After a 5-1 home loss to Carolina on Sunday, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 The X is feeling pretty shaky about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ playoff chances.
“I see a team that’s kind of sagging,” Madden said during this week’s Madden Monday podcast. “I think they’re no better than 50-50 to make the playoffs. If you made me bet right now, I’d bet against them.”
Madden feels that way despite the fact that the team has 86 points and is in sole possession of second place in the Metropolitan Division. He has one very specific reason for his doubts.
“The Penguins’ goaltending (stinks). That’s the single biggest problem,” Madden said. “How are you going to make the playoffs when your goaltending (stinks)? … The goaltending has been unacceptable since coming back from the Olympic break.”
Building off of Madden’s last point, the Penguins are allowing 3.57 goals per game in the 14 contests since the Olympics. Both Artus Silovs and Stuart Skinner have save percentages below .900 for the season.
“Skinner has been rotten,” Madden said after his loss to the Hurricanes on Sunday. “I mean, his last eight games, he’s 1-2-5. His save percentage is at 87%. His goals against is up over 3.5. He’s just playing poorly. Some people say, ‘Oh, the defense isn’t giving him help.’ They’re not. And he has to make a lot of good saves. But the good saves don’t take the bad goals out of the net.”
Fly let it fly ???????? pic.twitter.com/xcmOeFFXHI
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) March 22, 2026
Madden would prefer it if the franchise called up Sergei Murashov from the AHL. In 33 games with Wilkes Barre, he is 21-8-3 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a save percentage of .919.
“I would have traded Skinner for whatever pick you could get and called Murashov up,” Madden continued. “It would have been a gamble, but certainly an educated one. He’s ripping apart the AHL. He’s by far the best goalie in Triple-A hockey, and you’d like to think he’d be ready. You’d like to take the risk that he can be better than what you’ve got, but they’re simply not going to do that. I would call him up right now. I would have three goalies rostered. I would make one of them practice fodder, maybe Skinner at this point.”
Madden would also like to see more contributions from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin now that Crosby is back from injury and Malkin is back from suspension.
“They’re both over a point per game since returning,” Madden allowed. “But I don’t think either one is playing dynamic. I don’t think either one is taking games over for long stretches. Their best player by far recently has been Erik Karlsson. That’s good. Full credit to him. But they need more than that.”
Also during the podcast, Madden handicaps the Eastern Conference playoff outlook, we discuss the Steelers’ offseason in advance of the draft, and Konnor Griffin’s demotion for the Pirates.
