Up until recently everything has been Unicorns, Rainbows, and a giant bag of all Red Starburst for the Penguins. They have had to face little to no adversity all season. I mean for crying out loud. They have been in 1st place in the Metrosexual Division for all but 1 day. They are 46-21-5. Good enough for 2nd place in the Eastern Conference and good enough for a 13 point lead in the Metrosexual Division. But they are 5-4-1 in their last 10. That's not horrible but that's not great either. Its no secret that the Pens are in a rough patch right now. They'll win a game here then lose 2 in a row. Its becoming a trend. Lets break down the Pens record month by month here.
October:
9-4-0
November:
9-5-1
December:
11-3-0
January:
9-2-1
February:
2-1-2
March (as of 3-26-14)
6-6-1 *3 games remaining
Just look at those number for a minute. Look especially at December and January. 20-4-1 in December and January. Then you come to March and you get the current 6-6-1 record. The point here being. The Pens have faced no adversity all year long. From October to February the Pens only had two 3 game losing streaks. And even in March with their current record they haven't lost more than 2 games in a row. The Penguins are going through a rough patch right now. And in our opinion it will be good for this team in the long run. Why? Because this team has still yet to play its best hockey. Lets rewind to last year. The Pens went on that long winning streak where they played their best hockey then fizzled out in the ECF against Boston. Minus a 7 game winning streak in December the Pens have only won more than 4 games in a row once this season. The months of December and January saw the Pens play their best hockey so far this season but in no means was it the best hockey they are capable of playing if that makes sense. We'll try to explain by looking at the 6 loses in December and January. Those losses were: 3-2 in Boston, 5-0 in Ottawa, 2-1 in New Jersey, 4-3 in Overtime in Edmonton, 5-1 vs Florida, 3-0 in Dallas. The Boston game. Pens had a lead late and let it slip away. The Ottawa game. The score tells the story. The New Jersey game. The Pens were already partying for New Years. The Edmonton game. Pens again had a lead and let it slip away. That was the game Evgeni Malkin took a penalty that helped Edmonton get back in it. The Florida game. Pretty sure the Pens were on Mars that game. The Dallas game. Kari Lehtonen city. So despite playing good hockey in December and January they were't playing great hockey. Great hockey wouldn't have let Boston or Edmonton come back and win. Whatever. It's in the past. Those losses didn't hurt the Pens. So lets come back to right now. March 26th. The Pens are finally facing some adversity. And they can respond in 1 on 2 ways. Way number one. They start getting their act together and play better and find their stride going in to the playoffs. Or, option number 2. They continue to wilt and go in to the playoffs on a sour note then get smoked in the 1st round. This isn't this teams 1st rodeo. They know what they need to do which is why we think option 1 is the likely out come here. Now we aren't in any way saying that if option 1 does occur the Pens are gonna run a train on the Eastern Conference and straight to a Stanley Cup. What we are saying though is if option 1 occurs we could be in for some exciting hockey over the next few months. And really. It's better to face this adversity now so they know how to respond to it in the playoffs. Plus. It's better to hit this rough patch now than next month.
Go Pens
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