5 Things the Pens Need for a Playoff Push

SCST runs through a list of five things the Penguins must do in order to secure a spot in the upcoming NHL Playoffs for 2009.

At the time of writing, the Penguins stand at 23-21-4 (50pts), which is good enough for 10th place in the East (behind Florida, 50pts + 2 games played and Carolina, 51pts).

It's not all gloom and doom for the Penguins though, as they are still in the hunt. They however, control their destiny and must make sure to do a couple things in order to favorably control that destiny:

1. Play a consistently hard-working game from the drop of the puck to the third period buzzer:

The Penguins are unfortunately, infamous for their late third-period rallies where they (occasionally) come back from deficits to win games or force overtimes. The Penguins can NOT survive the competition in the East if they continually rely on their young stars to grab some goals late in the game.

They need to put their noses to the grind stone and work hard the entire game. I've seen a couple players (not to name any names) that lackadaisically skate on the ice without applying much effort. And they make poor decisions such as no-look drop passes. Too many turnovers, too many pointless passes, and not enough shots.

2. Find reliable auxiliary scoring:

Having Crosby, Malkin, and Sykora on the team for their goal scoring abilities is something any team would love to have. However, if they're the only ones putting the puck in the net it's difficult to raise the winning percentage above 50 percent (and even harder against the better teams in the league).

Guys like Miroslav Satan, Tyler Kennedy, and Jordan Staal need to consistently chip in their portions. If you have two or three ways to score goals, chances are other defenses will figure out how to block them.

3. Keep Fleury healthy:

The swap of Sabourin for Garon was a good one, but Fleury will remain another pillar holding up the Pens' chances of another postseason berth. Not only is his health important, but he needs to be on top of his game night in and night out.

Until the defensemen can consistently run breakouts that don't result in neutral zone turnovers, and until the forwards can then transition into the offensive zone forecheck, Fleury must continue to stand on his head to help keep goals down for this struggling team.

4. Maintain and Build Confidence:

A wishy-washy requirement to be sure, but important nonetheless. Confidence for young players is not quantifiable nor is it easy to gauge, but it's something Therrien's staff MUST manage well.

Confidence results in creative, effective passing that leads to smart point-getting shots and a nearly unstoppable forecheck. Many of the aforementioned turnovers (blind passes) are due to a deadly mix of creativity with low confidence (from the mindset of, "We need a few goals, so let's get creative. Nothing we've done so far has worked").

Making smart plays that also have a high success rate come first before creativity, not the other way around.

5. SHOOT THE PUCK:

Skilled playmakers tend to want to pass the puck more than putting it in the net. While that's fine in a normal setting, you must also realize that normal settings also usually has a playmaker sandwiched on sniper bread (think Crosby playing on a line with a left and right Petr Sykora clones).

This player has a few snipers on the team, most popular of them is of course Sykora. The team more often than not tends to defer to passing instead of slamming it towards the net.

Most frustrating in this aspect: the power play. A few times clear shooting lanes were ignored in order to pass to another area, with hopes of an even better shooting lane. This is equivalent to having three-of-a-kind in your hand, but throwing it away in hopes of getting a flush or full-house instead (possible, yes, but likely, no).

SCST's Fearless Forecast: Pens barely clinch eighth place by going 17-12-5 for the remainder of the season and finishing with 89 pts.

Originally appeared on Steel City Sports Talk.