Do you care whether, if the 2020-21 NHL season were to end today, the Penguins would qualify for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs?
Well, don't.
The season isn't going to end today.
And if it does, the world will be facing far more pressing concerns than which East Division teams would be eligible to participate in the postseason.
(For the record, the Penguins would not get in if the top four East finishers were chosen on the basis of winning percentage, but would if qualifiers were chosen strictly on the basis of points earned.)
The Penguins have won three consecutive games after losing their first two of the season in Philadelphia, but it's noteworthy that all of their victories have come in overtime or a shootout, which means the teams they've defeated have picked up a point in the standings.
Unimposing as their 3-2 record might be, it isn't an entirely accurate reflection of how they've performed for much of the first week-plus of the season.
It's actually quite flattering, in that sense, because there is a panoply of statistics that suggest they probably don't deserve to be on the sunny side of .500 heading into their game against the New York Rangers Sunday at 7:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
The Penguins have scored 16 goals but allowed 19, a goal-differential of minus-3 that is the worst in the division. They are being outscored, 15-9, while playing five-on-five. Their go-to goalie, Tristan Jarry, has a save percentage of .821 to rank 59th out of 60 NHL goaltenders and a goals-against average of 5.28 to puts him 58th.
And then there is their second line, whose members -- Evgeni Malkin, Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust -- have combined for one even-strength goal in five games, and each of whom has been on the ice for just two even-strength goals by the Penguins in the first five games. And their penalty-killers, who place 23rd in the league, with a success rate of 73.7 percent.
Oh, and let's not overlook the 10 goals they've allowed in the first period, which is at least twice as many as any other club except Arizona, which has yielded six. Makes it pretty easy to understand why they never had a lead at the first intermission until their 4-3 shootout victory against the Rangers Friday.
Now, it must be pointed out that the Penguins still haven't played 10 percent of their 56-game schedule, so we're dealing with a pretty small sample size. Also, not all of the numbers they've generated so far have been negative (literally or otherwise).
They've rebounded from a miserable performance on faceoffs during a 6-3 loss in Philadelphia in the season opener, when they controlled just 21 of 50 draws, to rank fourth in the NHL at 55.9 percent. And if the Penguins were better at them on the power play, when they've won just 42.9 percent, they'd almost certainly place higher.
Even so, the power play has been a fairly reliable source of offense. It has scored on five of 18 opportunities, a conversion rate of 27.8 percent that puts them ninth in the league.
If the power play can continue to produce at near that pace and get other facets of their game in order, it bodes well for the Penguins' chances of climbing in the East standings.
And, eventually, of returning to the playoffs for the 15th consecutive season. No matter what the qualifying criterion might be.
Here's a look at some of the other numbers individuals and the team have generated to this point.
• Sidney Crosby is winning faceoffs at a torrid pace, going 71-36. That's a success rate of 66.4 percent, which means he trails only Toronto's Jason Spezza (69.8) and Luke Glendening of Detroit (69.1) among players who handled a significant number of draws.
• Leaky as the Penguins' team defense has been in the first period, they haven't exactly made a habit of closing strong. They've been outscored, 5-2, in third periods.
• Per the NHL's official stats, the Penguins have scored 10 goals on wrist shots, two each on backhands and tips and one each via a slap shot and a snap shot.
• The Penguins' overall physicality gets questioned a lot, but they've been credited with an average of 29.69 hits per game, a figure surpassed only by Ottawa (34.66) and Washington (32.78). Brandon Tanev has accounted for 30 of the the Penguins' total of 154, twice as many as his next teammate.
• Kris Letang, who got the shootout-deciding goal Friday, is off to an up-and-down start -- with an alarming number of downs -- but it hasn't affected his ice time. He's playing 26 minutes, 59 seconds per game, fourth-highest average in the league. He leads the Penguins in both the number of shifts taken (31.2 per game) and their average length (52 seconds).
• The Penguins' save percentage of 84.7 percent during five-on-five play is easily the lowest in the NHL.
• After being caught with too many men on the ice in each of their first three games, the Penguins are tied with New Jersey for the league lead in bench minors. They are, however, averaging just seven minutes, 36 seconds of penalties per game, the NHL's seventh-lowest figure.
• Rust leads the Penguins with 18 shots on goal after padding his total by recording 11 Friday night.
• The Penguins are blocking 11.37 shots per game, down from 12.76 in 2019-20.
• Matt Murray, who was supplanted by Jarry as the Penguins' No. 1 goalie and traded to Ottawa after last season, has put up numbers strikingly similar to Jarry's. Murray's save of .880 places him 49th in the league, and his 3.71 goals-against average ranks 51st.
