Metro Table Set for Penguins; Feast of Fizzle?

They have been here before, of course. And not too long ago. It didn’t go well, to say the least. Now the Pittsburgh Penguins get something of a do-over with a road trip that could land them in another funk or launch them onto a path toward being consistently competitive.

The Penguins looked on their four-game trip through western Canada last month as a way to justify the optimism that permeated the locker room in the preseason. Then they schlumped home with just one point from the four games and a losing streak that had reached five games and was marked by frustrating performances.

Tuesday night, the Penguins play the New York Islanders to open a road jaunt of three games in four nights, all against Metropolitan Division foes – at the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday and at the Washington Capitals on Friday.

No, it’s not across a bunch of time zones against teams and in cities they rarely see like last month. But it’s a huge opportunity.

“Every time you play against a divisional opponent, it’s huge,” Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “So it’s a big road trip. It’s (got a) back-to-back. We’ve got to make sure we play the right way.”

Working in their favor, the Penguins seemed to get shocked into reality after that road trip. They have been riding the good vibes of a new top-loaded first line with Sidney Crosby (who is three goals shy of 600 for his career, a milestone he could reach on this trip) centering Evgeni Malkin and Rickard Rakell.

They also have snapped out of several bad habits. They have gone 2-1-0 on a subsequent homestand – a 5-3 loss to Minnesota and wins against Anaheim, 2-1, and Montreal, 3-2 – while beginning to get past things such as defensive lapses, blown leads, allowing quick strikes by opponents after scoring, and giving up goals early or late in periods.

“We’ve had two big games here, defensively sound. We’ve got to keep that going,” Pettersson said.

“We found something here the last couple games. We know what it takes defensively to win in this league. We have to make sure we do that all the time. We have to play the right way and play an honest game.”

If poor habits sneak back in during this road trip and more points are frittered away, the consequences could be lasting.

Already there is a two-tiered look developing in the Metro, with the top four teams in one cluster and the bottom four in another. The Penguins, at 5-7-1 for 11 points, are in the lower group.

They could gain on the upper teams with a strong trip.

Here’s how those opponents set up:

The Islanders are a point behind the Penguins with a game in hand and a handful of injuries to prominent players, including Mathew Barzal and Adam Pelech.

Carolina is flying high with a six-game winning streak. The Hurricanes have lost just once in their past nine games. That includes a 4-1 win against the Penguins, who were lackluster in an Oct. 18 game that opened their six-game skid.

Washington has won eight of its past 10 games. Not only will this be the second game in two nights for the Penguins, but it also will carry the extra emotion of the latest rivalry game with a matchup of the Penguins’ Crosby and the Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin.

The Penguins return home to host the Dallas Stars on Monday, opening a stretch of eight of 10 games at home over the balance of November. Only one of those 10, Nov. 15 at Columbus, is a division game.

So now is the time. The road is the place. What will the Penguins do with the opportunity?

“The last road trip didn’t go the way we planned,” Penguins forward Kevin Hayes said. “Even though we lost against Minnesota, we thought we played pretty well. Now it’s a chance to build something here and see what we’ve got as a team.

“You want to build a team game everybody can get behind.”