Happy birthday, Mario!
Yikes, that didn’t go to plan. It is just one game out of 82, but we have some things to start thinking about as we get going here. Pittsburgh wasn’t a good defensive team last year and after a little over 100 minutes of game action this year they’ve given up 15 goals. Yeah, 15!. Small sample size alert I know, but even with the return of Kris Letang this team was going to be more susceptible this year than they’ve been in the past.
In 2015-16 Pittsburgh had a CA/60 of 52.09. Last year that went up to 57.49. They were able to absorb that uptick in shot volume against because they still have great forward depth and were getting really good goaltending.
My concern for the early goings of this season is that the defensive issues will continue, the goaltending won’t be perfect, and the ability to generate will also be compromised because of the bad forward depth.
There was a lot of talk surrounding the Penguins and a three-peat heading into this season and rightfully so. That’s an interesting storyline. However, in Pittsburgh that focus should shift from a three-peat to “maybe let’s just get out of October….
Here’s what last night looked like
This looks really bad and the reality is even worse. Despite being obliterated on the scoreboard the Penguins weren’t even saved by score effects.
Yeah, the goaltending has been really bad. Pittsburgh is sitting at an .821 5v5 save percentage. Can’t win with that. You also can’t bleed high danger chances every night like they’ve been. I mean look at how easy some of these goals were
Some of those were really nice, and no Fleury would not have saved the day either. These issues are way above goaltending. Pittsburgh PDO’d their way to a Stanley Cup title last year and they are going to have to PDO their way to standings points with the current roster. Right now they are not. They can get better and that can change. The season is two games young after all.
The biggest thing to worry about going forward will be a panic trade. What if the losing continues? Pittsburgh has a general manager that is not going to sit idle. His hallmark is wheeling and dealing and that is what he is eventually going to do. Will it be from a position of strength? What if one of the pieces Rutherford wants to use in a third line center trade gets hurt? There are some serious hurdles for this team to overcome early on in the 2017-18 season. Getting through the first month with a reasonable amount of standings points is no guarantee even with Sid, Geno, Phil, and Kris. The depth is that bad.
Pittsburgh’s next three games? Nashville, Washington, and Tampa Bay. They certainly have a enough high end talent to survive this stretch. We’ll see if they do.
Thanks for reading!