Upcoming Game Analysis

The Penguins are entering a stretch of extremely important games beginning tomorrow night at Philadelphia and continuing after the All Star break that begins Friday. Four of the next five games are on the road (Philly, New Jersey twice and Atlanta) and three of those are against division opponents in which Pittsburgh is in a standings battle with. If the Pens can manage to take points away from the Flyers and Devils they will be setting themselves up nicely for a busy month of February.

The Pens have 14 games in February, 8 of which are at home but only 4 of the 14 are against division opponents. This should give the team some breathing room with Sid being out. Not that I am suggesting they tank a few games, but with a game every other day and a busy month of March coming up, they are going to need all of the rest they can get and there should be some opportunity to get that facing a couple of Western Conference Teams (LA, San Jose).

Given these facts and looking ahead at the schedule for next month, Pittsburgh is in very good shape to continue with the playoff run they are on and should have the opportunity to grab a few extra points if they are able to continue with they aggressive type of play that they have had and can count of some outstanding goal tending from Conklin and Sabourin.