The top six forwards of the Pittsburgh Penguins have gone flat and need to improve.
While the Pittsburgh Penguins hope to fend off their second seven-game losing streak of the season, they’re going to need help from all over the lineup.
More importantly, however, the Penguins’ top six needs to find whatever they had during their 14-2-2 run before the newest losing streak settled in.
Sidney Crosby and Jake Guetnzel finally broke through for some points during garbage time against the Vegas Golden Knights, but more needs to be done when the game is still up for grabs.
What can the top six do differently to help get the Penguins back on track?
“We’d like to score some goals,” Bryan Rust said. “We got to try and get more time in the offensive zone.”
When it comes to the simple task of goal scoring, the top six has struggled recently.
Crosby has only one goal in his last five games, Guentzel has been blanked in eight straight, and Evgeni Malkin has only one in his last six.
Rust was recently reinstated as a top line winger alongside Crosby and Guentzel, and is still searching for his first goal in five games.
For Rust, it doesn’t matter what kind of goal it is, he just knows that the top six needs to find more time in the offensive zone to create opportunities in any way.
“The more time we spend in there [offensive zone] the more pucks we get to the net,” Rust said. “The probability and chances of scoring goals, ugly ones, pretty ones, doesn’t matter, goes up.”
The Penguins need goals any way they can get them as they get set to play in the unique atmosphere of the Arizona Coyotes’ Mullett Arena.
More than just the atmosphere, however, the Penguins hope to snap their losing streak and get back to being one of the best teams in the NHL.
To get back to those levels it'll take scoring with some regularity from the top six group.
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