The Pittsburgh Penguins Have Quietly Become A Factor in the NHL East

The Pittsburgh Penguins were the #8 seed in the NHL East playoffs in the 2014-15 season, and made an early exit, losing to the New York Rangers. In an effort to improve in the off season, the Penguins made a big multiplayer trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, acquiring, among others, forward Phil Kessel, adding him to what was a fairly talented, though injury prone, roster.

Big things were expected in the 2015-16 season, but on December 11th, the Penguins lost 3-2 in a shoot out to the Los Angeles Kings, dropping Pittsburgh’s record to 15-10-2. While that’s not horrible, the Penguins decided to go in a new direction, firing head coach Mike Johnston and hiring ex-Boston Bruins coach Mike Sullivan to replace him. The Penguins celebrated the change by losing their next four games. After a loss to the St. Louis Blues on January 18th, Pittsburgh was 21-17-7, but after that, the Penguins slowly started to turn it around.

On March 20th, the Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 6-2. It was Pittsburgh’s sixth straight win and eighth in their last 10 games. Going into games of March 22nd, the Penguins (40-24-8, 88 points) were just two points behind the second place New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh has no chance to catch the Capitals (107 points) for the Metropolitan lead, but have a good chance at a fairly high seed as a Wild Card in the Eastern Conference. Florida leads the Atlantic Division with 89 points, the Rangers have 90, but everyone else is behind at the moment (Tampa Bay has 87 points, Boston 86, the New York Islanders 85, are the next closest).

It has helped to have a healthy Sidney Crosby this season, but the Penguins will have to get by without Evgeni Malken until at least the playoffs. Malken suffered an upper body injury earlier in March and is out 6-8 weeks.