If the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs they have quite an uphill fight ahead of them. They have a great opportunity to start climbing that hill coming out of the holiday break this week with a couple of games against a divisional opponent that are sandwiched around a game against a struggling Western Conference team that already beat the Penguins earlier this season.
The Penguins enter the week in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division and in 11th place in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race by points percentage (.