The Penguins looked sluggish, even disinterested, during a 4-1 loss in Philadelphia Sunday. Two days later, they looked old and, at times, overwhelmed while being humbled at home by the Oilers, 5-1.
With the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs less than a week away, it's easy to understand why some Penguins partisans are convinced the team will be hard-pressed to extend its best-of-seven Round 1 series to the mathematical minimum of four games, regardless of whether their opponent is the Rangers or the Panthers.
Or the Coyotes, for that matter.
That skepticism is understandable. Firmly rooted in reality, too. The Penguins, after all, are just 3-7 in their past 10 games against teams that have qualified for the playoffs, with four of those losses by three or more goals. Their No. 1 goalie, Tristan Jarry, is sidelined by a broken foot, their power play has generated two -- count 'em, two -- goals during the month of April and their lineup is laced with forwards whose goal-scoring slumps could be mistaken for ironman streaks. And that's just for starters.
Sounds like a team that, if league regulations allowed for it, might be in danger of being relegated to the American Hockey League for 2022-23.
Make no mistake, the Penguins will be the underdogs in their opening-round series. Justifiably so. But know this, too: All eight teams in the Eastern Conference are capable of winning -- or losing -- in Round 1.
Every one of them qualified on merit -- no team with fewer than 100 points will be part of the East's postseason field -- and all have personnel capable of knocking off a quality opponent.
They also all possess at least one serious question mark, if not flat-out flaw, that could lead to their stay in the playoffs being measured in days, rather than months.
The Penguins' issues, some of which were touched on above, have been chronicled at length in this space.
What follows is a look at a major one facing each of the other Eastern qualifiers. Suffice to say, the Penguins are not the only team with concerns about goaltending.
Boston -- Jake DeBrusk's revival and Taylor Hall's recent goal-scoring surge has allayed some of Boston's worries about creating offense to complement the Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak line, but Tuukka Rask's abrupt retirement earlier this season leaves the Bruins woefully shy of playoff experience in goal.
Impressive as Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have been at times, they have combined to face a total of three shots in Stanley Cup playoff competition. Until (and unless) either proves he can cope with the pressures of being in the postseason crucible, Boston's outlook will be shrouded in uncertainty.
Carolina -- Ever hear of Pyotr Kochetkov? If so, congratulations. You've really been paying attention.
Kochetkov was in goal Tuesday night, when the Hurricanes clinched first place in the Metropolitan Division with a 4-3 victory at Madison Square Garden. He's been pressed into service because Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta are dealing with injuries. And even if Andersen is back for Game 1, there's the matter of his 10-14 record in his four playoff runs with the Maple Leafs.
Florida -- The Panthers took a $70 million gamble when they signed Sergei Bobrovsky as a free agent in 2019. He hasn't given them much of a return on their investment during the playoffs, going 2-5 in two postseason stints.
Then again, his overall playoff resume also is a bit less than glittering: He's 13-23, with a 3.24 goals-against average and .899 save percentage. Florida won the Atlantic Division and has a deep and talented lineup, which makes it a popular choice to go deep into the playoffs, but if Bobrovsky doesn't at least come close to replicating his regular-season numbers, the Panthers might be an endangered species before long.
New York Rangers -- They are fast and skilled, balanced and aggressive, and have a goalie, Igor Shesterkin, who appears to be the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy. They also are quite young, which is great for the Rangers over the long term, but could be a liability this spring.
New York's only postseason appearance during the past four years was a cameo in the qualifying round in 2020, so numerous key players, including Shesterkin and Adam Fox, have little, if any, playoff experience at this level. The Rangers probably are a year or two ahead of expectations on their developmental curve and should be a force for years to come, but their lack of playoff seasoning could tilt a series in a more-experienced opponent's favor.
Tampa Bay -- The Lightning has a lineup that, on paper, rivals any in the league and has allowed Tampa Bay to win the past two Stanley Cups. That success, ironically enough, is the problem.
As the Penguins discovered in 2010 and 2018 after making trips to Cup finals in the previous two seasons, long playoff runs exact a high physical and mental toll. There is less time to rest, recover and train during the offseason, which makes surviving the gauntlet of the playoffs even more daunting, so it's no coincidence that no team since the Islanders in 1980-83 has been able to string together more than two Cup victories.
Toronto -- You'd think the law of averages alone would be enough to get the Maple Leafs a Cup, considering that they haven't won it since 1967. And with a high-octane offense built around the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares, they can produce goals as if they were coming out of a Gatling gun.
Trouble is, the adage in just about every sport is that defense wins championships, and Toronto is allowing 3.09 goals per game, the most of any team that will be in the playoffs. Unless the Maple Leafs can reduce the swelling in that stat -- and it's hard to be confident they'll get the goaltending needed to make significant progress with that -- they won't be able to score their way to a title, Maybe not until 2067.
Washington -- The Capitals are a lot like the Penguins: Ex-champions with a number of core players -- Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie -- who are moving toward the twilight of their careers.
They also don't appear to have a clear-cut No. 1 goalie; Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek are solid, but neither has shown he can play at the level Braden Holtby reached when he helped the Capitals win a Cup in 2018. Washington won't make it easy on any opponent, especially if Ovechkin recovers from whatever injury he's nursing now, but much like the Penguins, doesn't look like a serious threat to have an extended stay in the playoffs.
