren’t helping, but every team has injuries. The Penguins problems run a lot deeper than the current injury situation.
While Ron Hextall may not have a ton of avenues to explore, the number isn’t zero. So perhaps he should, you know, try and do something. Just because it might not be “easy… doesn’t mean you don’t try. It is a general manager position in one of the four major sports. Of course it isn’t easy.
The things not going well were predictable. The bottom six is blah and players like Brian Dumoulin have struggled. Locking up the top six players and Kris Letang were the right things to do. Hextall’s job filling in the rest has been less than desirable. Unfortunately, summer time is the best time to reshape things and fix your issues and Hextall punted on it instead.
When trying to figure out solutions the organization needs to assess what their game plan is going to be. Are they willing to use their first and second round pick for help? These are assets they have and could potentially use. If not, what options do you have? Ultimately, are you still trying to win or not? Are you willing to just ride things out scraping to make the playoffs or will you sacrifice some of the future for the now? I think when you lock in Malkin, Letang, Rust, and Rakell to long term extensions you’ve committed to the now. The GM needs to act like it and if he doesn’t have the appetite for it then perhaps the new ownership group should get their own guy in place to do the job at hand.
Fact of the matter is the Penguins losing streak has put them in a place where missing the playoffs is a very real outcome, per Moneypuck the more probable outcome. Sitting idle and hoping for the best wasn’t a great strategy even before the injuries. The Penguins very clearly need some changes. Do they have the personnel in place to make them?
Thanks for reading!