The Penguins left Vegas carrying the kind of baggage nobody wants on a road trip: three games, three losses, and a slide that has dropped them toward the bottom of the standings. After a 6-2 loss to the Golden Knights, coach Dan Muse didn’t soften the message.
“It’s on us. It’s on us together,” Muse said.
“We can’t be feeling bad for ourselves. It’s on all of us, myself included.
So, together as a group, we got to dig in. We have to find consistency in our game.
There’s a lot coming off of tonight that we have to clean up from a structural standpoint, across the board, a number of things.”
Sidney Crosby’s assessment landed in the same place.
“Nobody likes to lose,” Crosby said. “We know there’s areas we got to improve on. We’ve got to fix it quick.”
That’s the reality for Pittsburgh right now. The Penguins are 1-5-1 over their last seven games, and the problems are showing up early enough in the season to feel familiar in the worst way. Rickard Rakell still hasn’t scored a goal, and the team’s defensive lapses have regularly left it paying for mistakes with pucks ending up in its net.
There is at least a chance to reset the setting. After Monday night’s game against Utah, five of the Penguins’ next six will be at home.
That matters, especially with the home-road split the team has put together and the way this season has started with seven of the first 10 games on the road. A stretch at home could give Pittsburgh a better chance to get its season pointed in the right direction.
Around the Metropolitan Division, the mood is restless in plenty of places. The Rangers are dealing with the possibility that losing Igor Shesterkin could be a bigger problem over time after they fell 1-0 last night and are now 0-1-1 in their last two.
Washington is dealing with an illness that has kept PL Dubois out for four games and sidelined four regulars for last night’s game. The Islanders picked up some uncertainty of their own when forwards Cal Ritchie and Matias Macelli were injured last night, with Macelli standing as their second-highest scoring forward early on.
And New Jersey, after a season that has already featured a habit of giving up the first goal, gave up far more than that in yesterday’s loss to Washington after scoring first.
The Blue Jackets managed a 1-0 shutout win last night, but even that came with its own tension, with Rick Bowness sounding increasingly frustrated about his team’s play. Philadelphia finally got its first win of the season last night, becoming the last team in the NHL to do so, but the Flyers still have only 25 points combined from their forwards, a number that trails even Connor McDavid’s 23 by himself. That has left Rick Tocchet’s seat starting to warm up.
For now, though, the Penguins are the team staring hardest at the mirror. The issues are obvious.
The record is ugly. And as Muse and Crosby both made clear, the fix has to come quickly.
The division’s early-season turbulence is everywhere, but Carolina is already separating itself, sitting at a .833 points percentage and looking comfortable at the top while everyone else tries to stop the bleeding.
In Other News...
Penguins Roster Pivot Could Put A Familiar Veteran On The Block
The Penguins appear to be at a familiar crossroads again, weighing whether to keep leaning on veteran talent or start carving out more room for the next wave. Reports around the league have Pittsburgh exploring trades that would bring back draft picks or prospects, a move that would also open up more ice time for younger players while putting several established names into the conversation.
Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Andrei Kuzmenko, Samuel Girard and Erik Karlsson have all come up as possible pieces, with Karlsson standing out because of both his status and his contract situation. He is in the final year of his deal, and Pittsburgh has the salary retention flexibility to make a deal more workable if the season tilts further away from contention and he agrees to the kind of move that would have the most ripple effect on the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins Prospect Helped Drive A Win Fans Will Want To Notice
Special teams took center stage in Wilkes-Barre, and the Penguins got exactly the kind of night they hope can fuel a deeper look down the organization. In a 6-3 win over the Cleveland Monsters, the power play kept finding openings, giving the Baby Pens a chance to tilt the game in a way that stood out beyond the final score.
Mikhail Ilyin was right in the middle of it, and the rookie forward gave the Penguins a performance worth noting. He finished with a goal and three assists, a big night for a player still trying to carve out his place while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton continues to sort through a game where the man advantage became a major storyline on both sides. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Trade Radar Just Raised One Big Penguins Deadline Question
The Penguins willingness to listen on veteran forwards has already turned this deadline season into a live question about how far the front office wants to go in reshaping the roster. Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell have both been mentioned in trade chatter, with the idea being that moving established pieces could open more ice time for younger players while also bringing back draft capital and prospects.
Edmonton has now been folded into that discussion as a club looking for help on the wing, which only adds another layer to Pittsburghs decision-making. Rust stands out as the cleaner fit in that kind of market, while Erik Karlsson has also been floated as part of the broader picture, and the Oilers interest reinforces how many moving parts could still define the Penguins deadline rather than settling it. [Read more 🡒]