Reddit user - Sulti
At best the Pens would be close to 100 point pace with an average powerplay, they wouldn't be at 100 points right now. 100 points would tie with the Rags as tops in the league. The Pens have lost some points to their abysmal PP, but it's not the only thing holding us back. I looked through every single 1 goal loss the Pens have this year, here's the games I think an average powerplay (and nothing else changing) would have changed the outcome of:
vs Anaheim on 10/30, McTavish SH goal to break the tie with 15 seconds to go, coming out of the box. Obviously the Pens should have 2 points this game. 1 point lost to giving up the shorty and 1 lost to failing to score in 1:50 of 5 on 3.
vs NYR on 11/22, game ended 1-0 with the Pens 0 for 5 on the PP. I won't include games with better than 0/5 PP's because 25% on the PP would be good for top 7, while 20% would be top 20. So 1 point lost to not having an average PP. I'll assume just 1 because we f***ing suck in OT this year.
vs Phi on 12/2, shootout loss with Philly getting a short handed goal and Pit going 0/5 on the PP, including a 3v4 in OT. Should have gained 1 point, since we already got the 2nd.
at Carolina on 1/13, 0/5 on the PP in an OT loss. Would gain 1 point again with an average PP.
vs LA on 2/18 Regulation loss with a SH goal against with 5 minutes to go. Went 1/5 on the PP, but that's an egregiously bad time to be giving up shorthanded chances. Especially so when playing a western conference team where giving them 1 point means nothing.
That's only 6 points gained. Maybe you could argue around 10 points with games that also had empty netters and/or winning one of the LA/NYR OT games. 10 more points would have the Pens at a 95 point pace and 82 points right now. That's 1 point above Washington who is currently in WC2. We jump like 5 teams in the standings, but we're not instantly clinching the playoffs with it.
To get 100 points right now you'd need 28 points lost to your PP. The 15th (average) place PP is around 21%, and Pitt's PP would have around 15 more goals if their PP was 21%. You'd need nearly every goal of difference there to be worth 2 points to hit 100 right now, which is just unreasonable. Even if every goal was added to a 1 goal game that only forces OT, and the Pens are 5 and 10 in OT. That means 15 more PP goals would translate to around 20 points, still 8 short of the necessary 28 in the most generous approximation I'm willing to make. I know we've also shot ourselves in the foot with SH goals against, but that's not another full 8 points lost.
100 point pace is somewhat manageable, we'd need around 86-87 points right now for that. So 14-15 more points out of 15 more PP goals plus 3 or 4 less SH goals against. It's still extremely unlikely that the sub 20 more goals account for 15 more points, but it's not completely unreasonable at least. I'd still say we're likely around 80 points right now with an average PP, with 8 points lost to the PP.
If the Pen's PP was tops in the league good then sure they could be around 100 points, they'd have like 30 more goals with Tampa's 30% PP and half as many SHG goals against. If they were average (which I'd consider better than "just functional") though, then they wouldn't be close to that mark.