Thoughts on the Penguins at the 40-game mark

Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty ImagesWhen the Pittsburgh Penguins play the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night it will be their 40th game of the season. That will put them, if you can believe it, almost exactly at the halfway point of the 2023-24 regular season.

Let’s talk about where they are, the kind of team they are, where they are going and what they need.

In a lot of ways it is the team we expected

Even after the addition of Erik Karlsson I am not sure expectations changed too wildly for this team. It was seen as a potential — and maybe likely — playoff team that could be capable of maybe winning a round or two depending on how some variables played out (goaltending specifically).

It…