A Sunday statistical look at the Pens, for better and for worse

As has been the case all year long, the young Penguins are producing some eye-opening stats.

Some, as you will see, are simply amazing, considering how young they are.

Some, however, may show us some not-so-good trends that are creeping up on them.

Of course, we have to lead the stats post with Sid's 87 points, a full 15 points ahead of a 3-way tie for 2nd place between Ovechkin, Hossa, and St. Louis. And that's been with Sid "only" getting 5 points in his last 5 games.

Malkin is starting to pull away with the rookie scoring race over LA's Anze Kopitar, leading him now 63 points to 50.

But his teammate Jordan Staal is quickly catching up to him on the rookie goal scoring race, with Malkin only leading Staal now 27 goals to 23. Staal has 7 goals in his last 5 games.

Sticking with Staal for a minute, maybe the most impressive stats for a Penguin, outside of Sid's impressive NHL points lead, is that Staal is leading the entire NHL in shooting percentage. After Staal's hat trick last night in Toronto, he now has 23 goals in only 82 shots, for an amazing 28.0% percent, easily ahead of Calgary's Kristian Huselius at 22.9%.

Other individual Pens' stats among the league leaders are Staal's 5 and Talbot's 3 short-handed goals (#1 and tied for #3, respectively) and Malkin's 13 powerplay goals ares tied for 7th.

On the team side, the Pens are tied for 8th in the league with allowing only 1.14 5-on-5 goals per game. Their powerplay is now 4th with a 20.6%. They also are 9th in the NHL with a 38.5% win percentage if they're losing after one period. But consequently, they are only 23rd in the league with a 69.2% win percentage is they're leading after one period.

But on the other side of the tracks, the plus/minus stats are somewhat revealing. Staal now leads the team at a +14, Crosby at +13, and Nasreddine at +12. But they also have several players in a minus rating, including Ouellet at -1, Gonchar at -2, Christensen at -6, and the injured Nils Ekman at -13. Kinda surprising for a team 11-0-2 in their last 13 games, huh ??

Their PK is now down to 24th in the league at 80.5%. Their faceoff percentage is dead last at 30th in the league at 46.6%.

Also, the amount of time that Crosby and Malkin are off the ice has been a topic of discussion this year as well. While Gonchar is 8th in the league in ice time per game at 26:38 per game, you have to go way down to 104th to find Crosby at 20:41 per game and 154th to find Malkin at 19:41 per game. Crosby is 206th in the league with 24.1 shifts per game, while Malkin is 263rd at 22.8 shifts per game.

Dominic Moore "leads" the Pens in faceoff percentage with 50.9%, ranked 43rd in the league. Crosby is 53rd in the league with a 49.6%. Malkin is 82nd with 44.2%.

So overall, one can't complain about the great streak the Pens are on. There no doubt that if the Pens continue to play at anywhere close to this level, they'll not only make the playoffs, but will have home ice advantage for the 1st round.

But, you're seeing signs, as indicated by the negative plus/minus ratings, the PK%, and the falling faceoff percentages, that the team needs to tighten up on it's defense.