By Kevin Gorman
April 7, 2019
Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins scores past Alexandar Georgiev #40 of the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena on April 6, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
Despite a milestone moment, the Pittsburgh Penguins ended their regular season with more of a sigh than a celebration.
Sidney Crosby’s assist on Jake Guentzel’s tying goal gave the Penguins captain his 100th point and his right-hand man his 4oth goal but did nothing to improve their Stanley Cup status.
The Penguins still finished third in the Metropolitan Division, sixth in the Eastern Conference and are headed to NYCB Live — aka Nassau Coliseum — this week for the opening two games of a first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders.
“It’s a challenge for us, but we’ve played some good hockey here moving into the playoffs,” Crosby said, “so that’s something that we can feel good about.”
That’s where the feel-good stories end.
If clinching a postseason berth by beating Detroit in the penultimate game of their season provided relief for the Penguins, their 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Rangers in the regular-season finale Saturday night at PPG Paints should serve as a rude reminder of their second-tier standing.
By then, the Islanders already had clinched second place in the Metropolitan and home ice for the first round. The Penguins have no one to blame but themselves, really, for their failures to put the finishing touch on games this season in which they could have gained two points but settled for one.
They finished with 12 overtime losses this season, three in shootouts. That’s the most of any Eastern Conference playoff team and second in the playoffs only to Colorado, which had 14 overtime losses and finished eighth in the Western Conference.
Of that dirty dozen, nine overtime losses came against teams that were eliminated from postseason contention, including two each against Buffalo and Philadelphia. They split a pair of shootouts against the Islanders in Long Island.
Good thing there’s no three-on-three in the playoffs.
What’s even more disappointing is the Penguins finished only four points behind the Washington Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan and three behind the Islanders for second.
“It doesn’t matter right now, whether we play at home or on the road,” Penguins center Evgeni Malkin said. “We just play our game. We know it’s a tough building and a tough game, but it’s not easy. It’s the playoffs. Every game is a fight.”
Sure, the Penguins qualified for the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season. But they open on the road for only the third time in that span, and made first-round exits in the previous two. They lost to the Rangers in five games in 2015 and to the Ottawa Senators in five games in 2007.
That’s not to compare those teams to this one, which is superior in terms of talent and postseason experience and success. It’s worth noting the Penguins bounced back from both of those first-round exits with back-to-back appearances in the Final, winning Cup championships in ’09, ’16 and ‘17.
If there’s a silver lining, it’s these Penguins had the second-best record in the NHL since the Feb. 25 trade deadline. They went 12-4-4 for 28 points in their final 20 games, and finished with as many points (50) by going 21-12-8 on the road as they did in going 23-14-4 at home.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good road record,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “This team has the ability to play on the road. We have a lot of experience to draw on, as far as going into hostile environments and high-stakes environment and having success. So, we’re just going to have to control what we can to be at our best. As long as we do that, I believe we’ve got a competitive team and we can have success.”
But home-ice advantage is important in the playoffs, and the Penguins’ playoff history is proof. They won a combined 19 of 26 games at PPG Paints Arena during their Cup championship runs in 2016 (9-4) and ’17 (10-3), but were 2-4 at home in the playoffs last year before making a second-round exit.
The Penguins’ recent road record in the playoffs is another reason for hope. They were 7-4 in road games in ’16, 6-6 in ’17 and went 4-2 last year. With prolific scoring, defensive depth and a two-time Cup champion goalie, they are built to be road warriors. They have no choice but to embrace that mentality.
“It does matter, if you start away,” Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta said. “It’s an advantage that we’ve been good on the road. We’ve got to keep doing that now. We can’t necessarily say what it is that we do so well on the road, if we do anything different than what we do at home. But it’s an important thing. You need those wins, especially when you start on the road. You’ve got to win at least one on the road.”
It would help the Penguins if they would also win in overtime, reversing a troubling trend from a regular season that finished with a sigh instead of a celebration. Now, they have to hope their postseason run ends in the opposite fashion.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin by email atkgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter .
Categories: Sports | Penguins | Kevin Gorman Columns
No comments:
Post a Comment