The Pittsburgh Penguins showed over the four weeks leading up to the NHL’s holiday break that their most successful era might not be over just yet.
In contrast, the New York Islanders have not given much evidence that they can extend the team’s most successful run in decades.
The two teams, heading in different directions, will face off Saturday night when the Penguins visit the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y., to start a home-and-home series.
Both teams played on Monday night, with the Penguins continuing their strong play with a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, while the Islanders were beaten 7-1 by the Buffalo Sabres.
The win was the ninth in the last 13 games (9-3-1) for Pittsburgh, who since Thanksgiving has risen to fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and is just one point behind the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Their surge began on Nov. 27 when they were last in the Metropolitan and five points out of a wild-card spot after a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Penguins have scored five or more goals in seven of their last 13 games, after struggling to score four or fewer goals in 18 consecutive games prior to the win over the Canucks.
Key players Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang, who were all part of the Penguins’ Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2016 and 2017, have scored 17 goals since Nov. 27. The trio had just 12 goals in the team’s first 23 games.
Sidney Crosby, a three-time Cup champion, has 16 assists in the last 13 games after having just 13 assists in the first 23 games.
“I think you learn a lot about your group when you struggle and you get to a bit of a funk — can you bring yourself back out of it?” Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said during a broadcast on Monday. “I think we obviously dug in, starting with that game against Vancouver. I’m proud of the group for the way they responded.”
The Islanders had the full holiday break to reflect on their latest disappointing loss. On Monday, they allowed a season-high number of goals when the Sabres took a 5-0 lead on their way to ending their 13-game losing streak.
The loss continued a tough season for the Islanders, who fell to last place in the Metropolitan Division with the defeat. Despite this, New York still has 11 players remaining from the teams that made back-to-back trips to the league semifinals in 2020 and 2021.
The Islanders also have 17 players left from squads that overcame slow starts in each of the previous two seasons to make the playoffs. However, they are running out of time to make a similar comeback.
The Islanders are currently five points behind the final wild-card spot and have only won back-to-back games twice. They are 6-10-4 against the 15 teams that were outside playoff spots as of Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Islanders center Bo Horvat said on Monday. “It’s not going to be an easy run. It’s not going to be an easy road to get back to where we want to get, but we have no one to blame but ourselves. We put ourselves in this situation, obviously.”
