The End of an Era

Well, it's official. The 16 year postseason appearance streak is over. The Pittsburgh Penguins will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2006-07 season. This marks the first time that the Penguins have missed the playoffs with Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on their roster. So... what went wrong?

Blown Leads and Missed Chances

After getting some help from the Washington Capitals, the Penguins had control over their own destiny. The stars aligned for Pittsburgh to keep their playoff streak alive... but much like they have all season, the Penguins beat themselves instead of their opponent. Pittsburgh lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in their last meaningful game in the 2022-23 season by a score of 5-2. But it shouldn't have had to come down to this- Pittsburgh's record this season when leading after two periods is 20-4-5: 13 points that the Penguins allowed to slip away.

Goaltending

For the entire season, goaltending for the Penguins has been, at best, unreliable. And while the entirety of the blame shouldn't fall on the shoulders of Pittsburgh's goalie tandem, it is almost impossible to win in this league if your starting goalie is incapable of stealing games.

Tristan Jarry's record this season is 24-13-6, with a 2.90 GAA and a .909 SV%, but he was far from consistent. In his 46 starts, he failed to register a .900 SV% in 18 of them- and only three of those 18 resulted in a win for Pittsburgh. In the 16 games he started against Metropolitan division opponents, Jarry went 5-6-4 (he was pulled against Columbus after giving up four goals on 12 shots) with a 3.06 GAA and a .886 SV%.

Casey DeSmith's record this season is 15-16-4, with a 3.17 GAA and a .905 SV%. Those statistics are fine for a backup. However, previous seasons have shown that the fewer games he has to start, the better those statistics are. What Pittsburgh needs is a true number one goalie that can steal games, and that number one goalie is not Jarry or DeSmith.

Finishing

"Getting goalied" is a term used when a team dominates games, but just can't seem to finish chances. The Penguins "got goalied" all year. How many great looks did they have where they just couldn't seem to finish? Well, in a day where advanced analytics rule the world, there's an exact number: the Pittsburgh scored 32.7 goals less than expected- the 2nd worst in the league. Advanced analytics aren't everything, but as someone who watched (and rewatched) every game this season, I actually thought that number would be worse. Statistically, the best finisher on the team is Jason Zucker- who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The statistically worst finisher is Mikael Granlund... who is locked up for another two years at a 5 million dollar AAV.

Special Teams

Pittsburgh struggled in the special teams department all season; their power play and penalty kill were mediocre at best. The Penguins had the 17th ranked power play with a 21.2% conversion rate. In addition to allowing five short-handed goals, Pittsburgh only managed to score 61 times out of the 288 power play opportunities they had. But don't let that fool you- four of those 61 power play goals were scored in overtime. This is one of the cases where statistics don't tell the whole story. The Penguins failed to score a power play goal in 36 games this season- including a six game stretch in November where they went 0-14.

The Penguins had the 16th ranked penalty kill, coming in at 79.2%... a number that only got worse after trading Teddy Blueger to Vegas at the deadline. During the month of March, Pittsburgh's penalty kill percentage was 73.9%.

And Finally... Management

It's no secret that Ron Hextall has become one of the most- if not the most- hated men in Pittsburgh. And it's for good reason; in his three years tenured as the Penguins' general manager, he's managed to make the team worse each year- his one bright spot being the acquisition of Rickard Rakell at the 2021-22 trade deadline. All year, he's complained about being handcuffed by the salary cap... even though he was the one that slapped those handcuffs on by handing blank checks to fourth liners: Brock McGinn, Kasperi Kapanen, and the unmovable Jeff Carter.

It's been said a thousand times, but I'll say it again: fire Ron Hextall.