Buckle up, it is going to be quite the week for the Pittsburgh Penguins and their playoff aspirations. Navigating five games with the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche may have been tougher overall, but the back to back that is starting tonight has way more leverage on what is going to happen with the playoff seeding.
Pittsburgh travels to Long Island tonight to face the second place New York Islanders. Then they turn around to host the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night. It will be a Red Wings team that will not have played since their disappointing loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
While the teams the Penguins are about to play this week aren’t necessarily the best, they will be desperate. They are the teams fighting directly with Pittsburgh to make the playoffs
Where things stand
Here is how the standings look currently
It is a packed house. You’ll even notice that the Philadelphia Flyers are making a push to be involved here at the end. There isn’t a ton of wiggle room. The Penguins are going to have to go out there and take the points they need and not be looking for help from others. There are too many teams involved to expect that.
The Penguins schedule is packed this week. They have five games. This is what it looks like
Out of the five games tonight might be the most important. The Penguins and Islanders are in direct competition of one another and any time you can get a head to head matchup this late in the season and land a regulation win is huge. There’s an argument to be had that this game is more important to the Islanders, but whatever. A win tonight propels the Penguins forward about eight percentage points per Hockey Stats all the way into the 90’s.
If the Islanders lose tonight in regulation, they will drop to 44.9%. Here is an alternative look from MoneyPuck, which isn’t as bullish on the Penguins overall as the Hockey Stats model
Outside of the obvious, that every team needs to pick up as many points as possible down the stretch, I do think it would be nice to avoid the Islanders. They have a certain ingredient to their team that can be incredibly frustrating
Getting goalie’d is probably the most frustrating experience a team can go through and nobody does it better than the Islanders. They will bide their time until they get a one off situation, more than likely created by the sensational Matthew Schaefer, and cash in. If not Schaefer then Bo Horvat and his 30 goals are ready to pounce on a transition opportunity. It can be demoralizing to a team to play well and get nothing from it.
As of right now, the Islanders are the likeliest matchup. We’ll have to see where things shake out after tonight’s very important game.
Are Sid and Geno OK?
Yesterday, there was some promising news on the Penguins injury front. Both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were full participants in practice.
Both made the trip to Long Island, but only one is potentially available. Sidney Crosby is a gametime decision and Evgeni Malkin will be out, albeit day to day.
Sidney Crosby being a game time decision is great news given the secrecy of his injury. We don’t really know why he left the game the other night and there was justified concern from fans. Being a game time decision should alleviate the stress a little bit.
Crosby being in the lineup is huge, duh. Aside from the obvious boost he gives the team from his own play, I think the impact he has on lines he doesn’t even play on is just as important right now.
Rickard Rakell will play center for Dan Muse. He is not as good at that position. With Crosby in he doesn’t have to. They’ll have Sid, Tommy Novak, and Ben Kindel to handle the top nine duties. It just helps make the top nine more legit.
I don’t think it is lost on the Penguins or Sid how important tonight’s game is. If he is truly day to day I can’t imagine he isn’t in the lineup tonight. For me, I think it is a both or none scenario for this back to back with New York and Detroit. If he can’t go tonight what would magically make him good for tomorrow?
So hopefully, he is good to go for this super important matchup. It is the most important game of the regular season thus far.
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