The Pittsburgh Penguins have flaws, but their leaders aren't among them.
After 49 games, the Pittsburgh Penguins are in a precarious position; they sit uncomfortably in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and might not be there long.
The Penguins have had massive struggles all season and their inconsistencies have landed them where they are today.
While quite a few changes need to be made, when a team performs like this, fans are going to start pointing fingers.
Many people may want to place blame on the Penguins on-ice leadership group, the core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang.
There is a lot wrong with the Penguins right now, but none of those three are to blame one bit, in reality, they might be the three best players on the team.
People will look at the ages of each player and wonder why they're still here; it's quite simple, though, they're good at hockey.
Three of the (if not the) best players on the Penguins right now.
Crosby and Malkin do everything they can night in and night out to drag this team as far as possible, while Letang has shown real resilience this season and is still coming out on top.
As the Penguins hit their bye week, Crosby and Malkin lead the team in scoring with 60 and 50 points respectively.
Both Crosby and Malkin have played every game so far this season and have looked spectacular in most of them.
Have there been minor hiccups along the way? Sure, but nothing that hasn’t been made up for in other ways or truly costing the team wins.
Meanwhile, Letang has had to battle through a brutally tough season to get where he is today.
A sloppy start was getting turned around when things began to spiral for Letang; he suffered his second stroke, followed by a lower-body injury, then the death of his father.
Despite all of that, Letang returned as the top defenseman on the Penguins and is looking to climb back to normalcy.
In his 32 games this season, Letang has four goals and 16 assists for 20 points from the blue line.
The Penguins has flaws, many of them to be precise, but none of them fall on the core.
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