Pittsburgh Penguins are riding a late-season high – but will it be enough?

The Pittsburgh Penguins are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games and remain on the prowl for a playoff spot. Today on Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discuss the Penguins’ recent run and how historic it has been.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Pittsburgh Penguins are right on the edge of a playoff spot sitting one point back of the Detroit Red Wings and two points back of the New York Islanders for potentially getting third in the Metropolitan Division. What’s interesting as well about this Penguins team is the fact that their big guns are playing like their big guns it was Crosby, Malkin and Letang putting up points recently and they are looking good. There are five games to go and Alex Nedejlkovic has been playing a big role as well and taken over the starting role. It’s hard to imagine them cooling off now after watching them play.

Frank Seravalli: Did you see them in the first 60 games of the season? That’s the tough part. I get what you’re saying that Crosby, Malkin and Letang have been producing and people are going “Where has that been” but it makes sense. I have been saying since November that the underlying numbers are good, they haven’t got much in way of terms of results but it seems like it is turning and for some teams, it never turns. But it also seems to be coming at a time when every other team is fumbling the bag like the Flyers, and Capitals no one can buy a win. Here is what happens when you have a pillow fight, you leave yourself susceptible to one knockout blow and it seems like both the Flyers and Caps are trending towards that as the Islanders keep winning too.

Frank Seravalli: What we are seeing with the Penguins is historic, park the talk from the Hamburglar and the Senators going on their run or the Blues bouncing back and winning the Stanley Cup. What we are talking about in the salary cap era has never happened where a team has been nine points out with 10 games remaining and finds a way to make up that ground. The NHL standings are designed so that you can’t make up that ground, you need a perfect score and winning streak at the exact same time as a team that can’t bank any points and that is pretty much exactly what we are seeing.