The Pittsburgh Penguins have improved, but need to avoid creating new issues.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have struggled for the better part of November. Highlighted by their seven-game losing streak, the Penguins were searching for their game and needed to improve in multiple facets of the game.
With the Penguins a few games shy of the official quarter mark of the season, they have begun to come around and find their footing in some of those areas, but they have also taken a few steps back in others.
Take, for instance, the power play. The Penguins still sit firmly in the bottom third of the league on the man advantage, but they appeared to figure some things out against the Toronto Maple Leafs. While they didn't score, the top power play unit looked much more threatening, moving around the zone and sustaining pressure while creating multiple scoring opportunities.
The Penguins need goals from that unit, but if they can play at the level we saw on Tuesday, the pucks will start finding the back of the net more often.
Another area of improvement is depth. Teddy Blueger returned to the Penguins lineup against the Maple Leafs and logged 12:00 of ice time in the game. While Blueger doesn't bring much of a scoring punch to the Penguins bottom six, he will bring a sense of stability that has been missing through the first month of the season.
Blueger's defensive instincts will solidify the Penguins fourth line and set the tone for the penalty kill unit, which struggled without Blueger out of the gate. They have been better as of late, but the insertion of Blueger should continue the upward trajectory of that entire unit.
While there have been improvements, there has also been a steep decline in the play of the Penguins top forward line. Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Bryan Rust have all underperformed over the past four games. At 5v5, that trio has been on the ice for seven goals. Meanwhile, the only goal they produced was Crosby's backhander on Tuesday following a horrible Leafs turnover.
A line shakeup may be on the horizon that would send Rust to Evgeni Malkin's right wing, but in the end, the Penguins will need more from their top line.
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