Pittsburgh Penguins Are Firing on All Cylinders

It's all about timing when it comes to entering the playoffs on the right foot.

With only 16 games left in the regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are picking a good time to elevate their game and make them—yet again—a force to be reckoned with as the second season approaches.

Sure, the Pens have the best group of centers in the game—but while Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Jordan Staal are hitting the top of their game, the rest of the team is right behind them.

With every new season comes a set of battles that will test every team. To win the Stanley Cup, a team needs to find a way to win despite plaguing troubles that will test players' character. 

For the Pens, they started the season strong and were fighting for the top spot in the league. Analysts threw away any notions that the team could be faced with a Stanley Cup hangover.

But then, like any team, the Pens were faced with injury problems and individual and team slumps as the season progressed.

However, like the championship team they are, the Pens have fought through the bumps and are well on their way to another deep run in the playoffs.

They did this by slowly returning to beginning-of-the-season form.

First, this meant the Pens regained their health.

The beginning of the season meant a team full of healthy bodies—excluding Max Talbot, who was still rehabbing after surgery on a torn labrum in his left shoulder. As the season progressed, it seemed as if the Pens roster had been replaced by call-ups from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

With the help of the Olympic break, players nursing injuries—like Marc-Andre Fleury (fractured finger) and Talbot (groin)—were able to heal, and the Pens were finally able to submit a roster of healthy players. 

Obviously, a team that is healthy is crucial to start the playoffs. A healthy team has a better chance at winning games—which was exactly what the Pens were doing at the beginning of the season.

Things went a little bad after that, and the entire team went into an almost lulled state. The hockey was sloppy—and wins weren't coming at a consistent rate from November through February.

That has completely changed following the Olympic break. Maybe the Pens really needed that break, but the team has been playing nothing but solid hockey since. It was like the hiring of Dan Bylsma all over again.

The Pens have been dominating all three zones in the rink. The penalty kill has been stellar, and the power play—once the weakest in the NHL—is now 20th. Overall, every aspect of the Pens game has shown solidity I hadn't seen in a long time.

They're truly playing beginning-of-season hockey—when they played like they had something to prove to the NHL world.

This had to do with the fact that the Pens did have something to prove to the NHL world. They were fresh off a Stanley Cup win.

That winning desire began to wear off after a while—and it looked like the Pens didn't show up on certain game days. Their play overall was simply too inconsistent to feel comfortable with the team's chances in the playoffs.

Not anymore.

They are now playing with a hungry stomach, ready to taste the champagne from Lord Stanley's Cup for a second year. They are finally proving not only to every team—but to us, the fans—that they want to win again.

Most recently, the Pens have been able to conquer their biggest problem—the individual slumps.

Everyone was contributing at the beginning of the season in some form, but it didn't take long before some players started going cold.  Those players include Ruslan Fedotenko, Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski, and Pascal Dupuis. I mentioned in a previous article that while the team was sitting in fourth in the East, it couldn't rely on the production of the big guns come playoff time.

Then something clicked in the rest of the team. Again, maybe the team was battered from the injury problems earlier in the season, but the entire team has finally come alive.

Fedotenko has found his playoff form, Letang is skating with more confidence than ever—despite not finding the net with his team defense-leading 133 shots on goal— Goligoski killed his scoreless streak, and Dupuis is filling the net at alarming rates.

One concern that has been brought up is the health of the Olympians. All I can say is Crosby, Malkin, and Sergei Gonchar have not seemed to lose their form and have kept on track.  Brooks Orpik, however, has played with an extra something that I know came from his experiences in Vancouver. 

The biggest worry was Fleury, who went cold after not getting a good practice for two weeks. He has since proven that he can still bounce back.

Now with the acquisition of Jordan Leopold and Alex Ponikarovsky—players who will only help the team on its quest as repeat contenders for the Cup—the Pens are finding their groove.

And it couldn't be at a better time.