The top half of the Pittsburgh Penguins offense has done their job, now it's the bottom six's turn to produce.
PITTSBURGH - Though they’ve lost seven straight games, the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t been a total lost cause and there is a list of players that have had great performances.
The main standout is the Penguins top six forward group; Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the team leaders in scoring, while their wingers have remained steady producers.
Jake Guentzel continues to find the back of the net with six goals in eight games and Bryan Rust will produce no matter who is center is.
Jason Zucker is on the verge of turning his play around after a pair of disappointing seasons hamstrung by injuries, and Rickard Rakell continues to shoot the puck at all times.
Putting the defensive woes aside, the Penguins bottom six forwards have been abysmal during the seven game skid.
It’s been a revolving door of names and placements thanks to a few injuries, but regardless of who is sitting in the bottom six, they haven’t scored.
Through the losing streak the Penguins have scored 16 goals; 14 of them came from the top six forwards, while the last two are from Josh Archibald alone.
That means players like Kasperi Kapanen, Danton Heinen, Brock McGinn, and their swapping linemates outside of Archibald have all failed to score a single goal in seven games.
Having a productive bottom six was the Penguins bread and butter during their back-to-back Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017.
Not saying that the Penguins need to play exactly like the way they did five years ago, but having some sort of threat on all four lines would be useful.
It’s likely that Teddy Blueger will be lifted from long term injured reserve soon, but he isn’t going to immediately fix every problem.
Blueger will be a help, there’s no doubt, but the Penguins need some kind of help from their depth guys.
The stars are doing their job by recording big points and driving play, but the Penguins bottom half needs to find the back of the net and make a difference.
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