Penguins taking stock of where they are approaching halfway point of the season

It’s fitting that at roughly the halfway point of the season, the 2023-24 Pittsburgh Penguins put forth the kind of performance that they did in Game 40 of 82.

• Just enough bad in the first period to beat themselves.

• Almost enough good over the last two periods to nearly beat one of the best teams in the NHL.

• One goaltender was sharp in relief.

• The other goalie needed to be relieved.

• Sidney Crosby was great, but not enough players around him were good enough.

• The power play was as bad as it always is.

That’s how the Penguins ended up losing 4-3 in overtime to the Vancouver Canucks at home Thursday night. And that’s how the Penguins have largely wandered their way to a 20-15-5 record through 40 games with 42 remaining.

They have won 20. They have lost 20. They have 45 of a possible 80 points (56.3%).

Yes, the consistently inconsistent Pens are yielding remarkably average results.

Except in the standings. They are in sixth place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division and 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Those results thus far are tracking to leave the Penguins out of the playoffs for a second straight year after qualifying every year between 2007-22.

“The key for us is consistency. Shift to shift. Period to period. Game to game. Recently, we have had a little bit more of that. But, obviously, there is room to grow,” forward Bryan Rust said after Thursday’s loss.

It was hard to ignore how that defeat was such a microcosm of everything we have seen so far this year.

When the Penguins got down 3-1 to Vancouver (59 points, second most in the NHL), it felt like they were going to get blown out of their own rink.

Yet, thanks to another commonly uncommon performance from Crosby (two goals, five shots, five hits, 58% on draws) and a strong effort in relief by Tristan Jarry in goal, the Penguins forced overtime.

Crosby’s last-minute goal and Jarry’s 20 saves off the bench got them one point against one of the NHL’s elite clubs this season. It was a similar result to early-season wins over Colorado and Vegas when those teams from the West were flying high and the Pens were spotty. Yet Mike Sullivan’s team was able to rise up and steal two points with victories.

Perhaps getting a point in scramble mode against Vancouver on Thursday will get them on a roll and out of the win-loss-win-loss routine they have been stuck in since New Year’s Eve.

For his part, Jarry insists the positives the Penguins have occasionally flashed during the first 40 games of the year can shine on a consistent basis over the last 42.

“We have standards around here,” Jarry said. “The first 20 or so games, that’s not how we wanted to play. The last 20 games, I think we have played a lot better. I think we have played more as a team, and I think we are coming together.”

Too often, one of those missing elements, though, has been the power play. In fact, for the vast majority of the season, the power play has been a big reason why the Penguins currently find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff positioning. After an 0-for-4 effort against the Canucks, the Pens’ man-up unit is plodding along at a 14.3% rate. That’s 26th in the NHL.

Those are embarrassing numbers, given the top-shelf offensive talent the franchise possesses.

“I don’t think the start was great. I think the second and third (periods), we were better,” Crosby said after the loss to Vancouver. “It would’ve been nice to get one on the power play and have that be the difference. But it’s hard when you fall behind a team like that. I thought we did a good job of staying with it and getting ourselves back in the game.”

A lousy start. A little bit better as things went along. Able to hang in there. The power play let ‘em down.

Sound familiar?

Yeah. Way too familiar. The Penguins need to start authoring a different story immediately, or the second half of the season is going to look very similar to the first half.

And a lot like last year’s season that ended before the NHL playoffs began.