Pittsburgh Penguins: Despite A Slow Start, Don’t Worry

Although the Pittsburgh Penguins have started off the season 6-3-1 and have 10 points, there is  no reason for concern.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have undoubtedly one of the best offences in the league. The defense on the other hand has been an area of concern.

Moving forward, I expect the penguins to be a better team over the next ten games.

Goalies

The Penguins have recently put back up goalie and veteran Anti Niemi on waivers. Before clearing through waivers, the Florida Panthers had claimed him. The waiver claim is most likely due to an injury sustained by starting  goalie Roberto Luongo. Niemi (0-3-0) had lost all three games he started and has allowed 16 goals on 79 shots this year and had a  .770 GAA.

With the subtraction of Niemi, the former undrafted free agent Casey DeSmith gets his first recall as a professional hockey player. DeSmith is 3-0-0 with a goals allowed average under one (GAA 0.98). In The 2016-2017 season DeSmith started 29 games and won 21 of them (21-5-1) while owning a 2.01 GAA.

Now that the goalie position is better than it was, the Penguins still have some holes to fix.

Defense

The Penguins still have some holes to fix on Defense. The offence the defense has produced thus far in the season is impressive. An up rise in points coming out of the defensive end does not make up for how bad they have been defensively. Losing Justin Schultz does to a concussion does not help either.

Through 10 games this year the Pittsburgh Penguins have already allowed 40 goals. Also, in five of the ten games played so far, they have allowed four or more goals including a 7-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning to finish out their most recent road trip.

The Penguins need to keep the puck out of the defensive zone and start playing the puck more.