The Penguins went out West after a great victory against the Dallas Stars. They are due to return home today without picking up a victory. The players will be packing their bags to board the plane, but some of them should be packing up to find a new home.
Elliotte Friedman has reported that the Penguins are willing to move a veteran forward for picks or prospects, and after their performance on this road trip, that’s definitely what needs to happen.
Sure, it’s only ten games into the season, but they only have one regulation victory. The season is officially in free fall, and we are only 12% of the way through the season.
The defense was a mess the entire trip and was pretty decrepit in the games leading up to it. The offense is still there for this group, as it should be, but it hasn’t been there often enough to overcome their defensive shortcomings. The goaltending numbers look putrid, but none of this is on goaltending. The Penguins are constantly allowing grade-A looks and struggling to box out forwards after their goaltender bails them out.
It’s a mess. The line juggling hasn’t worked. Really, nothing has worked.
Rakell, Novak, Karlsson, and sadly Rust should be finding new homes soon. With the exception of Rakell, none of those players are to blame for this start, but the Penguins need to turn the page.
There will be no fairytale ending in Pittsburgh for Evgeni Malkin. Sid still has time to get that ending, but it won’t be with this group or this core, so it’s time to look towards the future. Even if the team turns it around, it needs to be based upon contributions from the youth playing in Wilkes-Barre or the players acquired via trade.
Losing to Colorado, Vegas, and Utah can happen to literally any team in the league, but it’s the way they looked in those losses that is creating this reaction. It’s been borderline amateur hockey being played by these Penguins.
I wish the season would have started differently, but it hasn’t, which means Dubas will need to accelerate his push towards getting the team younger. While we could be in for a dark season, there will be brighter days ahead if Dubas does what he’s reportedly interested in doing.
