Penguins living dangerously with slow starts
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t lost any ground in the Eastern Conference playoff race during the 10 games since their 16-game point streak ended. But the team has been living dangerously. The Penguins have trailed at some point in nine of those 10 games and have never led going into the third period. They managed to go 5-4-1 over that stretch, but trailed by at least two goals in five of the games.
“We know we have to be more ready early in games,” veteran winger Gary Roberts said. “What’s the answer? Just have a little more energy earlier in games, get our shifts a little shorter, make sure we are ready to play.”
In three of the past four, the Penguins trailed by two before 21 minutes of play had elapsed. In six of the past eight, the Penguins were behind heading into the third period. Four of those times, it was by a deficit of at least two goals.
The good news? Only once did the Penguins allow that deficit to grow (Feb. 25 in Tampa), and Pittsburgh has come from behind to get at least a point in five of its last six – winning four of those six in overtime or a shootout.
So are the Penguins unfocused when they come out to start games or are they showing great character by coming from behind so often late in games?
“You can take it as a positive or negatively, however you want to look at it,” winger Colby Armstrong said. “Mentally, we have to be better and be ready to go at the beginning of the game. For whatever reason, we’re not playing our best hockey until our backs are against the wall. That’s when we get going. We have to alter our mindset that way and get going the whole time.”
While conventional thinking would dictate that the Penguins are coming out flat at the start of games, league scoring leader Sidney Crosby also raises the suggestion that perhaps the poor starts are merely due to some bad luck.
He cited Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win against the New York Rangers after the team fell behind 2-0.
“I don’t think it’s that we haven’t got jump. We just haven’t scored (in the first period),” Crosby said. “The last game, we had power play opportunities in the first period. It wasn’t due to the lack of a forecheck or anything like that. We were creating things, forcing turnovers… I think it’s more mental than anything else.”
One thing the Penguins all agree on is that letting the other team take early leads or trailing heading into the third period is no way to succeed down the stretch and into the payoffs.
That is especially true this week, when Pittsburgh faces the top two teams in the Eastern Conference on consecutive days. The Penguins host Buffalo on Tuesday before traveling to New Jersey on Wednesday.
“We really want to be better for 60 minutes,” said assistant coach Andre Savard, who is running the team while head coach Michel Therrien is in Montreal after his father’s death late last week. “Against good teams, you have to do that for sure. You can’t get away with what we’ve been doing against the better teams in the league.”
NOTES: Therrien was expected to be back in Pittsburgh by late Monday night or early Tuesday morning and coach the team against Buffalo. … RW Georges Laraque did not practice Monday due to back spasms and Savard said he doubted the enforcer would play Tuesday.