Somehow it’s already here: the halfway point in the 2022-23 NHL season. For the Pittsburgh Penguins, it’s been a severely up-and-down first half: they won four of their first five, then lost seven in a row, then won fifteen out of twenty before dropping another six-game losing streak. It’s a little silly to be able to summarize three months of hockey in so few words, but frankly, despite the team rolling into the last game of the first half with a modest two-game winning streak and halfway to 96 points in the standings, it feels like the first half has been disappointing. There are still a few players scratched due to health problems. There are serious problems with the organizational depth. The streakiness of the players goes hand-in-hand with the performance of the team. It’s hard to get a genuine read on how this team is going to perform from this point forward because, as Phil Bourque put it in Tuesday’s thrilling 5-4 comeback win against the Vancouver Canucks, you never know what you’re going to get with these Penguins.

In some ways the fact that no trades have been made is a good thing. Especially with the team going to Kris Letang’s father’s funeral right after its game against Arizona, there’s a sense of fraternity growing with Pittsburgh of late, the positive kind that helps players work together more, be more aware of one another, and hopefully build each other up and bring more success. It was no less evident than with the interplay between Evgeni Malkin and Jason Zucker on the Penguins’ fourth goal against the Canucks. With about 12 minutes to go in the second period and the game tied 3-3, the Canucks looked to escape their zone with the puck in a four-on-four situation. Vancouver forward Ilya Mikheyev was hounded by Penguins defenseman Jan Rutta as the Canuck tried to escape the zone. Despite losing his stick, Rutta was successful in getting Mikheyev to lose his concentration long enough for Malkin to swoop in and steal the puck and head right into the offensive zone. Immediately Malkin dropped the puck back to Zucker, giving he and Zucker a 2-on-1 against Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and while Zucker kept down the wing, Malkin headed straight for the net on the give-and-go. Ekman-Larsson was caught flat-footed by their interplay, and subsequently went to his knees and then finally his back as Zucker found Malkin on the backdoor to bury the go-ahead goal for Pittsburgh.

It’s gratifying to finally see Malkin have some consistent competence on his wings, and that’s thanks in large part to Zucker finally being healthy and not just producing at career-high rates on offense but also playing very well defensively. Yeah, some of that probably has to do with starting in the offensive zone 69% of the time (nice), but the truth of the matter is that when he’s been on the ice the Penguins have been facing as many shot attempts against as usual (in fact, much more unblocked shot attempts against) but the goals are not coming for the opposition. In other words, things have been going very well for the second line this season, and that has helped at the very least to keep Pittsburgh afloat this season. It would be a much different story if Malkin and Zucker were not producing as well as they have been.

Of course the Penguins could showcase the best teamwork in the League every night, but that won’t make up for a lack of depth. As of yesterday morning’s practice report the team is maintaining the status quo with regards to the players who are out of the lineup, so that situation isn’t improving at least for tonight. The good news for Pittsburgh is while they are rested heading into tonight’s game, the Winnipeg Jets are playing the second game of a back-to-back set after playing last night against the Buffalo Sabres. The Jets, currently on a stretch of eight road games in nine total, are second in the Central Division. They have one of the best defenses in the NHL, as of this writing fifth in fewest goals against, and one of the best goaltenders in Connor Hellebuyck. More good news for Pittsburgh though as Hellebuyck was scheduled to play last night, meaning backup and more mediocre David Rittich will start for Winnipeg tonight. Not only is Winnipeg decidedly worse with Rittich in net (20-10 with Hellebuyck, 6-4 with Rittich), but Rittich has allowed three goals against Pittsburgh in each of his three appearances against the Penguins, all losses. Sounds like a good set-up for Pittsburgh!