Penguins at midway point: What's working and what isn't?

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ road game Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens will be their 41st of the season. It will be the halfway point of their 82-game schedule.

On the surface, it’s easy to figure out where they are as they approach that juncture. Before Friday, they were third in the Metropolitan Division with a 24-11-5 record.

But where are they really?

In what areas have the Penguins been the best this season? How have they managed to compile an impressive record despite injuries to key players? What areas do they need to shore up to stay on the right track?

After practice Friday in Cranberry on, 10 members of the team of various stations — experience, position and value to the franchise — were asked two questions about the first half of the Penguins season.

What has this team been the best at so far?

Zach Aston-Reese, forward — “If you look at the chances we get versus the chances that we give up, that’s something (the coaches have talked) a lot about going into the year. That’s something that we probably made the most changes with, giving up odd-man rushes and limited team’s chances. We were kind of that high-risk, high-reward team. Now, we’re taking advantage of teams that play that way.”

Teddy Blueger, forward — “I’d probably say defending. All the little details. We’re tracking back doing a good job of sorting the coverage out. Limiting turnovers and stuff like that is always kind of a work in progress and part of the game. But overall, defending, being hard on pucks, stuff like that.”

Sidney Crosby, forward — “I think consistency. The way we work every night, not beating ourselves, we’re doing a really good job of eliminating our mistakes, not allowing odd-man rushes. … We’re making teams work for their chances. We’re hard to play against, whether it’s the way we move our feet, pursuing the puck, going to tough areas. Our details have been very obvious through the first half here.”

Dominik Kahun, forward — “Above everything, we play hard. We’ve got guys who can step up when needed and just play for each other. Try to work as hard as possible every game, every practice. There’s a winning mentality in here. Everyone, you can feel, wants to win bad.”

John Marino, defenseman — “Defensive structure. If a team gets a lot of shots, usually they’re not high-scoring chances. It’s from the outside. Just eliminating their quality chances against, their grade As. That’s what we’ve been good at so far.”

Jared McCann, forward — “Defensively, we’ve been really good. With the injuries that we’ve had here, we’ve had guys step up in the lineup that have found their calling, their job. We’re a team here. We’re trying to win games. When you have guys out like Sid, you’ve got to give every single guy in this room credit for how we’ve played. Obviously, (goaltender) Tristan (Jarry) has been huge for us as of late. You’ve got to give every single guy in this room credit. (Juuso) Riikola and (Chad) Ruhwedel, all of our (defensemen). The forwards that have been able to step in and contribute. Not score every night but playing against the other team’s top line.”

Matt Murray, goaltender — “Just playing the right way. Staying above the puck. Playing hard defensively. It’s been fun to watch.”

Marcus Pettersson, defenseman — “It’s a lot of areas. It’s been an unusual season with so many injuries. But I think defending as a team has been a great strength of ours all the way from our goalies (Murray) and (Jarry) and just defending as a group. Playing hard, that’s been our biggest strength. We know we have game-changers in here that can finish off games. So when we defend hard as a group, we’ve got a great chance at winning. That’s been key.”

Bryan Rust, forward — “Team defense. It’s a little bit difficult to define, but I think as a team, we’re playing harder for each other. Playing smarter. We’ve got more guys backchecking harder, more guys making good decisions with the puck. When that happens, you give up less chances and that’s what we’ve done a great job at.”

Mike Sullivan, coach — “Our players have done a real good job at paying attention to details. And because of that, we’ve become a much more difficult team to play against. We’ve become more responsible on both sides of the puck. That goes a long way towards becoming the team we want to become.”

What does this team need to improve the most?

Aston-Reese — “It just seems like we’ll have a little bit of a lapse, whether it’s the start of the game or the second period. There’s a lapse from the way we need to win given our injuries. If we can get rid of that and be more consistent for a full 60 minutes — I know that’s a cliche — but I don’t really see any other deficiencies other than when we’re trying to force something when it’s not there or when we have a mental lapse.”

Blueger — “I want to say finishing. … Finishing scoring chances, maximizing scoring chances. Finishing games (too). That’s the way the league’s going, right? No team is really out of it. A lot of comebacks, things like that. Managing the game late. It’s happened to us a couple of times where we have a two- or three-goal lead, and then (the opponent) is coming back. Managing the game in situations like that.”

Crosby — “Special teams are going to become more and more important, I think. Just understanding that as the games get bigger and bigger and the season goes along, just special teams are always an important factor in tight games.”

Kahun — “The health.”

Marino — “Just staying consistent really. That’s the biggest thing. Puck management, the last game, we gave up a couple of two-on-ones. That ended up being the difference. Usually, we’ve been pretty good at that throughout the year.”

McCann — “We need to have better starts. The last couple of games there against Nashville, we had great starts. Then against San Jose (in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime home loss), we let it slip away there. We’ve got to be better off the starts. That’s about it. Obviously, try to stay healthy, too. That would be great.”

Murray — “Honestly, I love the way our team has been competing and playing. We’re bringing our best effort every night. You just try to tighten up all the little things. You try to be consistent as possible.”

Pettersson — “Every game we play right now, it’s a hard game. No matter who you play, it’s a hard game. All the teams in our division seem to be winning. Whenever we don’t defend hard as a group … You saw in the first period (against the Sharks) when we gave up too many odd-man rushes, whenever we do that, we kind of beat ourselves a little bit.”

Rust — “You can always improve on consistency. What might be the hardest thing to do is do that night in and night out, but when you see the teams that win, toward the end of the year and as the year goes on, they can find that consistency doing it every period, every game and just wearing teams down.”

Sullivan — “Our power play is gaining traction. We’re getting better. That’s been a little bit of a challenge, especially given the amount of guys that have been in and out of the lineup. We’ve had a lot of different combinations, so it’s been hard to gain some consistency. That’s one area where we think we can bring more consistency and be better at. But we do see improvement in it.”