It was not the prettiest win. It was probably not the way head coach Dan Muse would want to draw it up. But the Pittsburgh Penguins found a way to go on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and walk away with a baffling 4-3 regulation win. They let another three-goal lead slip away, somehow regained the lead late in regulation, allowed a game-tying goal, caught a huge break when an NHL-initiated replay review overturned it due to a missed hand pass, and then somehow gave up a clear breakaway to Nikita Kucherov in the closing seconds only to have Tristan Jarry stone him and secure the two points. Hilariously stupid and funny game. All that matters is two points. All that matters is the Penguins are now 14-7-5 on the season and, by points percentage, own the sixth-best record in the NHL and the third-best record in the Eastern Conference as of Friday.
Pittsburg, PA
An historical look at where the Pittsburgh Penguins are after 26 games
Coming into this week I said if the Penguins could get three points out of this difficult three-game road trip it should probably be looked at as something of a success given the injury situation and the competition in front of them. They already have four points going into their game against the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
As chaotic as Thursday’s game was, there is still a lot to like about it.
Evgeni Malkin had a vintage Evgeni Malkin performance with two outstanding goals.
They showed some toughness and bounced back from letting a lead slip away and still found a way to dig in and get the lead back and win against a top-tier team on the road.
Tristan Jarry made some huge saves.
Young guys Ben Kindel and Ville Koivunen scored goals.
There was some concern a couple of weeks ago that maybe reality had been starting to set in for the Penguins after their strong start, and that perhaps the strong start is over. Now they have wins in four of their past five games and are still extremely high in the standings.
It is not just a strong start.
It is one of the better starts in recent franchise history. Perhaps the entire franchise history.
Let’s just look at some numbers for context on this.
With Thursday’s win the Penguins are now 14-7-5 with 33 points through their first 26 games.
In the now 58-season history of the franchise the Penguins have….
- Only had 17 seasons where they have won at least 14 games through their first 26 games.
- Only had 13 seasons where they won MORE than 14 games through their first 26 games.
In terms of total points and points percentage, their .635 mark through the first 26 games of the season is the 11th best start through 26 games in the history of the franchise. The 10 starts ahead of it, as well as the two starts immediately after it, all produced playoff berths.
There are certainly still flaws on the roster and with the way they play defensively. They are winning a lot of games due to the power play and goaltending, and there is definitely a ceiling to what a team like that is capable of, and maybe even a smoke-and-mirrors element to a lot of it. But the reality is this: The Penguins are still a team capable of generating a lot of 5-on-5 offense, they still have high-end players on the roster that are playing at a high level, and their power play success is simply finally matching its talent and the expectations.
The goaltending was always going to be a wild-card (as it is for every team), and so far it is holding up its end of the bargain. After so many years where it did not, I think the Penguins will take that and not apologize for it.
They are also still scrapping out points despite being without a forward that opened the season on each of their top-four forward lines (Rickard Rakell on the first line, Justin Brazeau on the second line, Filip Hallander on the third line, Noel Acciari on the fourth line).
They are winning games and collecting points through the first quarter of the season at a pace that historically, for both them and the league as a whole, has a high probability of producing a playoff berth.
At some point it stops becoming a good start and starts becoming a good team.
I am not sure if we are at that point just yet. We are definitely getting close to it.
It might not be a Stanley Cup team, but it still might be a very good team. It might be a very good team in a season where nobody expected it, while also seeing real development from key players they are going to be relying on for their future seasons where they might be able to become a Stanley Cup team again.
Last year, Americans received nearly 30 billion scam robocalls and text messages. Now, leaders in Pennsylvania are taking a new approach to try to crack down on them.
“It’s not just certain audiences that are targeted in this space. It’s really everybody,” said Kate Sullivan, CEO of Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania. “Robocalling is just faster and more aggressive than it’s ever been,” Sullivan said.
The prevalence, exacerbated by artificial intelligence, is why 49 attorneys general across the country sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission to strengthen its rules to prevent scammers from accessing legitimate phone numbers.
“You have individuals that will purchase maybe 100,000 different phone numbers,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said. “Those numbers will land somewhere where you have a nefarious actor who will use those numbers to do the robocalls.”
Sunday is part of the Anti-Robocall Task Force, along with West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey. Last year, the coalition sent warning letters to major phone service providers to stop allowing illegal robocalls to reach consumers. Now they’re building on this by going directly to the FCC.
“The consumer matters, and we want to make sure that our constituents, the consumers that are in our states’ voices, are being heard at the highest level as loudly as they can be,” McCuskey said.
Sunday said they want to put more onus on companies to not sell these numbers, and if they do, to have documentation that can be provided to law enforcement so they can trace back and hold the scammers accountable.
KDKA-TV reached out to the FCC for comment. A spokesperson said in part that they “welcome this input from state leaders.” They also mentioned, “The Commission proposed expanding certification and disclosure requirements to all providers that receive telephone numbering resources… to stop scammers from exploiting gaps in the system.”
“Getting ahead of it and more protections for the consumers, I think, does have quite a bit of value,” Sullivan said.
As for what you can do, the BBB and AGs said it’s better to let a robocall go to voicemail. If you decline it, that indicates you’re a real person and may get more calls. Also, make sure to report robocalls to the BBB or the Federal Trade Commission.
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