3 Statistical Areas Penguins M...

The Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs by a slim margin of three points. When dissecting their performance in 2023-24, here are three areas that, if they show improvement, could result in obtaining a postseason berth in 2024-25.

Win More Than 38 Games

Since the beginning of the Sidney Crosby era, the Penguins' 38 wins in 2023-24 are the second-lowest total in an 82-game season outside of his rookie campaign in 2005-06.

Last year's total barely eclipsed the two shortened seasons of 2012-13 (36 wins in 48 games) and 2020-21 (37 wins in 56 games).

Because of the structures of those seasons, the Penguins had impressive win percentages of .750 and .688, good enough to advance to the playoffs.

However, Pittsburgh's 2023-24 win percentage of .537 is the second lowest in 19 seasons, one of the main reasons they missed the playoffs.

Improve the Power Play

With a lineup boasting Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson, it boggles the mind that the Penguins finished with 30th-ranked power play, slightly ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers.

Their 2023-24 rating of 15.3% is the lowest team total in the past 19 seasons, surpassing the 2010-11 team, which won 49 games with just a man advantage that scored 15.8% of the time.

2011 and 2024 are the only times during Crosby's career that Pittsburgh did not register at least a 17.2% success rate on the power play.

Now that former NHL head coach David Quinn is in the fold, hopefully, he will devise a new game plan and turn those numbers around.

Despite finishing last in the standings last season, Quinn's previous team, the San Jose Sharks, had the league's 21st-ranked power play at 20.2%.

Score More Goals

To win hockey games, teams have to outscore their opponents. Collecting a power play goal in a game helps build up and maintain scoreboard leads.

Last year, the Penguins scored 253 goals and gave up 248 for a goal differential of plus-5. In Crosby's tenure with the club, the 2023-24 campaign marked the team's third-worst goal differential.

In 2006, his rookie season, Pittsburgh was minus-67 and didn't qualify for the playoffs. Fast forward to 2022-23, when the Penguins finished minus-2 in the category that season and ended a 16-year playoff run.

A full calendar year later, old habits died hard, as the playoff-less Penguins finished just plus-5, the lowest positive total in the past 19 seasons.

With seven-time 20-goal-scorer Jake Guenztal gone, Pittsburgh will need someone like Michael Bunting to step up and contribute significantly to the team's offensive attack or run the risk of losing the goal-differential game again.

If the Penguins don't clean up a few statistical aspects of their play, it could be another season on the outside looking in.