Penguins Continue Freefall Towards Bottom of the League
Things have gone from bad to worse for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They are 2-4-0 on their current seven-game road trip. They have fallen to 15th in the Eastern Conference, and now they will be without one of their star players for a "few weeks."
Penguins' center Evgeni Malkin left Saturday's game following a collision with Seattle Kraken forward Chandler Stephenson. Head coach Mike Sullivan labeled Malkin week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
Losing one of their top offensive play drivers, even if he's been struggling of late (10 points in 20 games), is a blow the Penguins can't afford.
Their goal-scoring has fallen off a cliff in January, ranking 28th in the NHL with 2.38 goals per game. They have the worst goal differential, -40, in the conference. The next closest team is the Buffalo Sabres at -20.
Consistency has eluded the Penguins for the better part of this season. Look no further than the last week. They walked into Crypto.com Arena and beat a good Los Angeles Kings team 5-1 without their leading goal scorer Rickard Rakell.
Since then, they've lost three straight games, in regulation, to the 12th, 13th, and 15th-ranked teams in the Western Conference. Those three games have felt eerily familiar.
Last year, the Penguins lost Jake Guentzel to injury in a Valentine's Day loss to the Florida Panthers. They lost 12 of the next 17 games, often appearing lifeless and sometimes disinterested, and dropped to 13th in the conference. A similar stretch would put a nail in the proverbial coffin for this Penguins' team.
Even if, once Malkin returns, they were to replicate the late-season surge they enjoyed in 2024 (8-3-3 in their final 14 games), there is no guarantee they'll finish anywhere close to a playoff spot.
The Penguins are already 15th in the East and are 3-8-3 over their last 14 games. Meanwhile, every team ahead of them in the Wild Card race has a winning record over their last ten games.
The road is narrowing, and the Penguins are close to falling off it completely.