The Pittsburgh Penguins finally have a positive goal differential 52 games into the season

It’s been a tense few months for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After losing a great deal of depth in the offseason, the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions had looked sluggish in the first half of the season.

Part of that could be due to the fall off from a pair of Stanley Cup winning seasons, where they’ve played the most games of any NHL team over the last two years. Their depth has also been an issue at times, as losing role players like Matt Cullen, Chris Kunitz, and Nick Bonino cut a hole in their bottom six that they’ve only recently been able to patch.

However, the biggest problem for the Penguins was their goaltending depth. Matt Murray has had a less-than-average season on the whole, as his .906 save percentage in 32 games played this year is not what fans wanted to see after Marc-Andre Fleury left for Vegas.

The bane of the Penguins’ existence, though, was 34-year-old free agent pickup Antti Niemi. The goaltender played just three games with the Penguins this year, but he had an abysmal .797 save percentage and an eye-popping 7.50 GAA. Niemi allowed 16 goals over the course of his three games with the Penguins, making him an instant liability that they cut ties with almost immediately.

That damage took its toll on the Penguins’ season, as they’ve faced an uphill climb in returning to the top of the tough Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh is now second in their division with 59 points, though they have more games played than anyone in their conference.

Still, they’ve only just rebounded from those goaltending problems they dug themselves into at the start of the season. After a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks,Tuesday night, Pittsburgh’s 52nd game this season, the Penguins got to a positive goal differential for the first time all year. Pittsburgh, who won the last two Stanley Cups, played 63 percent of their season with a negative or net zero goal differential.

Goal differential doesn’t always indicate a playoff spot, as there are teams like Chicago or Colorado that have a positive number but remain in the hunt. It is rare, however, to see a playoff team sport a negative goal differential. Ottawa did it last season with a minus-2, but while they went far in the postseason, this year has been a different story for the Senators.

The Penguins have a pair of backup netminders to thank for their surge up the standings and into positive goal differential territory. After Murray was placed on injured reserve in late November, Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith were recalled from the AHL to assist the team. Both netminders played extremely well, as Jarry has posted a .919 save percentage in 18 games played while DeSmith has a .927 save percentage in six games played.

Murray was the one to lead the Penguins over the Sharks to get Pittsburgh into the positive goal differential column, a 40-save game that likely will give the struggling netminder confidence for the rest of the season. Not only that, the game was Murray’s return to the team after taking time off due to his father’s passing earlier in the month.

The Penguins are 8-2-0 in their last 10 and have only lost three games since the start of the new year. Should their goaltenders continue to play well, there’s little doubt the team can continue to succeed, and for their goal differential to keep climbing.