Remaining schedule offers Penguins chance to make up ground, but time is running out
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It’s hard to make an official tally of every moment this season when all hope of making the playoffs evaporated for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
There have been many such instances and games, plenty of them still fresh in mind.
Off the ice, the pre-deadline trades of star winger Jake Guentzel and defenseman Chad Ruhwedel were obvious indicators of how president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas felt about his club’s prospects.
After all, management that believes in their team’s long-term prospects add as opposed to subtract at that critical moment.
Blowout losses to Edmonton (6-1, March 3), Washington (6-0, March 7), Boston (5-1, March 9) and Edmonton again (4-0, March 10) hardly have inspired confidence in the Penguins’ postseason prospects.
Yet through it all, the club remains within striking distance of the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot, owing far more to the ineptitude of many of the other teams in the hunt than its own good work.
“If you look at everybody, everybody is struggling, apparently,” said alternate captain Kris Letang after the Penguins’ 6-3 win Sunday night over Detroit. “Everybody is losing games right now. And we had so many games in hand, so it levels itself right now. A lot of teams are losing games.
“It’s still up for grabs.”
Entering Monday’s games, the Penguins (30-28-9, 69 points) were just five points removed from the second wild-card position, occupied by the Red Wings, who, in exemplifying Letang’s point, recently navigated a seven-game losing streak and are 2-8 over their past 10 games.
With 15 games to go, to make the playoffs, the Penguins would need to supplant the Red Wings, jockey ahead of the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals (both with 73 points) and parry both the Buffalo Sabres (69 points) and New Jersey Devils (68 points).
Ultimately, there’s only so much the Penguins can control.
“All we can do is focus on ourselves,” said goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who snapped an individual three-game losing streak (0-2-1) in Sunday’s win. “We take care of our stuff, take care of our business, that’ll give us the best chance of climbing the rankings here and, hopefully, sneaking in.”
Every coach and player in the Penguins’ locker room would agree that from here on out, each of the club’s remaining 15 games are “must-win” affairs.
Tuesday at New Jersey
Like the Penguins, the Devils (32-32-4) can’t seem to get out of their own way and make a push for the postseason. They are 3-7 over their past 10 games and losers of two straight. The Penguins are 0-1 vs. New Jersey this year, with one additional meeting April 2 remaining.
3-game gauntlet
After the Devils on Tuesday, the Penguins will play three of the NHL’s best teams in a row from March 22-26: Dallas and Colorado on the road followed by Guentzel (in his return to Pittsburgh) and Carolina on the 26th.
The Penguins lost their earlier meeting with Dallas, 4-1, on Oct. 24, but one of their more impressive wins on the year was 4-0 over Colorado on Oct. 26.
Carolina (42-20-6) has proven to be a tough task for the Penguins in recent years. Before a shootout win over the Hurricanes on Dec. 21, the Penguins had lost five straight to the Hurricanes.
March 28 and 30 vs. Columbus
The Penguins play back-to-back games against Columbus to close out this month, first at PPG Paints Arena then on the road. While Columbus (23-34-11) sits in last place in the Metropolitan Division and has the second-worst goal differential (minus-47) in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins, who are 2-0 vs. the Blue Jackets this year, can’t afford to drop the ball in these rare remaining contests vs. an inferior opponent.
Onward to April
By the time the calendar flips to April, the Penguins might have tread too much water to still have a chance at the playoffs.
Or, conversely, as has been the case for most of this season, no one in the East will have done their part to formally close the door and secure their own position.
If there are meaningful games remaining in April, nearly half of them will come against fellow postseason hopefuls.
The Penguins play at New Jersey on April 2, at Washington on April 4, host Detroit on April 11 and, in their regular-season finale, visit the New York Islanders on April 17.
While far from perfect, the Islanders and Capitals have been the lone teams fighting for wild-card position that have won more often than lost lately.
New York is 6-3-1 over its last 10 games, and Washington has gone 6-4.
But as time passes and opportunities slip, the Penguins’ fate will be increasingly contingent on others’ results.
“We’ve been talking about this for a little bit,” Letang said. “Everybody is losing right now … for some reason. We have to grab the points that we can right now.
“It’s still a fight, and there’s still a way to get in there.”
Notes: The Penguins had a scheduled travel day Monday and did not practice. … Defenseman Jack St. Ivany again was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. The 24-year-old rookie was called up to the NHL roster for the first time March 15 and since has shuffled between the Penguins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a handful of times. Were he to suit up for the Penguins, he would make his NHL debut.