Another game, another loss on Tuesday for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they gave Marc-Andre Fleury a positive send-off in what is expected to be his final trip to Pittsburgh in a 5-3 win for himself and the Minnesota Wild. His former teammates seemingly, if not intentionally, did their best trying not to score on their friend, and the stage was set for Flower’s opportunity to get his long-desired goalie goal with time ticking away, but it was not to be as Kirill Kaprisov notched the insurance marker with 19 seconds left in regulation. Nevertheless, it was a positive night for most involved, but at the end of the day all that matters is wins and losses, and Pittsburgh is now up to six in a row and looking desperately adrift as they tumble all the way to the second-worst spot in the NHL standings.

At this point it is difficult to deny that these Penguins are not destined for a long spring. They haven’t beaten any playoff-caliber team that has crossed their paths thus far this season, and the three teams they have beaten (Detroit, Montreal, and Buffalo) are barely out of playoff position and Pittsburgh had to score four-plus goals on each of them in order to win, something they haven’t been able to do against playoff foes thus far. It’s hard to believe that things feel hopeless for the Penguins on Halloween, with still 71 games left to play on the regular season schedule, but what is there to play for if this team can’t beat any team without hanging four or more goals on them? The defense is atrocious. The scoring depth is dubious. The goaltending is all over the map. The coaching is…seemingly nonexistent. This Pittsburgh team deserves to be down at the bottom of the standings, and they will stay there if nothing changes.

There’s a big logjam of teams with 9 points in the standing right now, and the Anaheim Ducks are one of them. With a 4-4-1 record they’re off to a positive start, at least positive for a team that wasn’t expected to make the playoffs this season. Like the Penguins, the Ducks have only been successful against non-playoff teams, with two of their wins coming against the San Jose Sharks, the worst team in the NHL, and one each against the Utah Hockey Club and the New York Islanders. They’re getting some modest scoring depth, but none of their highly-touted young guys are really taking matters into their own hands. Their best player right now is 24-year-old Lukas Dostal, who has been called into action ahead of typical starter John Gibson after the longtime veteran had an emergency appendectomy at the end of last month. Dokstal has arguably been the NHL’s best goaltender thus far this season, as he has faced the most expected goals against and is second to Carolina’s Frederik Andersen in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes. Although I do not expect Anaheim to hang around as the season wears on, it has to be encouraging for Ducks fans that they have a solid backup/replacement for the annually-overworked Gibson.