The Pittsburgh Penguins are set to take on the New York Islanders tonight at PPG Paints Arena. It will be their first home game after a weekend of festivities and celebrating a franchise icon in Jaromir Jagr. It is all supposed to be an exciting time for the Penguins. However, after another loss and another game, the Penguin’s offense was mostly nonexistent, and most Penguins fans are now dreading every game night.
The Penguins keep losing. There is no other way to say it. There is a number of different factors you can blame on how this team got in this position, but one of the biggest reasons has been their lack of offense. The lack of depth on the offense, specifically. In fact, this offense may actually be worse than last season’s.
The Penguins can simply not find the back of the net. Going into tonight versus the Isles, the Pens sit 26th in the league in goals per game and 30th on the power play. For a team that has at least five future Hall-of-Famers, that is just not acceptable. Now, yes, most of the core players are no longer the superstars they were, but still, this team is capable of more with the talent they have.
Sure, Crosby, Guentzel, Karlsson, and Letang aren’t dominating 5-v-5 play like they were back in 2017, but they still have been very solid. Besides those four, the rest of the team has not been good, and yes, that includes Evgeni Malkin.
Coming into last offseason, we were expecting the team to get better than last season. We brought in a new GM who has turned an okay Toronto Maple Leafs team into the solid playoff team we know them as. He quickly made moves and signed players who would help stop the flaws that doomed us last season. However, the new players he brought in have not done too much.
Sure, we can continue to blame the mess on former GM Ron Hextall if you want, but he is not responsible for much of the teams’ problems this season. That would fall under Dubas. Most of the players Dubas brought in in the offseason have mostly been failures, especially on offense.
The only player who has been a big success has been the play of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. He (and Jarry) have been solid in the crease so far this season and have looked great as a nice supporting backup to Jarry.
Secondly, I will also say that I do like Erik Karlsson. He has not been bad this season. Sure, he may not be putting up over 100 points, but he’s getting points. He has not been “spectacular”, but he has been solid. We acquired him and got rid of a lot of bad contracts the Pens had. I still like the deal. However, on the power play, that is where I get disappointed with him.
Besides those two moves, every other player Dubas brought in last summer in free agency has just not worked out. Dubas added eight new skaters in July. Those eight skaters have combined for just 37 goals so far. Six of those eight skaters are forwards and have scored 27 of those 37 goals. The other two defensemen have scored just ten goals so far this season. These eight players make up 40% of the Penguins roster. It just is not good enough.
Now, the bottom six have done a good job defensively, holding leads (for the most part) when needed. The belief is that Kyle Dubas thought the first two lines, as well as the power play, could be the producers of offense on this team while the bottom two lines shut down the opponent. However, Reilly Smith has struggled pretty much since he came here. The power play has been historically bad, and as soon as one player gets injured, it all falls apart.
Yes, the 2023 free agency class was a lot weaker than normal, but there were still some solid players that the Pens could have gotten instead. For example, 67 free agent forwards signed with an NHL team between July 1st and when the NHL season started. Among those 67 free agents that signed with teams, the forwards that the Penguins signed rank 16th, 44th, 56th, and 58th in goals scored by those free agents. In points? 27th, 48th, 54th, and 58th.
Even in a weak free-agent class, the Penguins got some of the most unproductive players. Also, those statistics do not count players like Smith or Harkins, who came over through trade or via waivers.
What makes matters worse is the lack of urgency to fix these issues. Dubas’ self-imposed All-Star break timeline came and went, and nothing happened.
With Sidney Crosby still doing his thing, Jarry and Nedeljkovic looking solid night in and night out, and the amount of cap space this team still has, it is very discouraging.
I will definitely admit I was a big “Dubas to Pittsburgh” fan when he left Toronto, so I am not ready to give up on him yet. It does, however, leave lots of questions for what the Trade Deadline and the rest of the season has to offer.
