ELMONT, NY — The hockey gods toyed with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ emotions until the very end. For the Penguins to return to the postseason, they neededfd the Detroit Red Wings and Washington Capitals to lose.
With everything hanging in the balance, tension built as Detroit scored a goal with three seconds remaining to tie their game against the Montreal Canadiens. Then, moments later, Washington won in the final minutes after the Philadelphia Flyers pulled the goalie, needing a regulation win.
The Penguins watched two hockey games, and neither was decided until the very end. The Capitals victory meant the Penguins’ season would unequivocally stop Wednesday night against the New York Islanders
It must have felt like missing the lottery by the last number. And yet they also fought back against the obvious melancholy.
“You can’t sit in here sulking all day,” Bryan Rust.
The team had a remarkably upbeat morning skate at UBS Arena. The locker room mood was anything but downtrodden. There was disappointment and maybe a little bit of denial, but they were making the most of their final days together.
“I think it definitely shows how we were the last X-amount of games that we’re doing well,” P.O Joseph said. “The chemistry is still the same. So we’re teammates until the end of the year. We still have a game to play, and that’s been the mindset here for the last couple of hours.”
No, the Penguins’ remarkable run to get into contention didn’t salve the wound. They took no solace from the points streak or perhaps proving they could indeed play with the very best in the league.
“If anything, it stings worse,” Rust said.
The Penguins made a run. After emotions settled following president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas’s decision to trade Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes. Maybe it was desperation, or simply the other middling teams in the Eastern Conference were that bad, but the Penguins nearly made up nine points in three weeks.
There were the should-have-beens, such as the lost point in Columbus on March 30, the staggering number of power play failures, and the ghastly blown 4-0 lead to the Colorado Avalanche in about 15 minutes.
“I mean, when you’re talking about one or two points, I mean, there’s a lot of different games you look at or instances. So it’s hard to, but it’s hard to turn one or two points and magnify that into what the reason (we missed the playoffs),” said Sidney Crosby. “But there are probably different things. I think the obvious one is just multiple games where we had leads, and we ended up not even getting points in some of those.”
They all spring to mind playing on a background loop like a horror movie trailer.
“Obviously, the outcome here is, is not what we wanted, and it definitely sucks. It stings inside. But I mean, what can we do now? We might as well have fun and look forward to ending off the season on a high note.”
They understand that this team is over. They don’t view the team in arcs or decades but as individual groups. This 2023-24 Penguins team is over. There will be changes. They know it, and there’s no denying the business they’ve chosen.
No one didn’t admit to watching the games. The coaching staff had multiple screens set up.
“I did a lot of pacing in the hallway,” coach Mike Sullivan admitted.
And so Game 82 will be the end of the road. The Capitals and Islanders will face higher seeds in the playoffs. The Penguins will have another summer to reflect, though one of the reflections will be the positive contributions of new players such as Michael Bunting and emerging players such as Joseph and Drew O’Connor.
But even the serious Crosby had a little fun at his own expense. For the second straight season, Crosby played all 82 games.
“I think one or two years; I played 81, and I at out the last one because we were in the playoffs. So I’d take that position, too.
“I played 82 games last year, too,” Crosby asked in genuine surprise. “So, I’ve played 82 two years in a row, and it hasn’t worked out.”
Crosby flashed a smile a couple of times to make sure we got the joke.
Maybe with expansion, he’ll one day get to play 87.
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