Ebbs and flows. Ebbs and flows.
The NHL season is all about ups and downs. The best teams prevent their lows from going too low, and the teams that stick around are the ones that don't let the highs get high or the lows get low.
Tonight, the Penguins will play the New Jersey Devils in a Metro Division matchup, their first divisional game since their 4-1 loss to the Capitals on January 18th.
Tonight begins a stretch of three games before the Four Nations Faceoff - all three games coming against Metro opponents.
The Bad News
The Penguins are the second worst team in the NHL against their own division at 3-8-3. Only the Vegas Golden Knights (fairly shocking) are worse.
Divisional games are where you make and break your season in any sport (except for the NBA where divisions literally don't matter). The Penguins have had Metro woes this season after being one of the best teams within the division last season.
The bad news is that tonight could be another kill shot for the Penguins' playoff hopes; albeit they should have been dead and gone by this point anyway.
But here's where the delusion begins...
The Good News
"Peak delusion." That's a phrase I like to employ often when it comes to Pittsburgh sports. Outside of the Pirates, Pittsburgh sports are really good at getting you to believe in something that shouldn't be possible.
Prime example: the Penguins can still make the playoffs in 2024-25.
As bad as the Penguins have been against the Metro this season, they still have plenty of games left to make up ground. The Devils have been, well, exactly that for the Penguins. Pittsburgh is just 2-7-1 against New Jersey in their last 10 matchups.
But...
That all goes out the window tonight with a rested team, at home, coming off back-to-back wins for the first time in a month. The last time they won three straight was at the end of November when they vaulted themselves back into playoff consideration.
But wait, what happened to the tank?
Turn the artillery around and send them home. Send them all home.
The NHL season is not a sprint. It's an arduous, unforgiving, butt-whooping, slog of a marathon. Few make it out alive, and only one will stumble to the finish line with Lord Stanley waiting patiently at its end.
Sometimes it's not about how fast you run. It's about how long you can maintain running.
Now don't mistake this as me saying the Penguins haven't fallen on their face, broken their collarbone, and punctured a lung at times this season. They have.
But if the 2023-24 season told me anything about the Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins, it's that they're not eliminated until you see the "x" next to their name on ESPN's NHL standings page. Just watch this goal again and tell me there wasn't peak delusion in this moment.
BUNTING ANSWERS WITH HIS THIRD POINT OF THE GAME! 💯 pic.twitter.com/j3ork3gKYM
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 6, 2024
To you, disgruntled Penguins fan, the opportune time to strike has come.
Sidney Crosby has been reinvigorated with a three-game goal streak. Alex Nedeljkovic has finally stabilized the goaltending with the first shutout of the season. And while rumors of fire sales abound, remember that the Penguins somehow got better after Jake Guentzel's exit last season.
Don't ask me how, because I have no idea.
I could try to come up with an oratory to convince you, but the perfect speech has already been crafted.
"It has happened before."