DK's Daily Shot of Penguins: If this were the start

If only this recent surge had been the season's start.

#Pittsburgh #Steelers #Penguins #Pirates #LetsGoPens #LetsGoBucs #HereWeGo #NFL #NHL #MLB #DKPS

Hear award-winning columnist Dejan Kovacevic's three Daily Shot podcasts -- one each on Steelers, Penguins, Pirates -- every weekday morning, plus the all-new DOUBLE SHOT show that follows up at 4 p.m. Eastern!

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[thatsright]

I signed the our team not his petition but apparently there's only about 800 signatures last time a checked. Pittsburgh needs to step up and start getting some signatures. I live in NJ and I did my part. Lifetime pirates and penguins fan.

[jerryyeager]

Thank you DK, Spot on with the energy thing. Slow on defense Another good one DK

[ourlittleadventures]

Good morning DK, Victor from Langley, BC Canada again. Thanks for answering my question from yesterday, I should have been more specific, my apologies. An example would be Pullijari (yes spelled wrong) I believe, like Noel Accari & Nieto, they have a roll except Pullilari was lighting on forecheck and can score! WTF is wrong with Sully, had to

[kylebaker]

I hear ya on kopitar, my sons middle name is anze after kopitar

[TheBearGuyCanada]

Hey DK, you bring up the energy or sparkplug guys, and I see Bunting and Lizotte as those two guys. The issue is, at least the way I see it, one of these guys needs to be on line one, the other on line two. I find line one can really disappear at times and Crosby is doing his best to get Rust and Rakell going, but I don't see that jump to get 87 the puck back. Having a crasher and banger on the line brings energy, and both these guys would equally match the offense of Rust and Rakell if givin the chance and ice time, Sid needs and has missed having a Hornquist type guy. Its the same for Mailkin, he becomes easier to neutralize if you don't have to worry about his shot, no one is setting up he plays with perimeter players. This team lacks a lot of things at times, physicality especially on the first two lines, and without it other teams that are bigger, younger, as fast or faster easily grind them down. Its time to shake things up, get away from the old formula and give other guys a chance. I know the goal is to be competitve, but as they are set up, with the guys they got, they'll win a few, lose a few...(there's no playoff success coming here)...and we will never know where they are from night to night. Even the 9-2 montreal game, I saw 25 minutes where if they were playing Colorado, Carolina, Dallas, Winnipeg, Edmonton, would've been a blow out the other way, the Habs are not good but were the better team till the wheels fell off. Tonight with Kopitar, and Kempe especially, who feasts off the Penguins, tonight do we see a team that is improving their play and moving in the right direction, or who get exposed, outclassed and blown out?

[Ikonicre_Moonshield]

The gap between #12 in the east and #8 in the east (WC2) is... one point. Sure with games in hand for teams that aren't the Penguins or Islanders, but that's nuts. Great as the Pens 6-3-1 in the last 10 looks, Senators are 7-2-1. This is where the bottom will fall out though; Pettersson was the duct tape that held the back end together in some semblance of a defence.

[JakobyAndrew]

Talking specifically for the first half of the video, but if they play this type of hockey (6-2-1) for the rest of the season, they're in rhe playoffs with a respectable record. All i can ask for now is just to show some consistency and improvement.

[michaelbobrick]

Skate well and turn up the focus on defensive details.

[planetmirror]

Puljujärvi better be playing tonght. They should scratch Drew O'Connor at this point. Talk about soft gen z player. Team plays with zero grit

[dannyjohnson]

As far as the J1Q, I feel Lizzott gives us that energy, he's just not very big.

[mikecrow]

The Pens number one issue is that they are the worst team in the league at giving up scoring chances against, especially high danger scoring chances against. They used to be a top 10 ... even a top 5 team in 2020 ... in this regard, and now they are dead last (or at least right there with San Jose and NYR for last). I guess that could be due to not having a Hornqvist or Tanev on the roster. But I would venture to say that has more to do with how bad their defensemen are now, as compared to back before Hextall decided to trade Marino and Matheson for Petry and a bag of pucks ... two trades they have never recovered from.

[maczed]

We didn’t improve an aging team. Meaning we don’t have legit first line wingers two wingers that can be second liners. The rest mostly fourth liners.
The defense is poor defensively. Even with Peterson out they’ll stay right where they are, a bottom 10 team. That’s what this roster is. It’s hard to expect more from them when they aren’t constructed to do well.

[Topshelf]

They will get NOWHERE if they can’t figure out how to move the freaking puck. No-pressure moronic turnovers, 10’ out front or in the back of a player’s skates, and unable to clear their zone. Pay attention when you watch.
That Tic-tac-toe the other night was a fluke. Haven’t seen anything even close in months

[Michael-hqiq]

look at all the empty seats at pens games these days ! pens as currently constructed are no match for the best teams in the league ! there are no "easy" games for the pens as they are on a par with the bottom feeders in the league like red wings, senators, sabres, to name of few !

[GaryRogers-jkob]

Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve! Your view is just like this: If there was apple pie in the fridge I’d eat it! But instead there’s only buttermilk pie!!!

[joshmichel]

How was that a penalty against Rakkel in the first period. Complete trash we are bad enough with out the refs being dong water too