LAS VEGAS -- English might be Kris Letang's second language, but he doesn't exactly mince words in either.
He certainly didn't Saturday night inside T-Mobile Arena when speaking after the Penguins went into their bye week with a humbling 7-3 loss to old pal Marc-Andre Fleury and the Golden Knights.
“We have to put it in our brain until the end of the year," Letang told me, "that it’s going to be a tough fight to get in the playoffs."
Indeed, the Penguins -- 26-16-6 and holding the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference -- are going to be challenged over the final 34 games of the NHL's regular season. The sprint to the finish line starts Jan. 28 at home against the Devils, and they'll play 13 games in 28 days in February, followed by 16 games in 31 days in March and then three games in the first six days of April.
That is a lot of hockey to play in just 68 days. The longest break the rest of the way is a three-day hiatus between games March 26-28. That is preceded by their longest road trip, a four-game trek to Raleigh, Nashville, Dallas and New York, between March 19-25.
Obviously, the sheer volume of games increases the potential for injury to go along with the inevitable ups and downs of a season.
Not only that, of their 34 remaining games, 21 will come against opponents who either currently hold playoff spots or are still within reasonable striking distance (seven points). Apologies to the Rangers, Panthers, Flyers, Devils, Senators and Red Wings in the East and the Blackhawks and Kings in the West.
As daunting as that schedule sounds, it could be much worse.
According to powerrankingsguru.com, the Penguins have one of the easier strength-of-schedules remaining. They give the Penguins' opponents average of difficulty a 17.21, the 28th easiest remaining schedule. The 17.21 is the average of an aggregation of league-wide power rankings. Over their first 48 games, the Penguins' opponents had an average of difficulty of 16.10, ranking 17th.
Unfortunately for the Penguins, they have just seven games left against Western Conference opponents. Despite winning just twice on their recent five-game road trip, the Penguins have feasted on the West, going 15-7-1. They are 11-9-5 vs. the East.
Conversely, the Penguins competition for the Metropolitan Division crown -- the Islanders, Capitals and Blue Jackets -- all have substantially tougher roads ahead.
Barry Trotz's surprising, division-leading Islanders have the 21st toughest schedule the rest of the way at 16.35. The Capitals check in at No. 8 with a 15.54, while the Blue Jackets have the NHL's toughest schedule at 14.09.
However, there are a few caveats. Namely, power rankings are completely subjective and it's difficult, if not impossible, to project how a season will exactly play out. Surely, some teams will get hot and others will cool. The Capitals, for example, are 0-4-1 in their last five, but it's reasonable to believe that the defending Cup champs will pull out of their funk.
The Penguins, 17/1 to win the Cup according to betonline.com, have the NHL's longest playoff appearance streak at 12 years and it's hard to envision that ending this season.
However, the Penguins can't rely on their recent history and they can't rely on what other teams are doing or have done. As Letang says, they have to get it in their heads that they're going to be in for a fight to make the playoffs.
That said, they're better equipped for that fight than maybe anyone could have imagined back in November.
The best thing to come out of the unofficial first half of the season for the Penguins was the resurgence of Matt Murray.
Like many others, I was initially perplexed why Murray was chosen to start in Arizona, leaving the Vegas game to Casey DeSmith. In hindsight, I can see the rationale. There was little chance the Penguins were beating the rested Knights in the second game of a back-to-back at the end of a season-long road trip, especially in that environment.
By playing against the Coyotes a night earlier, it allowed Murray to go into the break with a head full of confidence, and rightfully so. He is now 10-1 with a .944 save percentage and 1.81 goals-against average since returning from a lower body injury. Since Dec. 15, only Robin Lehner (.892) and John Gibson (.872) have a better high-danger save percentage than Murray (.865) among goalies playing in 11 or more games.
This is the best that Murray has played for any stretch of time in the post-Cup seasons and while no one should expect him to win 10 out of every 11 starts, six or seven out of 10 would go a long way to extending the Penguins' playoff streak to 13 years.
When healthy, he's an elite goalie. Now all he has to do is stay healthy. Knock on wood, right?
After watching his defensemen get manhandled down low by the Sharks, that little tirade Murray threw at Tim Peel on Friday against the Coyotes could go a long way in getting at least some help from the refs.
Another fortified area?
"Everybody has to buy in."
Those were Mike Sullivan's words when I asked for his assessment of his team at the break.
Obviously, that can be taken any number of ways but I believe it was directed toward Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Derick Brassard. They are the central figures on the Penguins' second and third lines which, frankly, have been a mess. There has been little stability as the two centers have had multiple wingers and not nearly enough production, regardless of who has played where.
I took Sullivan's words to mean that everyone has a role and everyone needs to accept that given role. That means Malkin and Kessel are not set in stone on the second line; it's at Sullivan's discretion. It also means that Brassard is a bottom-six center, period. "Just play," to borrow a Sullivan-ism.
The commitment to playing sound defensively, staying on the right side of pucks and making better decisions with them isn't exactly Xs and Os. It's a mindset. The Penguins are a team, at least on paper, that is capable of winning again. For them, it's a matter of playing the right way for 60 minutes, night in and night out.
And the team on paper might improve, too.
The chances of the Penguins finishing the season with same 23 players on the roster was always going to be between slim and none. That has more to do with Jim Rutherford than it does with their 2-3 Western trip, though that certainly didn't help.
With the trade deadline coming up in 35 days, Rutherford will almost certainly alter the roster. The question is does he go big, like say, a third-line center, or does he make a few tweaks? A compelling argument could be made for either.
The sexier move is to go big, of course, but the lesson of last season is that sometimes the best move you make is the one you don't.
The good news for Rutherford is that he does have some time to further assess his team. The Penguins will have 14 games before the Feb. 25 deadline. Presumably, they could have Justin Schultz available for most, if not all, of those games. Schultz's return will give the Penguins nine defensemen, making one expendable, but it will at least give Rutherford a better idea of what his team is capable of when healthy.
It all restarts in a week.