Last night was a hard watch.
Games that start at 10pm ET usually are, but when they go the way they did for the Penguins, it gets a lot harder.
No matter what they did, Pittsburgh could not get anything going on the road against the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena. Seattle scored a fluky goal in added one late in the third, and that was all the mythical sea creature wrote.
That first period goal had actually been a pretty good indicator of how the game was going to go. The Penguins were playing well, for the most part. They were getting chances and put a lot of shots on net.
But after a run of solid chances and looks for the Penguins, the Kraken get to crashin’ and take the lead 1-0.
The Penguins persisted, sending 18 shots into Seattle goaltender Phillip Grubauer’s pads in the opening frame.
The second period saw much of the same. Tons of shots fired Grubauer’s way. None of them ending up in the back of the net.
Late in the third, the Kraken get a second one past Tristan Jarry, which essentially put the game out of reach.
It was Grubauer’s first shutout in nearly two years. Call it a case of the Penguins getting “goalied.”
But at this time of the year, getting goalied comes at a cost. And right now, for this Penguins team at this juncture, it feels like that cost might be the season.
We talk about games in hand all the time, and Pittsburgh still has some games in hand on teams above them in the standings. But I have said before it’s not so much about how many points out of the playoffs they are, it’s about how many teams are between them and the playoffs.
It’s so hard to get anywhere when you need so many teams above you to falter.
Regardless if a wild card spot or third place in the Metropolitan Division is more realistic, there are three teams that the Penguins have to jump.
Those games in hand mean everything, and on a night where both teams currently in wild card spots (Tampa Bay and Detroit) lost, the Penguins could not afford to lose as well.
Pittsburgh had been impressively performing well in recent games as two thirds of their top line (Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust) were injured, but I think last night showed that kind of luck isn’t sustainable for long stretches.
It was a tough loss to see, with just nothing going on offense for this team. That has been a problem even when the team was healthy. Now that they aren’t, it’s all the more reason for concern.
Although they did play well for the most part, I still would have liked to see them do more. The power play was, well, the power play, and the team needed to be more desperate, especially considering the circumstances.
The Penguins have two more games on this west coast trip, in Calgary against the Flames (who are surging, winners of four straight), and in Edmonton against the Oilers (who are, you know, the Oilers). The schedule doesn’t get any easier from here on out.
And if they have the kind of luck like they did in Seattle, that point total won’t rise either.
The trade deadline is a week from today. As of March 1st, it would take 8 points to take the second wild card spot. It would take 7 points to snag third in the Metro.
The Penguins had strung together some wins in their last 3 games, but it really felt like they needed to sweep this road trip to leap back into the picture. And if they did have to lose, it had to be in overtime.
There’s still so many questions left on this team. But there’s only one week left to answer them.
(Featured photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Fifth Avenue Sports 
Leave a comment