Yohe's 10 observations: Remarkably, the Penguins pull within 5 points of a playoff spot (2024)

PITTSBURGH — The fatally flawed Pittsburgh Penguins were once again on display when they hosted the lowly San Jose Sharks on Thursday. The Penguins were woefully sluggish in the first period, took bad penalties and were guilty of more than a handful of defensive blunders.

There was nothing pretty about this game.

Life in the NHL’s Eastern Conference is a funny thing, however.

The Penguins beat the Sharks 6-3, thanks in large part to a barrage of depth scoring. Simultaneously, the New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers were soundly beaten in regulation time.

What this means, somewhat remarkably, is that the Penguins — 2-6-1 in their past nine games, during a stretch in which they traded Jake Guentzel and have failed the eye test to grotesque extremes — are only 5 points out of a playoff spot.

Five!

The Penguins host the New York Rangers and Red Wings this weekend at PPG Paints Arena. Mathematically speaking, these games still matter for the Penguins, largely because of how poorly much of the East is playing.

Still, there’s very much a pulse.

“I don’t think we’re done at all,” Drew O’Connor said. “We just needed to win a game. And we did.”

There is depth scoring, and then there is what the Penguins did Thursday.

Goal scorers against the Sharks included Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, John Ludvig, Noel Acciari, Jeff Carter and Rickard Rakell.

The Penguins were bad in the first period and acknowledged as much after the game. However, they controlled play for the majority of the second and third periods.

Though no scoreboard watching was taking place during the game, the Penguins were fully aware of the out-of-town scores in the moments following the game.

Perhaps Thursday’s game will give the Penguins some juice for this weekend. The St. Patrick’s Day weekend games in Pittsburgh are an annual event and typically produce lively crowds. Should the Penguins beat the Rangers and Red Wings, they’ll be very much alive in the playoff race, as utterly unfathomable as it might seem.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game tonight,” Marcus Pettersson said. “But we’ll take the 2 points this time of year. You just never know. It’s the profession we’re in. We’ve put ourselves in this position. We have nothing to lose right now.”

A realist can’t possibly expect this version of the Penguins to reach the postseason.

But the standings aren’t as bleak as they should be.

“There are a lot of teams in it,” Pettersson said. “This is a big weekend coming up.”

Ten postgame observations

• My biggest takeaway from this game is how hopelessly horrible the Sharks are.

This isn’t breaking news, of course. We saw the Penguins win in San Jose 10-2 earlier this season. That the Sharks have won 16 games this season strikes me as a minor miracle. They don’t do anything well. Watching them play is almost surreal.

The Sharks have been a proud, successful franchise for a long time, but these are obviously hard times, and I don’t imagine they’ll be good anytime soon.

• The Penguins offense was due to erupt, and it finally did.

For psychological reasons alone, one could sense in the postgame dressing room that the Penguins were taking a collective sigh. When a hitter is in a slump, going 3-for-4 will do wonders. The Penguins might have been playing against a terrible team, but they still lit the lamp six times.

There is little question that they needed a game like this for their confidence. Maybe it won’t translate to a thing against the Rangers on Saturday. Or maybe it was the boost they needed.

• Signs of life in Malkin’s game are becoming evident.

GENO MACHINO GIVES PITTSBURGH THE 3-2 LEAD! 💪 pic.twitter.com/E0uYdzh2GI

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 15, 2024

He scored his 19th goal of the season in the second period, but more importantly, Malkin has recently played with a determination that simply hadn’t been visible in previous weeks.

Malkin is starting to barge toward the net with more regularity, and his skating, which has been so stagnant this season, looks marginally better.

Malkin isn’t the player he once was. His skating is badly impacting the Penguins’ overall team speed. But he can still be useful, and he certainly was Thursday.

• It was another quiet night for the captain.

Sidney Crosby produced only 1 point — a secondary assist, and a generous one at that — on Rust’s empty net goal.

Crosby wasn’t bad. But he’s just quiet right now. There’s no sign of explosiveness or creativity. He’s making the simple, basic play, but there’s nothing spectacular about his game, which wasn’t the case for most of the regular season.

I suspect Crosby will break out of this soon. Some have suggested he’s in a funk because of the Guentzel trade or simply because of the state of the Penguins.

I’m not buying any of that. He wore down late in the regular season last year. We might simply be seeing a repeat of that. The load he has had to carry during this regular season has been outrageous, especially considering he’s 36.

• It’s great that Rakell scored a goal, but I dislike his game right now.

His blown defensive assignment led to a San Jose goal. And quite honestly, he just looks like he’s going through the motions. I realize he’s not a high-energy player by nature. Not everyone can play like Rust, for instance. If everyone played like Rust, then Rust’s willingness to run through walls every night wouldn’t be unique.

But still, Rakell looks way too comfortable on the ice for a guy having one of the worst seasons of his career. It would be nice to see better two-way play and more passion. I’m just not seeing it from him.

• Speaking of Rust, I didn’t see him after the game, so I didn’t get a chance to ask, but watching him on his empty-netter, it looked pretty clear that he was slowing down the play, waiting for Crosby to skate down the middle of the ice. I believe Rust was hoping to feed Crosby, who hasn’t scored in 10 games.

Crosby, though, did not look interested in any charity. Rust fired the puck into the net from the right wing.

THE RUSTY RAZOR (scores an empty net goal). pic.twitter.com/V4GcuWmJxy

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 15, 2024

I could be wrong about this, but that’s how it appeared. It says something about Rust, who is a great teammate.

• The Penguins were laughably bad to begin the game.

San Jose didn’t let them touch the puck in the first few minutes. It was astounding. The home crowd was beginning to turn on the Penguins, something that never happens in Pittsburgh.

The Penguins didn’t register a shot on goal until Pettersson’s clearing attempt from his own blue line went on net.

Just an abysmal start. The Penguins were lucky they weren’t playing a better team.

• One could make a compelling argument that Mikael Granlund was the best player on the ice Thursday.

Yeah, that guy. I know, I know.

Granlund was a disaster with the Penguins, but he’s been good in San Jose. He’s not a bottom-six player. That much is clear.

• Ludvig had his best game as a pro.

We know he can fight, and we know he can throw big hits. Ludvig was rock-solid defensively, too. Most interestingly, he made several nice plays with the puck, which isn’t his forte. He changed his shooting angle nicely on the goal below, and he made some other advanced plays, too.

THE LUDDY LASER! pic.twitter.com/LYMOWyorMw

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 15, 2024

It’s just one game against a bad team, but I liked what I saw from him. Like I keep saying, he just needs to play.

• On the surface, it’s impossible to get too excited about the Penguins. They’ve been bad for a long time.

That said, I’m interested to see what kind of crowd shows up at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday. The Rangers are one of the Penguins’ biggest rivals, it’s a holiday weekend and suddenly, amazingly, the Penguins aren’t dead, even if they look dead and should be dead.

Let’s see what this weekend has in store. Like always with the Penguins, it doesn’t figure to be boring.

(Photo of Bryan Rust scoring an empty net goal past Calen Addison: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)