Recent Losses

Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to see the two recent losses of my hockey team. Friday night’s loss I chalked up to the goalie imploding—seriously, every goalie, even those of All-Star caliber, have those so-called "off" nights throughout a season. Unfortunately, the Penguins aren’t yet a team that can afford—when it comes to the standings and the playoff picture—for their goaltender to have one of those nights where it seems like he couldn’t stop a beach ball. (Harsh, I know.) However, just like Pens’ players, I was very aware of the games that Marc-Andre Fleury has won for the team thus far this year. And one game, really, where things are off, by the end of November? If someone had told me that at the start of the season, I would have taken it.

Now, of course, Fleury can’t continue to have games like that—meaning those games cannot come with frequency. The Pens need their starting netminder to find a groove and to find a groove fast and to shake off the loss and go back to doing what he had been doing for most of the rest of the season. Once again, as the team is presently constructed, the Pens simply don’t have room for error when it comes to goaltending. In order to be in contention for a playoff spot, Pittsburgh is going to need consistent and high-quality goaltending throughout the season.

While my team losing of course irritates me (I speak of mild irritation that comes because I don’t have the temporary emotional boost that sometimes come with a string of victories—because, yes, I probably smile slightly more easily the morning after a win), I think these are the losses that—honestly—are the ones that make the Pens a borderline playoff team. Because, when it comes right down to it, the Pens can play pretty even with teams in their division. And while others would beg to differ with me, I’m not yet convinced with the Rangers, Devils, or Islanders, as presently constructed, are as TEAMS vastly—or even just a little—superior to the Pens. (Caveat: Partisans of each team could debate their team’s superiority until the cows come home—but take a look at each team’s current record. What do you see? Teams with similar number of points. Now, if still so inclined, debate away about the quality of each Atlantic team.) However, the Pens can play evenly with these teams, and these teams can play evenly with them. And on some nights, one team prevails, and on some nights, the other team prevails. That’s usually what happens with parity.

As much as I enjoyed the Pens’ best-in-the-league division winning record through their first 10 division games, there probably was too much parity in the Atlantic Division for the young Pittsburgh team to maintain that division record. Nonetheless, if the Pens want to be a playoff team, they’re going to have to find a way to win those close games that come against their Atlantic Division rivals. Yes, games against the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders fall into those category of games that aren’t necessarily against "clearly superior" or "clearly inferior" opponents. But the Pens have to start winning those games once again if they want to make the playoffs.

And as for the two recent losses? Well, here’s hoping what one always hopes when cheering for a young team. Hopefully mistakes were learned from and will not be repeated—and hopefully losing leaves a bad enough taste in the mouths of the youngsters so that they’re determined not to repeat the same mistakes in their next bout with a divisional rival. (Of course, being young players, there’s always a possibility of still more, yet uncommitted errors—but for now, I hold to the side of hope. After all, it is the holiday season.)