It is pretty well established at this point, nearly a quarter of the way through the 2026-27 season, that the Pittsburgh Penguins are a very, very flawed team. Most of the flaws, and most of the attention, revolves around their defensive play (from both the defensemen and the forwards) and their inability to prevent goals.
Turnovers. Odd-man rushes. People parking themselves in front of the net. Bad zone exits. You name it, it’s a problem.
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But there is another massive issue that is starting to become as big of a problem as anything regarding their play defensively, and it’s one of the biggest changes from the 2025-26 season.
It’s the special teams.
The Penguins finished the 2025-26 season in the top-seven in power play and penalty kill success rate. They were legitimately good either up a man or down a man, and it was a game-changer for the season.
This season? Their power play success rate is down to 21st in. Their penalty kill success rate is down to 16th and falling.
It is costing them games, and arguably did so on Sunday night in Anaheim.
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Trailing by a goal early in the second period, the Penguins not only had a minute-and-a-half of 5-on-3 power play time, the second of those Anaheim penalties was a four-minute double-minor for high-sticking. It was a huge opportunity to swing the game back in their favor. They not only failed to score, they barely generated a shot or scoring chance (two areas where their power play is, quite literally, among the two worst teams in the NHL). The failure was compounded by the fact the Penguins immediately took a penalty at the conclusion of their failed power play, and then allowed a power play goal to make a 2-0 game.
At that point, the game felt lost.
It was a nearly identical sequence as the end of the Vegas game that turned into another regulation loss.
The power play tried to redeem itself later in the game by scoring a pair of 6-on-4 goals with the goalie pulled, but that somehow made the power play performance even more annoying. At that point the game was over, and you still needed to pull your goalie (twice) to make the power play even remotely functional.
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I really just hate watching it, especially the top unit. It’s stale. It’s boring. Nobody is moving. Anytime a team applies even the smallest amount of pressure to them, the whole thing becomes dysfunctional. In some ways, I find this more irritating than the defensive issues. Mostly because I expected the defense to be a concern. I expected the goalies to be inconsistent. The power play? This group was expected to be good, and it should be good. And it is not only not good, it is a mess.
But the penalty kill does not get let off the hook here, either. That unit has been trending in the wrong direction for a couple of weeks now, and allowed three goals on Sunday.
The Penguins are one of the best teams in the league at generating offense and scoring chances during 5-on-5 play. But they can’t stop anybody. And when you combine that with bad special teams play, well, you have the situation you have now.
As for the week ahead, the Penguins complete their California road trip on Wednesday night against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks. San Jose is an interesting team because it has an impressive collection of young talent, but it is not yet translating into success at the NHL level.
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The Sharks enter the week with a 7-11-1 record, and have won just two games in regulation. They are one of the worst teams in the league in terms of expected goal share during 5-on-5 play (29th at MoneyPuck, and 32nd at Natural Stat Trick) while their depth after Celebrini has been abysmal. When he is not on the ice during 5-on-5 play the Sharks are being outscored by a 12-28 margin and are barely playing at an NHL level. They made some big investments in their defense this offseason to bring in veterans Darnell Nurse and Jacob Trouba, but it is not going well. The only thing that is keeping them from being even worse is the fact their goalies, Yaroslav Askarov and Alex Nedeljkovic, have been very good this season, combining for a plus-7.9 goals saved above expected number.
Given all of that, this is a winnable game. It should be a winnable game. If the Penguins can win it, that would at least by a successful California road trip and maybe something that could be built on. But they have to win it.
After returning home from California, the Penguins are home on Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators. That is going to be another tough game, because even without Brady Tkachuk that is still an outstanding hockey team, and one that is playing very, very well this season. Their record is made even more impressive by the fact they have played most of the season without their best player, defenseman Jake Sanderson, and one of their top offseason additions, forward William Eklund.
So what should be a reasonable expectation for the week?
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Beat San Jose. Win there, take four out of six points on the road trip, and then come back home on Saturday and try to steal one against a good Ottawa team. That will put them at the 20-game mark. That is pretty much a quarter of the way through. While eight wins isn’t necessarily where you want to be at that point, it would at least be some sort of improvement given the way the season has started. If they get to that point with only six wins, and lose two of three against three below average teams on this road trip, it is going to be another sign that this season is probably going to be headed toward a high draft pick instead of any sort of playoff contention. It might already be on that path. That might just confirm it.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
