These previously maddening Penguins have made for one of the NHL's most uplifting stories over the past month, but it could all come to a close ... well, pretty much any day now.
Including this day, upon which they'll face off against the Red Wings -- 7:08 p.m., PPG Paints Arena -- for precisely the same thing the visitors are seeking.
You know, a way out of this:
NHL
Five teams. Four points apart. A week to go. Only two'll make it.
It's not for everyone, for sure.
It can be exhilarating:
Pittsburgh goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 6, 2024
Scored by Michael Bunting with 05:29 remaining in the 3rd period.
Pittsburgh: 5
Tampa Bay: 4#TBLvsPIT #LetsGoPens #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/LcFg9xP2VI
It can be emotional:
"No matter how long your kid has played in the NHL, or how many goals he's scored, every one is special."
— NHL (@NHL) April 6, 2024
Evgeni Malkin has two very proud parents cheering him and the @penguins on today. 🖤 💛 pic.twitter.com/mf7C0j0KyM
It can be excruciating:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) April 9, 2024
It's also so very much within the Sidney Crosby wheelhouse that, if I'm being all-the-way candid, he'd seemed criminally lost on the ice without it. A literal captain without his figurative ship. A "serial winner," as Mike Babcock brilliantly labeled him at the Sochi Olympics, buried in a bracket where he couldn't dig up gold.
"They've all felt pretty big for a while now," Sid was musing after practice yesterday of the Penguins' recent games. "So yeah, this one, obviously, I guess, will be even bigger, given the circumstances. But I feel like we've been playing in games like this for a bit."
To say the least: The 6-0-3 points streak began, curiously, with a spectacular failure March 24 in Denver in squandering a four-goal lead to fall to the Avalanche in overtime. And every event that followed somehow morphed into one of the most stirring late-season surges toward a Stanley Cup playoff spot in NHL history.
No, seriously, on the morning of that game, the Penguins were 30-30-9, all the way down at 24th in the league's overall standings, 13th in the Eastern Conference and, most important, nine points out of a playoff position. Per the analytical site MoneyPuck.com, their chance of making the playoffs was 1.7%.
About the same as the North Allegheny JV, basically.
Since then, though, the nine-game points streak, the team's longest since a 10-game winning streak Dec. 4, 2021-Jan. 6, 2022, has seen the Penguins put up 15 points, more than anyone in the NHL in that span, one more than the Stars at 7-1.
What changed?
Eh, that's easy: Everything mattered again. Notably to the one who matters most.
"Yeah. Yeah, definitely," Sid would reply when asked if it's fun to be back in a scenario that's been far more familiar to him. "I mean, I feel like, for the last 2-3 weeks here, we've been right in it and, you know, I think it's brought out the best in us. We're playing good hockey. We believe in our game. And now, we've just got to continue to do the same thing."
We?
Oh, absolutely, he'll need assistance. He'll need Bryan Rust racing and Drew O'Connor forechecking on his flanks. He'll need Evgeni Malkin continuing his Michael Bunting/borscht-based renaissance. He'll need something, anything from the bottom six. He'll need the peak versions of both Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang. He'll need the young guys to rise up as they did against the Hurricanes. He'll need everyone on the roster from A to Radim Zohorna. And he'll need, above all, I'd say, Alex Nedeljkovic to gut out maybe the four finest games of his life, beginning tonight against his prior employers.
But never forget where it starts:
PENGUINS
And then, where it leads:
PENGUINS
Sid's had his down time. His really down time, I should clarify, in the aftermath of the Jake Guentzel trade. He was fuming mad with Kyle Dubas, and he made no secret of it.
He's tacitly acknowledging that now.
As he'd reiterate Monday morning in Toronto of what transpired at the NHL trade deadline, "I think anytime there are moves, it's always difficult. That's always a tough time, the week leading up, the week after, I think, regardless of the situation. Obviously, playing with Guentz for a while and having a relationship with him, winning the Stanley Cup, playing seven years together, it wasn't easy. But that's part of the game, and you've gotta find a way through that. I think once all the dust settles, I think everyone realizes, OK, this is our group, and we've gotta play better. We knew that, regardless of who was in the lineup or what the trade situation was, our game had to be better. We've found that here lately."
What'd that whole episode last for him, a week at most?
Where Sid wasn't at all himself on the ice or off it?
After that loss Monday night in Toronto, one in which he'd been pile-driven into a goal post, plunked in the face by a puck and sticked there on the same sequence, and then took another wave of questions from reporters, I'd noticed that he'd slid across the locker room to an open space next to Lars Eller. That's a smart place to be after any game, since he's got to be one of the smartest humans in the sport, and those two proceeded to engage in an intensive conversation, presumably about what'd just occurred.
Once they were done, as he passed by me, I made a general remark about the team's passionate performances of late and how I felt those'll lead to a playoff berth.
He offered a one-word response that I won't share. But it wasn't no.
• On the subject of Sid, this is, even within the voluminous context of all his awards and achievements, simply beyond belief:
Sidney Crosby continues to be recognized as the most well-rounded player on the ice – the @Penguins captain has won or tied atop the #NHLPAPlayerPoll most complete player category for five straight seasons! pic.twitter.com/EjX9MS5QQT
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) April 10, 2024
That's a vote of his peers in the NHL Players Association. Not writers. Not broadcasters. Not GMs. The people competing with or against him at ice level. And that's him doubling up the Panthers' Aleksander Barkov down at second place. And that's five straight years of being honored this way.
Oh, and at age 36.
Never, ever take him for granted, Pittsburgh.
• Thanks for reading.
• And for listening:
