After what was probably the Pens best game this season...

[Big Easy Pens Fan]

...I decided to check the standings this AM and low and behold, I see that the Pens are currently out of the playoff picture. In '15-'16 they were also out of the picture before the year changed from '15 to'16. We rebounded that year (after a change in the head coaching position in December followed by 4 more losses in a row) to win the Cup. Can we rebound again this year, or was Saturday's victory over the Bolts an aberration?

BEPF

[FLPensFan]

...I decided to check the standings this AM and low and behold, I see that the Pens are currently out of the playoff picture. In '15-'16 they were also out of the picture before the year changed from '15 to'16. We rebounded that year (after a change in the head coaching position in December followed by 4 more losses in a row) to win the Cup. Can we rebound again this year, or was Saturday's victory over the Bolts an aberration?

BEPF

I mentioned in the big thread of randomness that Johnston was fired in December with a 15-10-3 record. Sully is behind that pace right now, and the team is out of the playoffs. Do I think Sully gets fired.....not a chance? But a big move may need to be made sooner rather than later.

Some individuals (Crosby, Guentzel, Rust) are starting to show some signs of recovery. The big issue is still 5on5 play. If I'm Rutherford, there are 12 games before the Christmas break, starting tonight. I'm using those games to evaluate what is needed and start putting the irons in the fire on some deals, to see what can be, and if this team can't manage to get about 16 points out of those 12 games (Roughly 8-4 record), he's gotta pull the trigger on something after the Christmas break.

What I don't want to see is a flat team tonight, and even worse would be a flat team Friday after a 3 day break.

[Puck-Lurker]

...I decided to check the standings this AM and low and behold, I see that the Pens are currently out of the playoff picture. In '15-'16 they were also out of the picture before the year changed from '15 to'16. We rebounded that year (after a change in the head coaching position in December followed by 4 more losses in a row) to win the Cup. Can we rebound again this year, or was Saturday's victory over the Bolts an aberration?

BEPF

I mentioned in the big thread of randomness that Johnston was fired in December with a 15-10-3 record. Sully is behind that pace right now, and the team is out of the playoffs. Do I think Sully gets fired.....not a chance? But a big move may need to be made sooner rather than later.

Some individuals (Crosby, Guentzel, Rust) are starting to show some signs of recovery. The big issue is still 5on5 play. If I'm Rutherford, there are 12 games before the Christmas break, starting tonight. I'm using those games to evaluate what is needed and start putting the irons in the fire on some deals, to see what can be, and if this team can't manage to get about 16 points out of those 12 games (Roughly 8-4 record), he's gotta pull the trigger on something after the Christmas break.

What I don't want to see is a flat team tonight, and even worse would be a flat team Friday after a 3 day break.

True, there are a lot of similarities with 15-16.

In the 11 games to come, I'm thinking Sullivan and Rutherford are going to make some choices. I fully expect a move in december and another one before the end of january.

While Sullivan's record's been worse than that of Johnston when he got fired, the eyeball test does tell a different story. Despite all the defensive lapses and offensive drought spells, this team does have a lot more potential when it clicks. First move is going to be a D, I'm expecting Cole to be part of a trade and Hunwick filling his shoes in the future.

At least Kessel's doing things. #tradekessel anyone?

[DelPen]

Playoff picture is irrelevant in November unless you are just brutally bad like the Yotes and Sabres.

[FLPensFan]

Playoff picture is irrelevant in November unless you are just brutally bad like the Yotes and Sabres.

False. Myth. You don't need to be as bad as the Yotes or Sabres. Falling more than 6-10 points out of a playoff spot at any point in the season is hard to makeup. And November is almost over. The Penguins have 27 points.

Consider that 5 teams in the East have 30 or more points. 4 of those 5 teams currently have 2 games in hand on the Penguins. Boston and Ottawa are behind the Penguins, but each has 3 games in hand on the Penguins.

It's also much more difficult sneaking in as a wild card team with a very low chance of ever having home ice advantage. Penguins are currently 6th in their division, 5 points back of top team NJ....but NJ has 2 games in hand.

[Pruezy11881]

Extrapolate out the games played versus points accrued, and the Pens are the 7th team in the METRO let alone the East. Things need to turn around shortly as 1/3 of the season is almost over.

[Great58]

I don't see Saturday as an anomaly. I see it as a progression of increasingly focused play over the last week. One good period against the Cannucks. Not enough. Two good periods against the Bruins. Not enough. But when the play the entire game the right way, they can beat anyone. Yes, it took timely goal tending and some unusual penalty circumstance to unfold, but they earned some of those chances. The penalty kill and the short handed goal on the double minor to Guentzel was a huge swing in the game.

Schedule was heavily skewed towards Western Conference play in the first quarter, that will reverse now. Pens will have ample opportunity to reestablish themselves as a Metro power, having played only the games within their division thus far, the Rangers (once) and Capitals (twice).

[Antonio]

I love hearing how games in November or October don't matter. If you miss the playoffs by 2 points, the standings don't care if they were 2 points you missed in October or April.

In this particular situation, the only meaningful factor in regards to how much of the season that has passed is that we have a lot more in conference play left, which DOES meaningfully impact the remaining points and their value.

[FLPensFan]

I don't see Saturday as an anomaly. I see it as a progression of increasingly focused play over the last week. One good period against the Cannucks. Not enough. Two good periods against the Bruins. Not enough. But when the play the entire game the right way, they can beat anyone. Yes, it took timely goal tending and some unusual penalty circumstance to unfold, but they earned some of those chances. The penalty kill and the short handed goal on the double minor to Guentzel was a huge swing in the game.

Schedule was heavily skewed towards Western Conference play in the first quarter, that will reverse now. Pens will have ample opportunity to reestablish themselves as a Metro power, having played only the games within their division thus far, the Rangers (once) and Capitals (twice).

True, but if you want to be fair and extrapolate out the negatives as well, other than the first 5 minutes of the first period, they still played pretty meh at even strength, and they had to rely heavily on special teams to win the game. The even strength play has been 75% of the reason for their poor play to start. So, yes they won the game, but they still had to rely heavily on PP and SHG.

They still need to improve their even strength play, even strength scoring, and penalty killing.

The schedule is improving, so that will be favorable, but the key is, at some point, your reach a threshold where you are going to get too far behind and making a big move won't be enough to get them back where they need to be in the playoff picture. We aren't there yet, but, they need to be better than slightly above .500 hockey in December. Really need to win 3 out of every 4 games to get back to where they need to be. You get two weeks into December and they are still hovering around .500, gotta pull the trigger on something or risk not being able to make up the necessary ground.