The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to bounce back from their unsuccessful road trip.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have returned from their western road trip without any wins or points to show for it. They have lost four straight games in regulation for just the fourth time under head coach Mike Sullivan, losing every game by multiple goals. If there was ever a time for a reset, it's now.
The Penguins return home on Tuesday to face the league-leading Boston Bruins on national television. The Bruins are 8-1-0 on the year, led by David Pastrnak, who has scored 17 points (7G - 10A) in the team's nine games. Pittsburgh will need to revert to how they played at the beginning of the season to compete on Tuesday night.
The splits between the Penguin's first five games and their past four are astounding. Their average goals per game dropped from 5.2 to 1.5, and their goals allowed per game average increased from 2.2 to 4.5. The Penguin's power play also took a dip out west dropping from 26.3 percent in their first five games to 18.8 percent out west.
Part of reverting to their winning ways will be the configuration of their lineup. Late in the game against the Seattle Kraken, Sullivan demoted defenseman Brian Dumoulin to the second pairing and promoted P.O. Joseph to play alongside Kris Letang.
Dumoulin and Letang have struggled together this season, allowing the most goals of any Penguins defense pairing at even strength (7). Dumoulin also has the lowest shot attempts percentage on the entire team (45.65%). Splitting that pairing up could spark the Penguin's defense and help Letang return to form.
The Penguin's top six need a restart as well. Getting Jason Zucker and Jake Guentzel back into the lineup will help, but the Penguins have yet to return their right wings to their early-season configuration.
Through the Penguins' first five games, the Zucker, Evgeni Malkin, and Bryan Rust line was the best forward unit for the Penguins. Together they accounted for 67.95 percent of the expected goals on the ice at 5v5 and 70.49 percent of the scoring chances. (Stats per NaturalStatTrick.com)
While Rust and Rickard Rakell have found success with both of the Penguin's star centers, the original lineup with Rakell on the top line has netted the best results this season and makes the Penguins less top-heavy.
The Penguins are in the midst of one of their worst stretches in seven years, and they will need to play more like the team that opened the season to stop the bleeding.
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