Pittsburgh Penguins Giving Away Crucial Points With Road And Shootout Woes

Sometimes in the NHL, a team will look back on the little moments and see what cost them a playoff berth. The Pittsburgh Penguins will have no difficulty seeing what happened if they miss out.

The Penguins are just two points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the huge pack they're in makes the deficit very difficult to overcome. The reasons for their current position are areas where they could’ve and should’ve been much better.

To wit: the Penguins are 12-9-3 at home but a ghastly 6-10-5 on the road. Only the Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks have fewer road wins, at five each.

The Penguins can't reasonably hope to make the playoffs when they’re on pace to put up only around 12 road wins. Even if their home record was dazzling, you need to be consistent in your building and away from home, and the Penguins don’t look capable of doing that. They had a similar issue last year, with each team around them in the Eastern Conference winning at least three more games than them away from home. That made the difference for the Washington Capitals making the playoffs and them missing out.

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Pittsburgh is also the worst team in the Eastern Conference – and the second-worst team in the NHL – in shootouts. They have a 1-4 record that includes a 4-3 shootout loss to the Blue Jackets on Jan. 7. Only the San Jose Sharks are worse, with an 0-4 shootout mark.

It’s hard to believe a team that has Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson has major difficulty winning shootouts. But they're only 5-for-18 in shootout attempts. Crosby is 1-for-5, and nobody on the team has more than one shootout goal. Malkin is 1-for-2, while Bryan Rust is 1-for-3, Rickard Rakell is 1-for-4 and Letang is 0-for-2. Anthony Beauvillier and Lars Eller have each had one attempt, with the former scoring on his.

Their goaltending has only stopped half the shots, going 10-for-20. Alex Nedeljkovic has stopped eight of 14 shots for a .571 shootout save percentage, but Tristan Jarry has two saves on six shots for a .333 percentage.

The combination of subpar scoring and goaltending has resulted in Pittsburgh giving up crucial standings points that could be the difference between them missing and making the playoffs. And while they can always make up for problems in the shootout by just avoiding the shootout, that shouldn't excuse them from giving up the extra point whenever the opportunity comes.

The Penguins could be notable players in the trade market leading up to the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline, but they won’t acquire shootout specialists or road game specialists. It will ultimately be about the players already in Pittsburgh’s room.

If they aren’t drastically improved in these problem areas, the Penguins will be out of the playoffs for the third-straight season. And that will be entirely the fault of management and everyone in Pittsburgh’s dressing room.

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