Better luck next year: The Pittsburgh Penguins did not fix any of their previous problems

Then a lot of other things went wrong on top of that.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be officially eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention: The Pittsburgh Penguins.

When the 2022-23 season ended the Pittsburgh Penguins had some pretty easily identifiable problems.

• The power play underachieved and was terribly inconsistent given its talent level.

• The third-and fourth-lines did not contribute anywhere near enough offense or do enough to help move the needle in their direction in games, or for the season as a whole.

• They had a major question mark when it comes to goaltending

• They had problems protecting leads and had lost four games in regulation and five more in overtime when leading after two periods.

Following the Ron Hextall reign of error, the Penguins made sweeping changes to their front office and brought in former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas to run the show. In one year he overhauled a significant portion of the roster, revamped the bottom-six and brought in two big money defensemen in Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves.

Surely that meant something would get fixed, right?

Well, friends, I have some bad news for you.

All of those problems listed above? They all pretty much still exist, and in some cases managed to get worse.

The power play was literally one of the worst in the league, the bottom-six defended better but was even worse offensively, they were still among the worst teams in the league at defending leads and they not only still have the same goaltending questions they had before, it is an even more expensive problem due to the new contract Tristan Jarry has.

That is not exactly an encouraging sign for anybody.

Let’s talk about it.

What went wrong