A wish list for the Penguins heading into an important game against the Panthers
Believe it or not, the Pittsburgh Penguins are on a four-game point streak. It may not feel that way because the team has lost two of those four games. However, the defeats were in overtime — Wednesday in Ottawa (5-4) and Sunday in New Jersey (2-1).
The loser points are great for making yourself feel better about the Penguins’ effort on a given night. They aren’t necessarily great for helping the team secure a playoff slot. Right now, the Pens sit in what would be the last Eastern Conference playoff position. They have 54 points, good for the second wild card. But there is a lot of hockey to be played, and plenty of teams are creeping around the Penguins with eyes toward jumping in front of them.
One of those clubs right behind the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings is the Florida Panthers. They come into PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night tied with the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres for ninth in the conference, at 51 points apiece.
So here’s a quick wish list of items for the Penguins as they hope to get two clean points on the evening, without giving at least one right back to their closest competition.
• Get an empty-net goal: That would then suggest that the Penguins would have a multi-goal lead in the third period. That would also suggest that the team could then avoid overtime.
At this point, that’s imperative for coach Mike Sullivan and company. They are 2-8 in games decided during the overtime period. And if they work hard enough to get a “W,” they sure don’t want to allow Florida to sneak out of the building with a point of their own.
That said, the Panthers aren’t exactly fans of overtime either. They have 23 wins, 22 have come in regulation. Their only win after regulation came in a shootout. They are 0-4 in 3-on-3 OT play.
Florida had a stretch of 23 games decided in regulation between Nov. 29 and Jan. 16.
• Get some offense from the blue line: The Penguins have only 12 goals from defensemen. No defenseman has more than three goals.
Injury has been a factor in that regard. Kris Letang and Jeff Petry have missed large chunks of time. Jan Rutta and Pierre-Olivier Joseph have missed a few games as well. But 12 goals from the defense corps simply isn’t enough 46 games into the season.
Marcus Pettersson and Brian Dumoulin don’t have any yet. That said, Pettersson did have a goal taken off the board in overtime against New Jersey for having too many men on the ice Sunday afternoon.
As of Tuesday night, eight individual defensemen in the league have at least 10 goals.
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• Bottom six can rise up: It’s not just the blue line that has been dry offensively, the bottom six isn’t adding much either.
Check out this stat from our Mark Madden during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast. According to Madden, Sidney Crosby’s goal against New Jersey was the 21st out of the last 23 team goals to be scored by one of the top six forwards.
That’s ridiculous. Other players need to pull some more weight. Jeff Carter has one goal in January. Danton Heinen hasn’t had one since Oct. 22. Brock McGinn got hot in December, but he hasn’t scored in 13 games. And Teddy Blueger has scored just once in 31 games all year.
Then there is the always frustrating Kasperi Kapanen. He netted that hat trick against the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 3. He has one goal since then.
• Do better against a Tkachuk: Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators had two goals and three assists against the Penguins during a set of back-to-back games last week.
The Florida Panthers feature his brother, Matthew Tkachuk. He leads the team in scoring with 60 points. He has 16 points in 12 games this month.
When the Penguins visited Miami earlier this year, they won 4-2. But Tkachuk missed that game because he was sick.
In this week’s hockey podcast, Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network joins Tim Benz to discuss Tuesday’s Penguins-Panthers game, the Pens’ issues in overtime, and the upheaval in Vancouver.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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