DALLAS — The NHL standings Thursday morning showed the Penguins in a familiar, advantageous spot: second place in the Metropolitan Division, four points out of first and five clear of the playoff cutline.
Buffing out the scratches in their game has happened quickly, too. On New Year’s Day, the Penguins awoke in Philadelphia outside the playoff picture and one point shy of the Metropolitan Division basement. Now, planning for another Stanley Cup run feels plausible.
How did they do it? Here are 10 key reasons to explain the Penguins’ 11-5 record since the start of 2018:
1. The stars have been the stars.
It’s the most basic thing at play, other than an uptick in shooting percentage.
From Jan. 1-Feb. 8, Evgeni Malkin (26 points), Sidney Crosby (25) and Phil Kessel (23) rank 1-2-3 in the NHL in scoring.
Malkin (16) leads in goals, and Crosby (22) has the most assists.
For much of January, they’ve been on separate lines, something that’s pretty much impossible for opposing teams to defend.
2. Their power play has been historically good.
Sure, this is a full-season thing, but it has been especially deadly since Jan. 1, converting at a league-best 32.6 percent clip. That run includes six occasions in which it scored multiple goals.
The Penguins have been astonishingly good in this aspect, on pace to break the franchise record (25.9 in 1995-96) and could flirt with the NHL mark (Montreal, 31.9 in 1977-78).
3. Remember when the Penguins couldn’t score a five-on-five goal to save their lives?
It’s different now.
Entering Thursday’s games, the Penguins had 38 five-on-five goals since Jan. 1. Only the Bruins — a league-best 12 wins in that stretch, one more than the Penguins — have been better. Boston has 39 five-on-five goals since New Year’s Day.
Add this to their power-play success, and that’s a ton of offense.
4. True, the Penguins gave up a power-play goal to Vegas on Tuesday and two to San Jose a week before that.
But those three comprise half of their total allowed over the past 15 games. Only Chicago (5) and Vegas (4) have been better.
Not only are the Penguins thwarting opposing power plays, but they’ve been generating momentum this way as well.
5. For as shoddy as their goaltending was at the beginning of the season — basically Antti Niemi plus a few so-so outings from Matt Murray — that has turned around lately.
Murray missed a chunk of time because of his dad’s death but has won three straight starts since coming back.
Casey DeSmith had a three-start stretch where he went 3-1 with a 1.76 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.
Tristan Jarry went 4-0 with a 2.14 goals-against average and .928 save percentage in five starts between Jan. 2-14.
As a team, the Penguins’ five-on-five save percentage of .917 (Jan. 1-Feb. 8) ranked eighth in the league before Thursday’s games. Through the first 40 games of this season, Penguins goalies were last at .902.
6. The Penguins have been a resilient group.
This is slightly less quantifiable, but we saw them score three unanswered goals to beat the Bruins on Jan. 7; rebound after a bad end to the first period Jan. 14 against the Rangers; answer a second-period surge against the Sharks; pull away from the Capitals in a track meet; and stick with it, down 2-0 early in the second, during an emotional night against Marc-Andre Fleury and the Golden Knights.
The Penguins have also not lost back-to-back games since Dec. 29-31. Shift to shift, period to period or game to game, the Penguins have been able to have a short-term memory when necessary.
7. Dictating the terms is something Penguins coach Mike Sullivan likes to say.
Well, they have.
Whether it’s the eye test and how fast or aggressive the Penguins look or something as simple as having better starts — it was an issue early — it has been much, much better.
Over the past 15 games, the Penguins have outscored their opponents, 14-7, in the first period. They’ve trailed after one just twice and have come back to win both times.
The Penguins are 23-6-2 when scoring first.
8. The fast guys have been more than fast.
Carl Hagelin and Bryan Rust have basically been point-a-game players lately, productive wings who’ve made their lines better by creating turnovers, wreaking havoc and chipping in offensively.
Rust has three goals and seven points in his last seven games. Hagelin has three goals and 11 points in his last 12.
9. Kris Letang isn’t all the way back, but he has shown improvement since the calendar flipped to 2018.
He’d be the first to tell you he hasn’t rediscovered his 2015-16 form yet, but he looks more like the player who’s even in 2018 compared with the one who was a minus-15 from Oct. 4-Dec. 31.
10. Goals from odd sources have been nice.
More than Hagelin or Rust, who’ve been getting top-six time, the Penguins have gotten a boost with a few players making cameos on the scoresheet.
Ryan Reaves, Daniel Sprong and Jamie Oleksiak have two goals each since Jan. 1. Dominik Simon has all four of his during that stretch, and even Jean-Sebastien Dea and Brian Dumoulin have gotten involved.
There’s some math here in terms of the volume of goals produced, but it’s also nice for the big boys to get some help every once in a while.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: February 8, 2018, 2:42 p.m.