A look at how the Penguins stack up to their division as of today
It was a light week across the NHL, at least as far as the Metropolitan Division went. Most teams only had two or three games, leading to minimal changes in the standing outlook. Here’s how it is as of today.
Washington: Not that much going on this week for the Capitals, they came back from modest 1-0 deficits to defeat Columbus 2-1 in OT and then beat Buffalo 4-2 last night. Washington remains alarmingly hot as winners of four straight and are currently riding a 10-game road winning streak. Everything for them is working out to almost best case scenarios in what is becoming a charmed first-half of the year so far.
New Jersey: The Devils had a 2-1-1 record this week that got better as things went along (a 4-0 loss to Colorado on Sunday, a 2-1 OT loss to Toronto followed by wins over Chicago and Los Angeles). The win over LA stopped a six-game winning streak for the Kings. All is well for the Devs, and new coach Sheldon Keefe sees some Mitch Marner in Jack Hughes and is now working his new star into the penalty kill this season in an effort to help flesh out his all-around game.
Carolina: The Hurricanes are probably good enough to eventually overcome some mid-season doldrums, but they’re currently going through some rocky times. It was a 1-1-0 week, where they might have been a little lucky to eventually pull ahead of the plucky Sharks with a third period comeback before falling 3-0 to Ottawa on Friday. Carolina is only 2-5-0 since Thanksgiving, and their goaltending continues to pop up as a problem area that will need to be addressed at some point. Six of their next seven games to close out calendar 2024 are against Metropolitan opponents (WSH, NYR, NJDx2, NYI) so they have a lot of important ones in the near future. Overall on the season they’re still on a 105-point pace, even starting to panic isn’t the play but they need something to break out of the skid.
Philadelphia: It was a 2-2-0 week for the Flyers, sandwiching losses to begin and end the week (to Utah and Minnesota, respectively) around two wins in the middle over Columbus and Detroit. Perhaps luckily for them, they’ll play Columbus and Detroit again in the week ahead.
New York Rangers: The Rangers beat the Sabres (but hey, everyone beats the Sabres) this week but continued to lose games. Yesterday seemed like yet another “final straw” type of embarrassment when they fell behind 5-0 to the Kings and went down without much of a fight. NYR has four players above average this season by this rating. When will the freefall start? Can it be stopped? Enthralling times to witness from afar.
New York Islanders: Lookie there, a 2-1-0 week for NYI. They hit the road for the next three (CHI, CAR, TOR) and possibly posed to give it back but the Islanders have won three of their last four. And we pointed out last week how rarely they score 4+ goals in a game this year and suddenly this past week they scored 4, 1 and 5 goals in their games. Progress!
Pittsburgh: It was a 1-1-1 week for the Pens, who got left behind by Colorado, followed up with a huge explosion of nine goals against Montreal and then slipped up in OT last night in Ottawa. The Pens have to get through a very tough Kings team on Tuesday, but the schedule for the rest of the year 2024 is going to be a crucial stretch (NSH, NJ, PHI, NYIx2, DET). We’ll know a lot about where this team is headed by the time the ball drops to bring in 2025. We probably already know who this team is based on the first 32 games of the year, but this next couple weeks could be their last best chance to make some headway...Or mire around stuck in the muck.
Columbus: Columbus defeated Winnipeg, lost to Philly, fell in OT to Washington and then dropped another OT game to Anaheim last night. Even though it was only one win in four games, the OT points made it not a bad little week for them in the eyes of the standings to pick up four total points over four games.
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There are a few games in play in each direction, but just how the NHL likes we’ve got 4th to 8th place separated by three points as of today. No team is truly out of the mix, but now about 30 games in there’s enough seen to see the picture starting to develop at the top of the heap.
The Wildcard race remains as delightfully crowded.
Tampa is likely safe (for the time at least) given team strength and relatively low games played. Boston has played four more games than the Lightning, and only has one more point than them in the standings, it’s not difficult to project TB as a top-three finisher in their division.
But Ottawa, who are on pace for only 87-points this season so far based on their first 30 games, sit as the final playoff team in the conference today. Based on points percentage, Boston also is on track for 87 points.
Four other teams are within a point of the Senators’ 32 as of this morning (though, again, games played varies among them). The playoff picture remains fuzzy but as we mentioned last week, the good news for teams like the Penguins is that as of now that playoff line isn’t that much ahead of them, and it isn’t tracking in a daunting way. Some of the top teams could push the number up a bit, but as of now it doesn’t look like it will be difficult to secure a Wild Card spot with the (lack of) strength the conference has shown so far.
The bad news is plenty of teams are in the mix to get even a little hot and amp up the pressure. The NHL’s standings system, for better or worse, ensures that teams can have hope for a large part of the season. Even if it’s not realistic hopes based on the total number of clubs (many) fighting over what could just be one spot. Many are bound to be disappointed since at this time of year only a very few teams are out of the shuffle. The Pens aren’t in a great spot, but they haven’t lost touch with the pack just yet.
