In a lot of ways, the Penguins’ penalty-killing effort against Washington Sunday night wasn’t all that dissimilar from the games that preceded it.
But in the most important way, it was entirely different.
Even though the Penguins lost the game, 3-1, none of those three Washington goals came on the power play. That marked just the second time in the last 12 games the Penguins had not allowed their opponent to score at least one power-play goal. Over that span, their penalty kill has given up a total of 12 goals.
But for as ugly as those numbers are, the Penguins are actually relatively optimistic about the unit’s future prospects.