Keeping up with the Metropolitans: Week 13

Your weekly dose of Metropolitan action!

By t.cann112 Jan 2, 2018, 9:00am EST

NHL: Columbus Blue Jackets at Pittsburgh Penguins

What a difference a year makes. You would’t know it right now, but the Penguins are back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions. The Penguins won those two Cups behind the strength of quality goaltending and an elite cast of offensive players. The 2017-18 Pens are quite the opposite of those strengths. The Penguins currently sit in the bottom half of the league in goal scoring at 18th in the NHL, and the Penguins sit embarrassingly low at 28th out of 31 teams in goals allowed. I could go on and on about the departures during the off-season, but there’s really no excuse for this team to only have won 19 out of 40 games as the calendar turns to 2018.

There was sure to be some regression as the players brought in to replace the players from last year were nowhere near the level of the men they replaced, but the fact that the Penguins are on the outside looking in is almost too hard to comprehend based on the team’s success the last decade. However, the Penguins were far from favorites in ‘09 and ‘16 but still managed to bring home the Stanley Cup. There’s still half the year left for the Penguins to figure themselves out, but the clock is ticking awfully loud on them to do just that.

As for the rest of the Metropolitan, things have taken a surprising turn at the top - aside from the annual President’s Trophy Champion Washington Capitals. The Devils have managed to reside in the top 2-3 positions in the Metro this whole season, and almost nobody predicted that to happen. I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but the Devils seemed to have bottled the same magic that the Leafs discovered last year and have been strong on both sides of the rink. With former Penguins GM Ray Shero calling the shots, expect the Devils to be big players in the trade market this year. According to Cap Friendly, the Devils currently have just over $16 million in cap space, and over $38 million in deadline space. Shero has already added Sami Vatanen, and the possibilities for Shero seem endless right now, which is a scary thing for the rest of the Metropolitan.

At this time last year, the Jackets were in the midst of challenging the ‘93 Penguins mark for longest win streak ever in the NHL. The Jackets did manage to win 16 in a row, which is the 2nd longest streak ever. Not too shabby. However, the Jackets are right alongside the Penguins with their head scratching free fall. Columbus is on a 3 game losing streak, allowing 5 goals in each of those losses. They are 3-5-2 in the last 10, getting outscored 41-27 in the process. The Jackets went from 3rd in the league in goals against three weeks ago to 16th as of January 1st. The Jackets are built around team defense and goaltending. Both seem to be out of wack in Columbus at the moment.

The Rangers had an extremely quiet off-season last summer, and many expected them to take a step back from last year as well. However, the offense hasn’t tailed off in the Big Apple and the Rangers are going to try to ride the high of winning the Winter Classic, despite beating a lowly Sabres team. The Rangers started out as bad as anyone could have imagined, but have rebounded quite nicely and are currently still trending up.

Many people have forgotten that the Islanders finished only 1 point shy of making the playoffs last year. The Islanders were in 7th place last year on New Year’s Day, and have a much different team than last year. The offense is still being powered by John Tavares, but the supporting cast on offense has gotten much better. However, the Islanders are currently 30th out of 31 teams in goals allowed. The Isles currently have nearly $5 million in cap space, and 4 picks in the first 2 rounds of this year’s draft thanks to the Travis Hamonic trade to Calgary. With John Tavares’ contract still the #1 story with the Isles, are they willing to make a trade to bring in the goaltender and/or defense they need to be a serious contender?

It’s hard to believe, but the Hurricanes and Flyers are sandwiched between the Penguins at the bottom of the Metro, but both have played 2 fewer games than the Pens. Both Carolina and Philadelphia have been playing better hockey as of late, and the Canes and Flyers are next on the Penguins schedule. If the Penguins were to fall in both of those games, it may be time to start considering this season a complete and utter disaster from the Penguins perspective, as they’ll be all alone in last place in the Metropolitan.

As the phrase goes, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. The regular season doesn’t end on January 1st, but it could definitely be the beginning of the end if the Penguins can’t right the ship by February 1st. The Penguins had better figure things out, before it becomes too late. The Tampa Bay Lightning were having a very similar turbulent season last year as the Pens are this year, and January was the nail in the coffin for them. The Penguins control their own destiny, and with the calendar turning to 2018, it’s time for them to wake up.

It may seem like nothing but doom and gloom at the moment, but there’s still time for the Penguins to flip the switch and become the dominant team we all know and love here at PensBurgh. Since 2008(according to hockey-reference), the lowest PDO in the NHL was the 2012-13 Florida Panthers with a 96.6%. The 22 win Avalanche last year finished with a 97.4% PDO. Currently the Pens PDO is 95.8%, nearly 2 points lower than the 9-27-5 Coyotes. This Penguins team surely can’t finish the season with a record low PDO, right?!?

I’ll leave you with the Metro standings from 1/1/17 to show that anything can happen from now until April 6th. Until next week, stay classy PensBurgh and don’t forget to vote for Metro game of the week!