The Penguins have lost every single game they’ve had in Canada. Only Toronto and Ottawa are left to complete the collection. They have been outscored 14-2 in the past three games. It has been an uninspiring stretch. There isn’t much positive to say. I agree with what Evgeni Malkin said after the game, there are 74 games left in the season. There will be good stretches. However, this three game stretch just goes to show how thin the margin for error is. The Penguins need a lot of things to go right in order to be highly functional. There isn’t a lot of room for error. Injuries to the wrong players might not be overcome.

I think what we are seeing here is what happens when the top six doesn’t carry everything. It is understandable why the top six isn’t firing on all cylinders, they are missing both Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker. Danton Heinen is a great option to use in a small doses. It isn’t a long-term solution.

Right now, there is no help from the depth.



Sam Poulin is trying his best. It doesn’t look like he’s quite ready for prime time. He sits at a 35.26 xGF%. Drake Caggiula is an AHL callup at this stage.

Kasperi Kapanen is on pace for 10 goals this year. The surprise was him getting the extension he got. Him not taking the next step, unfortunately not so much. Heading into tonight’s game Kapanen has 11 goals in his last 88 games. Kraken forward Daniel Sprong has 15 goals in his last 66 games. Players can do more than score goals, but out of Penguins regulars Kapanen has the lowest xGF% on the team. He isn’t scoring and he isn’t doing much else. What else is new?

Brock McGinn remains one of the lowest ceiling 4th line luxury purchases we’ve seen. Losing Brandon Tanev’s cap hit should have been an opportunity to allocate that money towards more scoring depth.

One of the bigger issues is the Brian Dumoulin problem. He sure looks washed. When you invest back into Kris Letang you probably want him to be more than a glorified babysitter on the top pairing. Dumoulin remains a step slow and out of place. He has been at fault for multiple goals during this stretch. It isn’t something I don’t see drastically improving. The question is how long will they leave him stapled to the top pairing. The frustrating part is this was entirely predictable. The team should have been looking to cash out via trade. They should have been proactive. They could have used that cap space way more efficiently over the summer and could have perhaps even got something of quality in return. At the moment they are mashing the square peg into the round hole.

This is a team, when healthy, who will do fine overall. They’ll win enough games to be relevant. As constructed, they have an uphill battle when facing a quality side. When dealing with injuries? We see what has happened the past three games. It is a story of two offseasons. The first part was great. They kept a lot of difference makers around and got them locked in for respectable cap hits. The second part was having no care or consideration into how they built their depth.

Going 2-3 on the road trip isn’t great. It is a lot better than going 1-4. The Penguins are going to have to scrape together a solid effort or it will be one of the worst road trips of the Crosby/Malkin era.

Thanks for reading!

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