The Pittsburgh Penguins come into this matchup against the Calgary Flames riding a 6-game winning streak and looking like a legit playoff team for the first time in a while. The Penguins have beaten contenders the Detroit Red Wings (twice) and the Carolina Hurricanes during this win streak.
And now the Penguins are facing a team that they should definitely beat and not struggle with. The Flames are a team that are at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. They are not a good team and have not played good as of late.
The Penguins need to do what they can to get the first goal and start good and just keep that momentum rolling as the game goes on. Having gotten superstar Evgeni Malkin back from injury the game before is a huge boost.
There is so much firepower that the Penguins can throw at the flames when you think about Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Kris Letang, Ben Kindel, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, etc. Those are a lot of names to even think about and then when you think about the Flames, you think about a rebuilding team.
The Penguins should have no problem beating this team especially since the game is in Pittsburgh and head coach Dan Muse has his team playing really good hockey as of late. The Penguins look like a team right now that are super scary to play against.
They forecheck well, they do well with special teams with their powerplay and their penalty kill, their defense has gotten better. Right now, the Penguins look like a complete team and that might come as a shock to some fans as the Penguins were projected to be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings this year.
But the Penguins have surprised some people and currently sit in one of the wildcard spots in the Eastern Conference but are not far out from getting a top 3 spot in the division right now. If the Penguins play their cards right and get help, going into Monday, they could be in second place in the Metropolitan Division and not far out of first place.
The Penguins should take down the Flames pretty easy and coast to a victory. This is not a team that should scare the Penguins and Muse needs to have his team ready to rock and roll from puck drop. They cannot afford to fall into a trap game and lose this one.