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More of the same for Penguins except for one big difference |
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The Penguins can exhale a little bit. They were victors over the visiting Nashville Predators by a score of 2-0. The two points keeps them ahead of the Florida Panthers who were also victorious on Thursday evening. Given that the Penguins will play the top team (Bruins) in the NHL on Saturday these were a much needed two points.
The game looked like a lot of these games have lately. The Penguins had the edge in xGF% and shots. The big difference was having above average goaltending. Tristan Jarry started and earned the shutout. The way these games have been going this game could have played out exactly the same with a Penguins loss because of goaltending.
Since the Edmonton Oilers 7-2 blowout loss the Penguins have overall been a good enough team to win games. Here is a game by game look at xGF% from then until now. The majority of games are over 50%
In fact, out of the 32 NHL teams the Penguins xGF% is second overall at 59.50. Only the New Jersey Devils at 60.85 are better. What the xGF% tells me is the team is playing sound. Their bottom six isn’t all that talented so the actual goals might lag behind. The bad goaltending will cause more goals to go in. Speaking of the goaltending
On the flip side the save percentages haven’t been as kind. There have been some clunkers from both goaltenders
Overall their save percentage has been .889 during this stretch. Save percentage around the league are down this year. However, .889 is still unacceptable. If this team could any sort of goaltending their xGF% should be enough to power them comfortably to the playoffs. Yeah, the first round is going to be a grind, but they shouldn’t be scraping to get there.
Tristan Jarry has had stretches of excellent play. The problem is they come and go. If he can give them an acceptable level of goaltending the team will have a puncher’s chance with their top six and overall xGF%.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
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