With their win over the Thrashers Thursday night, the Penguins have seized the Atlantic Division lead from the Philadelphia Flyers. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible a couple weeks ago, but eight straight wins later, here we are.
Penguins 17-8-2, 36 points
Flyers 15-7-4, 34 points
Rangers 15-11-1, 31 points
Devils 8-15-2, 18 points
Islanders 5-13-5, 15 points
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a couple of times about how the Penguins will benefit from a late-season schedule that features lots of matchups against the Devils and Islanders, and that continues to be true. But it’s equally true that in the past couple of weeks, the Penguins have shown that their early-season struggles are over, and that they can compete with anyone. On December 14 and 15, the Pens play two tough games against the Flyers and Rangers – we’ll see if they can keep their hot play going and carry some momentum into those matchups, because if they can knock off their two key divisional rivals, they’ll be able to establish some distance from the rest of the Atlantic Division field.