It is so mind blowing to me that the NHL season is half way over and done with. Sad to think that within the next couple of months, it’s out with hockey and in with baseball yet again like it is every year, but currently the hot, sizzling question hovering above the heads of many here in the steel city is, are the Pittsburgh Penguins able to drive forward hard enough and make it to the 2007 NHL playoffs? Well there are many many factors that can either make the playoffs for the Penguins a reality or just end up a complete and total catastrophe.
Let’s start off with the pros. To state the obvious, this year the Pens are stacked with young and talented guys such as Erik Christensen, of course Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal and Ryan Whitney. Even with the highs and lows in the season, right now it seems that the team is finally connecting with one another to make the right plays, to score the goals that need to be scored and to kill the power plays when needed to. Overall, just to be where they want to be right now and later on in the future, even if that means playoffs or not. But one certain player that seems to be clicking really well with the team this year is Erik Christensen. Already, Christensen has recorded fifteen points in 24 games this season and has recorded three points on Jan 16 against the New York Islanders all while dealing with bouncing up and down from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to Pittsburgh. After that, you have players like Max Talbot and Colby Armstrong who continuously try and prove themselves by checking maybe a little harder and are starting to get agressive and fight for eachother if someone’s in trouble. And you also have guys like Michel Ouellet and Nils Ekman who try skating a little harder to get the puck and score important goals. Speaking of Ekman, he scored his first NHL hat-trick Nov. 8 against the Lightning, helping win the game that night and set a new Penguins record scoring 3 goals in 4:10 which is the fastest time in Penguins history.
You also got the veterans of the Penguins franchise, Mark Recchi and Sergei Gonchar who have indeed made such huge impacts on the Pens just as mush as the young guns of today. The thirty eight year old, soon to be turning thirty nine the first of February, the wrecking ball, Mark Recchi scored three consecutive power-play goals against the Maple Leafs on Sunday and helped the Penguins to a 8-2 win. Recchi, who also added an assist, recorded the seventh hat trick of his career in a span of 16:57, starting late in the first period. Gonchar as well has recorded a career high five point game against the Flyers on Dec 13 and he ranks first on the team in avg. ice time 26:38, and ranks fourth on the team in scoring with 33 points through January 19.
Yes, of course every team has cons and trust me, if you’re a Penguins fan, this indeed is the biggest thing we need to improve on and its just one word. Shootouts. You have no idea how much it kills me every single time we get ourselves back into the game from being down two goals or one and then we go into OT with no success. And then we get into a shootout, no success yet again. Michelle Terrien seems to very be consistent with picking the same guys every single time for shootouts and lately it has been the mixed trio of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Christensen. Crosby is two for eleven in shootouts this year and yet he is still called up as one of the three to go. Terrien was quoted to say that himself and Crosby would watch shootout tapes, try ways to improve and bluntly told Crosby he is going to be called into the top three no matter if he scores or not. In addition, our goaltending is not one to be called consistent. If it’s Fleury or Thibault, we cannot seem to grasp any kind of winning pattern or streak. This year has been full of streaky wins and losses which in the end can either make or break the Penguins. I’m not saying Fleury is doing poorly this year, but he could be doing better. He is improving within every game and trying to prove a point that he can get the job done for his teammates and breaking the mold. With 20 wins recorded so far this year and 12 losses and a SV % of .905, Fleury is quickly making his way onto becoming one an incredible goaltender. Another thing that is slowing bringing down the Pens is power plays. To many times have they had the chance to score on five on threes or five or fours when a goal was needed and yet, not many goals have been ticketed for power plays. Certain people on the power plays also may be the problem to why we are not scoring. There is much grief put upon Gonchar and his puck handling during the power plays and in general. Obviously not everyone’s going to be incredible when it comes to puck handling or the fastest skater on the team. All that really matters is that you work hard to improve on the bad and then you start getting good results. Isn’t that what practice is for? To make the flaws that you have perfect or almost perfect? Trust me, if we get out all of the kinks and fix the bugs within the Penguin system, I can pretty much see the playoffs within the teams future.
The Penguins could pretty much be the team of the decade if they put their minds to it. Really, there is nothing that can stand in the way of them now other than themselves. Of course you’re going to have many ups and downs and things that will delay the goal in the end but the Pens this year have been through so much already that it doesn’t matter. If we make the playoffs or not, I am just so proud of how far the team has come within years and the mass progress that the team has made as a whole. Countless loyal fans like myself are still patiently waiting for the cup to come back to Pittsburgh and all as one, we are all still keeping the faith.
