The Pittsburgh Penguins successfully navigated on of the toughest stretches of their season with today’s 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The last five games for Pittsburgh have been: Tampa Bay, Carolina, Florida, Vegas, and Carolina again. They earned seven out of a possible ten points. A great achievement by an older Penguins team looking to prove to their front office they are for real.
Nice change of pace the last two games is all the different goal scorers. Their last nine goals (against Vegas and Carolina) have been from nine different players. The goal scorers in order were: Mike Matheson, Jeff Carter, Mark Friedman (first with the team), Bryan Rust, Evan Rodrigues, Brian Boyle, Danton Heinen, Sidney Crosby, and Zach Aston-Reese.
The depth players had been struggling for a bit in the goal scoring department and while it was never going to be permanent it was still really frustrating watching it play out. This was a nice change of pace to see so many different names contributing.
The win puts the Penguins in second place behind the Hurricanes still heading towards a likely matchup with the New York Rangers and Igor Shesterkin. While the goal scoring diversity the last two games have been nice, I still think it is imperative for the Penguins to acquire another gifted offensive player via trade. They need all the firepower they can get because despite taking the two points today Carolina, despite being on a back-to-back, dominated the flow of play. The Penguins were out-attempted at 5v5 64 to 24. There might not be a path for the Penguins to outplay a team like Carolina consistently, but good goaltending and players who can finish can be a way to fight back. The more skilled forwards the better.
Thanks for reading!