Penguins need major changes after another embarrassing loss

Between the 2006-07 and 2021-22 seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most successful team in the NHL. Nobody won more regular-season games, more playoff games, made more Stanley Cup Final appearances or won more championships during that stretch. After being on top for that long, it is inevitable that some down years would eventually follow.

They appear to be well into those down years, and after another embarrassing loss on Thursday night, 5-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes, it is clear that they have to consider some major changes.

The Penguins came into the season having missed the playoffs in back-to-back years, and they have not actually won a playoff series since the 2017-18 season. So expectations were already a little lower than they are used to having. But the first 15 games have been significantly worse than anybody could have imagined — and significantly worse than they have seen since before the Sidney Crosby era began back in 2005. 

With Thursday’s loss they are just 5-8-2 through their first 15 games, which is their worst start since the 2005-06 season (Crosby’s rookie year). 

It is not just the losses that are the problem. It is the way they are losing. Along with already losing four games where they held a two-goal lead at some point in the game, they have also not even been remotely competitive against top-half of the league teams. 

Thursday’s game at Carolina was their eighth game against a playoff team from a year ago. They are 0-7-1 in those eight games and have been outscored by a 32-13 margin. Their five wins have come against Detroit, Montreal (twice), Buffalo and Anaheim. Montreal and Anaheim are two of the worst teams in the league, while Buffalo has not made the playoffs in 13 years and Detroit has not made them in eight years. 

Only beating the league’s worst teams and getting embarrassed by the league’s best teams is not a sustainable way to compete.

The list of problems is extensive. They lack scoring depth beyond future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, their goaltending is among the worst in the league and they have no defensive structure. The first two points are something that fall on management for the construction of the roster. But the latter point has to fall on head coach Mike Sullivan. 

Sullivan has been the Penguins’ coach since 2015-16 and is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the franchise, leading it to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in his first two years. But he has struggled to adapt his playing style and system to the declining talent on the roster and keeps trying to have the team play the same way. It is not working. 

It is acceptable for a franchise like the Penguins to take a step backward. It is OK to have to retool and eventually rebuild. But you cannot accept getting embarrassed, and the Penguins right now are getting embarrassed every time they play anything resembling an above-average team. That is a bad sign for a coach who has not won a playoff series in almost eight years and has missed the playoffs two years in a row. 

It might be time for a coaching change. It might be time for some more roster changes. It might be time for both. Either way, the current formula is not working.