Penguins eliminated from playoff contention after Capitals clinch final wild-card spot

The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the 2023-24 season with plenty of motivation.

“There’s something to prove, I think, for everybody,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said during a season-ticket event in mid-September.

By mid-April, the only thing that’s been affirmed about the Penguins is that they are not a Stanley Cup contender.

That postulate was validated Tuesday as the Penguins (38-32-11, 88 points) were formally eliminated from postseason contention.

The Washington Capitals (40-31-11, 91 points) secured the final available wild-card seed in the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 road win against the Philadelphia Flyers (38-33-11, 87 points) on Tuesday and ensured the Penguins would miss the postseason for the second season in a row.

Elsewhere, the Detroit Red Wings (41-32-9, 91 points) were eliminated despite a 5-4 shootout road victory against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Capitals got the playoff spot over the Red Wings because of the regulation wins tiebreaker. Washington had 32 to 27 for Detroit.

The wins by the Capitals and Red Wings were both excruciating for Penguins fans. The Flyers, needing a regulation win to stay alive, pulled the goalie with the score tied and Washington’s T.J. Oshie cashed in on an empty net for the winning goal with three minutes left. Detroit, meanwhile, tied Montreal with a goal by former Penguins winger David Perron in the final five seconds of regulation.

The last time the Penguins had two consecutive playoff-free springs came in the 2000s with the 2003-04 and 2005-06 campaigns. There was no 2004-05 season due to the NHL’s lockout.

Franchise pillars such as Crosby, forward Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang — all 30-somethings now — were teenagers at that time.

For the Penguins, a regular season-ending road contest against the New York Islanders on Wednesday has now been rendered inert as it applies to the playoff races.

Regardless of Tuesday’s results, the Penguins vowed to be ready for Wednesday.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves,” goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said after a 4-2 home win against the Nashville Predators on Monday. “We’re going to need help, but we can’t control that. We can’t think about that. We’ve got to just worry about ourselves, take care of our business. Because none of it matters if we don’t come back with the same effort Wednesday night.”

While the Penguins’ demise was made official Tuesday, their fate was largely ensured through no shortage of fatal flaws that led to a surplus of defeats ranging from flustering to frustrating to flummoxing.

Be it Saturday’s 6-4 home loss to the Boston Bruins, or when they surrendered a four-goal lead in a 5-4 overtime road loss to the Colorado Avalanche on March 24, or when they passed the puck into their own net during a 5-2 road loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Jan. 22, or even a 4-2 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the season opener on Oct. 10, there was no deficit of inflection points in which the Penguins proved they were not worthy of the postseason.

“It’s awful, to be honest,” Letang said on March 5 when his team was eight points out of a playoff position. “It was our job from the beginning of the year to put ourselves in a good spot, and we didn’t.”

The Penguins made a valiant but futile surge in the final weeks of the regular season to stay in contention for a postseason spot. Since March 24, they have gone 8-1-3.

“If we could play like this whole year, probably we clinch playoffs,” Malkin said after Monday’s win. “We have great potential here, and we know that. But we (started) a little bit late, probably.”

That was proven Tuesday as the Penguins were formally disqualified from the playoffs, entering a lengthy offseason full of questions for the second consecutive year.

Note: The Penguins canceled a scheduled practice on Tuesday.