3 reasons the Pittsburgh Penguins are struggling to end October

2. Working in Letang and Karlsson

The San Jose Sharks thought they were going to have a monster of a blue line when they traded for Erik Karlsson. They had both Brent Burns and Karlsson bolstering their blue line, and the result was underwhelming. Through nine games, the same might be said for the current Penguins' defense.

Erik Karlsson has two goals and four assists through nine games, while Kris Letang has just five assists. Working in two-star defensemen who eat up a lot of minutes is not that simple, and that might be the case for these two.

3. Missing depth scoring

The forwards in the Penguins top six have combined for 18 goals at even strength, the forwards in the Penguins bottom six have combined for just three. The Penguins need to find a way to get some depth scoring from their roster. Maybe that means splitting up Guentzel from Crosby and Malkin from Smith but something has to change to get the offense going in the bottom six.

For the most part the problems in Pittsburgh are mostly the same from the past few seasons. The moves Pittsburgh made this offseason looked like they would be contending for a cup this spring, now they just look like the same old Penguins fans have watched the past few years. Something has to change to get this team back on track in the coming months.