It’s do or die for the Pittsburgh Penguins

It’s crunch time for the Pittsburgh Penguins right now, as they’re currently on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. It’s not what they envisioned, especially since their goal is to get the most out of this team and give the aging core of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang as many shots at the Cup as they can.

There’s a lot for them to play for tonight as they host the Minnesota Wild and look to leap frog one of the Florida Panthers and the New York Islanders. Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna talked about what the locker room in Pittsburgh must be like right now and more on Daily Faceoff Live.

Mike McKenna: I think they’re feeling a lot of pressure, especially after their last game and knowing how they just weren’t detailed enough. And it hasn’t been consistent. You go back to the trade deadline, and the Penguins are 7-9-1, and even in the past couple of weeks you’re still treading water at 2-2. They’re giving up too many goals, they’ve been at about 3.75 in that same time frame, and they’re just not scoring enough.

So, can you look strictly to a power play to pull you out of it? Well, it’s been okay for the Penguins, but 5-on-5 is where it needs to comes from, and they’ve been below three goals per game since the trade deadline. That’s not enough in today’s NHL. You can’t give up a half dozen odd-man rushes against and expect to win. That is not winning hockey. The Penguins have to stay out of the box, play with some detail, and their goalie has been playing hurt. Jarry is not at 100%.

For the Penguins here, there’s no doubt that these next three games are the only saving grace for me. They’re playing Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus. If you can’t beat Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus, and ensure yourself a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, you don’t deserve to be there. But they also got a couple teams ahead of them now. You have the Panthers and the Islanders sitting right there that are playing pretty decent, so we’ll see.

You can watch the full episode here…