Pittsburgh Penguins: End of the Season Thoughts
It’s been quite the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Pittsburgh Penguins played their final game of the season last night with a 4-0 win over the Ottawa Senators. Finishing the season of on a high note, we’ve been given the opportunity to head into the playoffs hot. This season has seen its fair share of ups and downs and it’s tie to reflect on those.
Ups and Downs
This season was all over the place if we’re being honest. Starting off the season with two straight losses, including a horrible 10-1 beatdown by Chicago, we were all left with some distaste right off the bat.
As the season went on, we got slightly better, but there were still a lot of bumps. We just weren’t playing like a team that’s supposed to contend for our third straight title. Many fans were feelings happiness on one night and complete frustration the next. That’s just how it was in the first half of the season.
Pittsburgh Penguins
As we got closer to the middle of the season, we started to pick things up. Our forwards were producing amazingly and our team play just started to play like the team we all knew and loved. Specifically, Phil Kessel and Evgeni Malkin were really heating up and they definitely led the way.
Goaltending Troubles
This year was the season of goaltending troubles. After what we saw of Matt Murray last season and the season before, we were all so excited to see how he’d do as the permanent number one starter after Fleury’s departure. But unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.
A series of slow starts and injuries were the story for the Penguins for much of the season. We saw the likes of Tristan Jerry in net quite a lot and he did quite good, but he wasn’t our permanent starter.
Luckily, with the rest of the team, our goaltending picked up closer to the midpoint of the season.
The Search for a Third Line Centre
The last big story of this season was our search for a third line centre, which basically went right up until the trade deadline, or so we thought.
Picking up Riley Sheahan during the first half of the season to replace Nick Bonino, who left as a free agent, the Penguins thought they solved their third line centre woes. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out like we expected.
As a result, we went searching some more. Right at the deadline, the Penguins acquired Derick Brassard, which surely looked as our permanent solution for the third line centre role moving forward. Yet again however, things didn’t go our way. Brassard had trouble fitting in with the Penguins and he is experiencing some injury problems right now.
Whether he becomes our long-term solution or not, this third-line centre drama has run this season for the Pens.