Post #62209 - 06/03/2023 10:47:44

Penguins stay on playoff bubble after Fl

The handed the four lo ses this Miguel Rojas Jersey season, none more crushing than the one delivered Sunday. Flyers netminder Steve Mason shut the door on Pittsburgh with a 46-save effort as and a season sweep despite already being eliminated from playoff contention. There was a lot of pa sion in the game on one side of the ice and not nearly enough on the other.The Pens now face the stark reality of clinging to their playoff lives after losing for the ninth time in their past 12 games. A three-point advantage over the Ottawa Senators could shrink as early as Sunday evening, setting up a huge game between Pittsburgh and Ottawa on Tuesday.The insanity of the Eastern Conference playoff race was never supposed to include the Penguins, not at this point in the season. However, three consecutive lo ses, each against local rivals (two to Philly and one to the Columbus Blue Jackets) as part of those nine defeats in their past 12 contests, has them on the brink of mi sing the postseason all together.About two weeks ago, it was the Boston Bruins feeling the heat of a hard-charging Ottawa club that briefly took a playoff spot from the B's. Now the Penguins are right next to Boston, holding onto the top wild-card spot thanks to the ROW (regulation + overtime wins) tie-breaker. Their other lifeline is still out there, a chance to surpa s the Washington Capitals and head into the playoffs with third place in the Metropolitan Division in hand if they get help. That wouldn't give Pittsburgh home ice, but it would bring some comfort knowing they didn't sneak in via the wild card. That's only of moderate comfort, though.The deficiencies in the Penguins' game have been exploited by a series of injuries to key players, but this is not uncharted territory. Under since-ousted head coach Dan Bylsma, the Penguins overcame injuries on a seemingly annual basis to at least get into the postseason, usually without much trouble. The Penguins haven't finished below second place in their division since 2005-06, rookie season.It was Caleb Smith Jersey only after making it that disappointment would crush them, often in an early-round series in which their lack of depth was exposed.But these past few weeks showed that and ineffective work at building up the depth of the team have left the Penguins vulnerable, especially when the injury bug bites as hard as it has. To be clear, the injuries to and leave ma sive holes, not to mention the near season-long absence of . The infrequent play of due to injury over the past month has also played a significant role in where the team is. They had to play games with just five defensemen over this stretch of nine lo ses in 12 games. These are no small problems that would challenge all 29 other teams if they were faced with trying to overcome those lo ses. The difference is that the Penguins are as well schooled at this as any team, but this year it seems to be a lot tougher for them to overcome the adversity.What the past few weeks have exposed is that the Penguins changed the suits, bringing in Jim Rutherford to replace Ray Shero as GM and Mike Johnston to take the reins behind the bench for the ousted Bylsma, and Bryan Holaday Jersey the organizational philosophy barely changed. The holes the team had before are still holes now.That's pretty well illustrated by this stat from Josh Yohe of the : Adams 0 goals in 59 games; Lapierre 0 in 31; Bennett 0 in 29; Spaling 0 in 22; Kunitz 1 in 17; Comeau 1 in 14. That's 1 Jonathan Villar Jersey /2 of their forwards. Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_Trib) All of those players were already on the roster or added over the summer. But even multiple new additions have struggled to make the impact needed for the team to fix their glaring depth woes.Rutherford made six in-season trades, one of which included sending a first-round pick to the Edmonton Oilers for . That move at the time looked like an opportunity to bolster the top six. Perron was outstanding early, but has faded late in the season. If the Penguins mi s the postseason, they don't have a lottery ticket.The other deals: for ; draft picks and for ; Simon Despres for and and a pick for have each had varying degrees of succe s, but the impact on the current-day roster appears negligible now. Many of those moves in hindsight look like trades for the sake of making trades that ended up costing the Pens valuable a sets. And the Pens are still right up against the cap.The fact of the matter is, depth was a problem coming into the season and a big reason Shero and Bylsma lost their jobs. Depth is still an i sue and it may hurt the team far more than it ever did under the previous regime. The sky is not yet falling. The Penguins still have three games to get this right, to Jose Fernandez Jersey at least get into the playoffs. But what happens when they get there? If they get healthy, then it's a different story. If they don't, and it's still anyone's gue s when Ehrhoff and Letang will be back, and just how close to 100 percent Malkin really is, the Penguins are in awful shape heading into a series in all likelihood against a division champion.Getting swept over the season by the struggling Flyers is one thing, but putting themselves in the position they're in now, with precious few games remaining, is the real shocker of the season in Pittsburgh.