Thursday, February 15, 2007

Warning signs

We'll leave the Caps for a moment to notice something else concerning a club of some (some would say an unusual) interest among Caps fans.

Often the seeds of a winning streak can be found in the way clubs lose games before that streak begins. Conversely, one can see the end of a winning streak in the way clubs win games at the end of that streak.

Such is the case with the NHL's hottest club at the moment, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The club is on a 15-2-3 run. But the seeds of bad habits are creeping into their game that could spell trouble ahead.

The Penguins have won each of their last three games in a more-than-60-minute fashion: a 5-4 shootout win against the Flyers, a 6-5 overtime win against Toronto, and a 5-4 shootout win against the Blackhawks last night after coughing up a 3-1 lead. Shootout wins against also-rans? 13 goals given up in their last three games versus only 38 in the previous 17 games?

Fortunately for Penguin fans, they play in what is arguably the weakest division -- top to bottom -- in the East (the Atlantic has, by far, the worst intra-conference record among the three Eastern Conference divisions). But this might bear watching as the Caps travel to Pittsburgh on Sunday. Unless those emerging bad habits are nipped in the bud by Michel Therrien, the Penguins are could come crashing to earth pretty quick.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Emerging bad habits, uh the team's on a 12-0-2 run. Maybe you should stick to Crosby 'diving' (after a stick hits his face or gets speared) or even come to grasps of another year of Capital frustration. Cheers!

The Peerless said...

And yet, afer those 14 games, the Penguins are only seven points ahead of Toronto for ninth place.

It doesn't take long in the new NHL.

Anonymous said...

'Only'? heh. The Pens have atleast a game in hand on any team in the conference.

The Caps are a full 10 behind. Methinks they have a little more to worry about then Pittsburgh's bad habits that are still resulting in 2 points a night.