Admittedly, I haven't been able to watch as much of the Second Round as I wanted to, but watching the clinching Game 5 for the Carolina Hurricanes last night elicited a thought:
Could an effectively retooled Penguins team beat the Carolina Hurricanes in a playoff series?
I think it's worth questioning, because as Penguins fans we must also ask ourselves: Is just getting to the playoffs with the old core enough?
Why single out the Hurricanes?
Theoretically, I could do this exercise with any of the current Eastern Conference playoff teams, but the Hurricanes are my choice for a very specific reason. If the Penguins were to make the playoffs next season, Carolina would be their First Round draw in about 60% of the simulations.
The Canes will never sniff the Wild Card. They will forever be a top 2 or 3 team in the East and draw the next best Metropolitan team in the First Round.
If the Penguins make the playoffs, they will certainly not be among the top 1-4 seeds in the conference. With the playoff bracket structure, they'd either be a Wild Card team and play a division winner, or they'd sneak into a 3-seed and play another Metro team - likely the Hurricanes.
Neither the Penguins or the Canes are good enough to be a top Eastern Conference team, so that's the rationale for why they'd be an early matchup.
So, how would such a matchup go?
Well, first of all, the Penguins wouldn't win a single game in Carolina, so right off the bat this series is a wash. That building is not only one of the most lopsided home-ice advantages in general, but the Penguins specifically are incapable of winning in Raleigh.
Now, say the Penguins do retool and get what they need to be a true playoff contender. Whatever that looks like, consider how the Hurricanes are structured.
They are a complete team, and not the complete team that everyone claimed the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals were. The Hurricanes do everything right. Their only downfall is health. When one of their goalies or playmakers goes down, the entire ship sinks.
That's why they get blasted by teams when they get to the late rounds of the playoffs. They run into a physical, smash-mouth team like the Rangers or Panthers, and they get their butts whooped.
Your only option to beat the Hurricanes is to pray they get hurt. They will never falter in their structure or gameplan. They are a shot volume team. They don't care about taking quality shots, they just take shots. Not many go in, but enough do. And when you play defense the way they do, Carolina often emerges on top.
I'll pose the question to you: Do you think the Penguins even with improved goaltending, team defense, and continued prosperity from Sidney Crosby, Rickard Rakell, and Bryan Rust have enough to beat the embodiment of a complete team like the Hurricanes in a seven game series?
My personal answer? No. I don't think they stand a chance.
The Penguins' Downfall
The Penguins simply make too many mistakes with the way their roster is currently constructed to make a series out of a matchup like this. They would have to get extremely lucky and/or be carried by their stars to even send the series to six or seven games.
I believe there's a big move looming this offseason for the Penguins. I have an odd feeling that Kyle Dubas has a monster move waiting to happen. Mitch Marner? Don't count it out.
But even if the Penguins got the likes of a player of Mitch Marner's caliber and retained Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson, this team just makes too many mistakes to compete with a team like Carolina. The Canes feast off of mistakes. All they do is wait for you to screw up, and they make you pay dearly for it.
It would be an ugly, short series even with an improved Penguins roster.
Is such an outcome even worth it?
Every Penguins fan wants to see Sidney Crosby back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs one more time. You never know how much longer we have with him and Evgeni Malkin. The end might be quiet, but we'd rather it be triumphant if we had the choice.
Is a series loss in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes worth it? Only you can determine that.
On the plus side, they'd be good enough in the regular season to make the playoffs, something we haven't been able to say since 2022. On the other side, it would be short-lived.
I have an opinion, and maybe it differs from yours, but I'll allow you, insightful reader, to form your own opinion.
We'd love to hear what you think about our proposal, so send us your thoughts on Twitter/X @PensLabyrinthFS!