3 Penguins players who must bring their A-Game to lift the team down the stretch
The Pittsburgh Penguins are floundering in 2023-24, but they aren’t quite out of it yet, especially if a few players step up in February and beyond.
While the Pittsburgh Penguins are nowhere near where they need to be and are in danger of missing the playoffs for the second straight season, you can’t count out a team that has a few future Hall of Famers in the lineup. Since those future Hall of Famers are still playing at a high level, the Penguins, despite being an aging team, can get hot at any time.
For them to reach that threshold, Pittsburgh must turn to their best playmakers to at least put themselves in position to steal a wild card spot. And as the Florida Panthers proved last season, you only need to sneak into the playoffs to do some damage, and a group as talented and experienced as the Penguins can easily be that team.
Sidney Crosby must put himself in position to take over games
Sidney Crosby has been the face of the Penguins franchise since Mario Lemieux retired, and even in his advanced age, he’s still one of the better players in the league. With 52 points, Crosby is once again pacing the Penguins, and his 28 goals in 175 shots on goal has given him a shooting percentage of 16.0.
In short, the Penguins must find ways to give Crobsy the puck, especially at even strength, where he’s scored 40 of those 52 points. When a team has a player like Crosby who can continue to produce at a high level even at age 36 and 19 years into his NHL career, they have no choice but to utilize him.
If the Penguins want to consistently gain points, Crosby must be the go-to from here on out. However, it doesn’t mean other big-name players can put their play into cruise control, and one particular player was brought in to take Pittsburgh’s scoring to another level.
Erik Karlsson needs to start playing like a Norris Contender again
Erik Karlsson put up rare numbers last year for a defenseman, scoring 101 points, 25 goals, and 76 assists en route to winning his third Norris Trophy. Fast-forward to 2023-24, and nothing has gone right for Karlsson, who while scoring a respectable 37 points in 49 games, isn’t even close to the pace he set for himself last season.
Let’s be fair, however, and note how tough it would be for Karlsson to reach those same numbers. But right now, he may be in the top-10 overall regarding defenseman, and that’s not what the Penguins were hoping for when they traded for him last summer.
However, Karlsson still has enough time to turn things around, or in a better sense, at least get closer to that point-per-game margin. Doing so will help a Penguins team that has scored a paltry 144 goals this season (good for just 27th in the league).
If Karlsson alone picks up his game offensively, the Penguins will start accumulating the necessary points to storm back into the wild card hunt. Remember, this team, as of February 11th, is second in goals allowed with 131, showing us just how valuable Karlsson would be if he starts producing in the offensive zone.
Tristan Jarry needs to uplift his game
Tristan Jarry is one of the more curious players out there, given his outstanding numbers, especially in the shutout column. But given the Penguins poor performance all season when they have the puck, it’s not often that you see this team win when Jarry allows more than two goals in a game.
For example, in his last five starts, Jarry is 2-3-0, with both wins coming when he allowed two and zero goals, respectively. Pittsburgh lost 2-1 to the Winnipeg Jets on February 10th, but their other two losses occurred when Jarry allowed four goals in a loss to the Arizona Coyotes, and three when Pittsburgh fell to the Vegas Golden Knights.
This is a rather disheartening fact, considering how well Jarry has played this season, having logged a 0.916 save percentage, a 2.44 GAA, a quality starts percentage of 0.636, plus an incredible six shutouts. The latter stat leads the league at the time of this writing, and while it would be ideal to give Jarry some much-needed help, it also provides the 28-year-old an opportunity to step up and play at a Vezina-level to try and move the Penguins up a few rungs.
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(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference as of February 11th)