It wasn’t very long ago that we were writing articles about the Penguins and six-game streaks punctuated by a date with the Washington Capitals.
This one’s only a little different.
The Penguins have won six games in a row and Evgeni Malkin is on a level of unstoppable that by all rights is comparable to what Sidney Crosby did to the NHL in the first half of last season.
Since the streak began, Pittsburgh has jumped from ninth to sixth in the East and have managed to do so without sustaining another major injury to an impact player.
The ebb and flow of an NHL season is truly remarkable.
4-6-6
That’s how the Pens’ schedule for the last month reads: four wins, six losses, six more wins.
In context, a 10-6 record over a 16-game stretch isn’t all that bad, and pretty good for a team dealing with injuries to key players.
It’s how the record came about that caused so much discussion.
The acrimony that accompanied the losing streak, followed by the unabashed optimism over the current winning streak, shows how fickle hockey fans can be during the course of a season.
Two weeks ago, the Penguins weren’t going to make the playoffs (I had a hand in that group, but in my defense Letang was still out indefinitely and Neal was thought to be out 4-6 weeks with a broken foot).
Rhetoric nowadays has it that Evgeni Malkin is the hands-down MVP, James Neal is going to win the scoring title and the Pens are likely to catch the Flyers and Rangers by about the time Crosby and Staal return.
Hyperbole abounds in good times and bad. Hopefully the Pens will be firmly in the playoff picture when their record finally balances itself out.
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