Tim Benz: Penguins living in the comfort of a hot streak — regardless of how it is happening

At the halfway point of the season, if you are a Penguins fan, you have to be saying, “Why ask why?”

Follow that advice. Because what if you get an answer you don’t appreciate?

You know, like, the truth. As in, this charmed life can’t last forever.

Or can it?

The Penguins (26-10-5) have long been a franchise that has lived comfortably in dichotomy. An organization fortunate enough to have been blessed with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Jake Guentzel, Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray.

Yet it is also one that has been star-crossed enough to see hundreds of games over the years in whichone or more of those players has been lost to injury for extended periods of time.

The franchise has persevered to the point it has made the playoffs annually since 2007 and has won three Stanley Cup championships in that span.

As a result of those life lessons — with the likes of Guentzel, Crosby, Letang and Malkin remaining from that corps — the Penguins are perfectly equipped to navigate the yin-and-yang of their current existence.

The club has won a jaw-dropping 16 of its last 18 games. Yet that’s only good enough to have just recently crept into second place of the Metropolitan Division with 57 points.

So pardon the roster if it doesn’t dwell on the nuance of how it managed to win games like the one Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets. Coach Mike Sullivan’s group it was down 2-0 for much of the contest. It came back to win 3-2 in a shootout, thanks to scoring two goals in nine seconds during the third period.

Let the momentum shift commence! pic.twitter.com/Z4OEDnSTyT

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2022

JEFF CARTER COMES UP BIG ???? pic.twitter.com/OB4RGnFHZM

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 23, 2022

Or how it came from 3-0 down to beat Las Vegas on the road last week.

Or how it managed to hold on against the struggling Ottawa Senators to win 5-4 after jumping out to a 5-1 lead.

The Penguins have won different ways through different methods. So as they enjoy a run of contests against opponents currently not in playoff position — a run that reaches four in a row Tuesday night against the Arizona Coyotes — don’t fault the players if they embrace an approach of “it’s not how, it’s how many” right now.

“Good teams always find a way,” Letang said after Sunday’s victory. “You can’t get discouraged when things don’t go your way. You don’t give up. Just keep going. For this team to come back in the game, it doesn’t take much. We have the talent, the skill to do it. Guys went back to work and played the right way. And we got the reward.”

The win streak is five. It should become six Tuesday night. The next opponents are the 10-26-4 Coyotes, with former Penguins star Phil Kessel — and his paltry five goals in 40 games. Their meager 2.23 goals per game is 31st in hockey.

Perceptibly, this another opponent that should be roadkill for the Penguins. But if they aren’t and the Penguins simply manage to scrape out another two points, so be it.

Because harder times are looming.

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• Penguins forward Teddy Blueger out six to eight weeks for fractured jaw

Games against the Kings, Bruins and Capitals aren’t far away. So the Penguins will enjoy this lull in the schedule before reality doesn’t allow for these fits and starts within games against lesser teams to be afterthoughts and impact the standings.

Until then, the Penguins will just gobble up the points two at a time and say “thank you” to the schedule makers and the hockey gods for a rare, extended stretch of time when their stars are on the ice together.

And the bounces are going their way enough to get the wins when they are supposed to.

“Our team has played a lot of consistent hockey,” Sullivan said after the win against the Jets. “I think most recently might be our most volatile team game that we’ve put on the ice. So I think that’s our challenge moving forward, is to put a consistent game on the ice that we think is going to give us a chance to win.”

So long as the results stay consistent, Sullivan may be somewhat forgiving if the play within the victories is not.

In this week’s “Breakfast with Benz” hockey podcast, Brian Metzer and Tim Benz talk about the Penguins’ recent hot streak, some needs they might have to address, and some questions that have already been answered as the season approaches the halfway point.