The Penguins are difficult to figure.

They are on pace for 108 points, have the seventh-best record in the NHL and have allowed the sixth-fewest goals in the league. (That last factoid is so un-Penguins. It looks like a typo.)

But Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Colorado was a microcosm of how the Penguins create doubt.

It was a hard-fought road defeat against arguably the NHL’s best team. It was a very exciting game. The Penguins got 40 shots. The result could have gone either way.

But the Penguins tied the game 1-1, and Colorado scored 20 seconds later. The Penguins tied the game 2-2, and Colorado scored 27 seconds later. That last goal came with just 4:26 left.

The Penguins give up too many goals at soul-crushing times. Right after they score, or early in periods, or late in periods. Like Thursday at Minnesota, when the Wild tied the score 3-3 just 62 seconds into the third period.

Evgeni Malkin won that game in overtime. But he’d been responsible for a goal against earlier.

Malkin played a part in two Colorado goals Saturday: One on a bad pinch when he was covering for a defenseman, another on a turnover.

The Penguins did lots of good things against the Avalanche, created many chances and were mostly worthy of the praise heaped upon them after by coach Mike Sullivan.

But the bad can’t be ignored, and neither can Saturday’s result.

Tuesday’s rematch with Colorado at PPG Paints Arena would be a good time to kick some game-management skills into gear.

Thursday’s visit to Madison Square Garden would be even more opportune. The Penguins don’t want to go into a playoff series with the New York Rangers with the Rangers having beaten them in three straight regular-season contests.

The Penguins’ matchup with the Rangers is a confusing one.

The Rangers allow an average of 31 shots per game. Goalie Igor Shesterkin is the NHL’s best and the Rangers’ savior.

But in three games against the Rangers, the Penguins have averaged just 24 shots per game and have scored just four times. Shesterkin has barely broken a sweat. The Rangers’ forecheck pins the Penguins in their own zone for too often and too long.

The Penguins’ line combinations are again up for debate now that winger Jason Zucker didn’t even last a game upon returning from injury after a 30-game absence.

You feel bad for Zucker but worse for the Penguins.

The Penguins have exactly six top-six forwards. Zucker is at the bottom of the top six. (It would be better if he were at the top of the bottom six.)

Jeff Carter skated on Malkin’s right wing this past Saturday. He’s got the tools but, at 37, is more adept at managing third-line minutes and is a better center. Carter has also served as Kasperi Kapanen’s sherpa lately, and the result has been a slight uptick in Kapanen’s play.

Teddy Blueger is a better fourth-line center than a third-line center. The newly constituted fourth line of Brian Boyle, Danton Heinen and Anthony Angello got zero shots on goal, which should have been expected.

Even the slightest disruption causes the Penguins’ lines to fall together clumsily.

New guy Rickard Rakell is starting to come good. But who else plays with Malkin?

It shouldn’t be Bryan Rust. The line of Sidney Crosby, Rust and Jake Guentzel is too good to fiddle with. Daddy eats first. Everybody else can make do.

It shouldn’t be Heinen or Evan Rodrigues. Each has decisively proven that he can’t play in the top six.

It shouldn’t be Carter, as outlined earlier.

But those are all the options. That’s a problem. (Should have traded for James Neal.)

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)