The Eastern Conference this season continues to see teams surge and then fall back, fall back and then surge. Here’s the conference as of this morning. Pittsburgh, though ninth overall, would qualify for the playoffs as of today due to ranking third in the Metropolitan Division. Since Christmas, there have been some surges and some […]
The Eastern Conference this season continues to see teams surge and then fall back, fall back and then surge. Here’s the conference as of this morning.
Pittsburgh, though ninth overall, would qualify for the playoffs as of today due to ranking third in the Metropolitan Division.
Since Christmas, there have been some surges and some stumbling to set the stage as it looks today. As it looks today could be very different from how it looks next week or at the Olympic break. Here are the team’s record since the break.
Tampa just had an 11-game winning streak ended against St. Louis. It wasn’t long ago that Toronto and Buffalo were in the 14th-15th-16th area at the very bottom of the conference — now both sit in playoff positions due to this great stretch. Boston has been right there with them. Even Columbus, now boasting a 3-0-0 since becoming the first team to fire a coach this season is somewhat back in the fray after languishing at/near the bottom of the division and conference for a good chunk of the season until now.
That’s sort of been the story of the league this season, except for maybe the Rangers who have been too chaotically broken to keep up. Just about everyone else has had the ability to swing back into the thick of things when they fall to the back of the pack, finding a way to slingshot momentum and re-establish themselves, if even temporarily.
The above graphic proves how difficult it’s been for a team like the Penguins to stand out. A 7-2-2 stretch like they’ve had ought to be a very commendable and productive little piece of business. It’s a full season pace of 119 points, for cryin’ out loud! Yet, congrats Pittsburgh, you’re only fifth in the East via points percentage since Christmas despite that great run of play. All that good work has been necessary but it hasn’t resulted in getting ahead. That’s a tough turn of events and illustrates a harsh reality from the out of town scoreboard to see other seemingly unstoppable rises going on.
Yet it’s better to keep up than drop off. Teams like the Islanders, Washington and Florida have fallen out of playoff positioning lately due to their own mediocre turns and other teams surging ahead of them. Preseason predicted playoff teams like New Jersey and Ottawa have failed to find much in the way of consistent traction all year long, patterns that have continued over the past few weeks.
And all of those struggling teams are still the envy of a Philadelphia team in full collapse, having given up 29 goals over their last five games and in a free fall. The Flyers have joined the Rangers in the very small chaos category of the conference.
The news or outlook isn’t all bad or deflating for the Penguins. The division is the most important segment, and recently the Metropolitan Division has had some encouraging developments.
In the teams that are surging in the East, almost all of them are in the Atlantic Division. Pittsburgh’s outlook today is encouraging if only since NYI has come back to the pack, the Flyers are in a tailspin they very well might not recover from in time to be a playoff factor and the WSH/NJD’s of the division continue to underperform expectations. A top-three finish in the division guarantees a playoff spot, the Pens’ path to that position has been greatly enhanced with their 7-2-2 record since the break.
The Pens have nine games remaining until their Olympic break begins on February 5th, creating the next big touchpoint to sit back and take stock of where they sit. It will be a different tone and tenor — Pittsburgh has played some extremely crucial games as of late (nine out of the last 10 have been Eastern Conference opponents, five of them being divisional rivals). The division has been key and where the Pens have made hay with a 4-0-1 record that has included valuable and important wins over teams like Philadelphia, New Jersey and Columbus.
That shifts to the backburner in the next stretch of games to the break. The next five games are all against Western Conference teams, the first four on the road in far-flung venues. It can be easy to already look ahead to the finish against NYR-OTT-NYI-BUF but first Pittsburgh will be tested to pick up as much as they can against out of conference foes before they get to that point.
Nothing has come easy these days in a packed conference, for now the Pens have to do the best they can rolling with the waves and continue to hope that most of the surging teams stay in the Atlantic and the teams in their division that they’re competing with continue to make uneven progress.
Category: General Sports
