The road trip wasn't pretty and there a few pieces of the game that the Pittsburgh Penguins need to work on.
As the Pittsburgh Penguins return home following a brutal five-game road trip that saw them eat four losses, there are some aspects of play that need to be focused on.
One of the big issues for the Penguins throughout the trip was their lack of discipline and puck management skills.
Throughout the five-game trip, things just felt uneasy and the Penguins struggled to gain any sort of momentum in their favor.
The team looked out of sorts and any opportunity that they got to make moves, they threw away with ease.
Kasperi Kapanen’s attempt at a spinning pass is a prime example of how the Penguins failed to play smart with the puck.
The pass wasn’t even intercepted by a Seattle Kraken player, rather it looked like Kapanen was trying to give him the puck.
The Kraken went the other way to capitalize on their gift of an opportunity with the game winning goal from Morgan Geekie.
Throughout the trip passes were going astray and not getting completed cleanly for the Penguins and that played a hand in the choppy play.
It was more than just pass attempts and failure to gain momentum that killed the Penguins, though as they also couldn’t stop taking penalties.
In the first nine games of the season, the Penguins have given up nine power play goals on 31 chances.
Their struggles with penalties and killing them off were exposed by their opponents over the past five games.
The Penguins took 14 penalties and gave up tallies on four of them, plummeting their PK percentage to 70.97%.
That low of a number sits them 28th in the NHL for PK%.
Everyone in the locker room knows the team can be better, head coach Mike Sullivan said so following their fourth straight loss.
"I know we're a good team," Sullivan said. "We've shown an ability to be good."
Actions will have to speak louder than words, however, as the team looks to get back to their winning ways when the calendar turns to November.
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