The Washington Capitals enter tonight controlling their destiny. Win in Philadelphia and they have punched their ticket to the postseason and a Round 1 matchup with the New York Rangers. If the Capitals pull this off, you have to tip their hat to them. Caps lose to Buffalo Thursday night, then take out Tampa Bay Saturday night with a convincing win and they just dominated the Boston Bruins Monday night, who were playing for the division title and who had made the Penguins look like an AHL team defensively on Saturday night. It was a flawless defensive performance where the Capitals were swarmi ..read more

Bruins (46-18-15, 107 pts) @ Penguins (37-30-12, 86 pts) 3 Games to Go: Another huge night for the Penguins where there’s about a 50% swing for their playoff odds between a regulation win and a regulation loss: A regulation or OT win would see Pittsburgh’s playoff percentages jump all the way up to 78%, while a regulation loss would plummet to around 35%. Pittsburgh’s edge with Regulation Wins tiebreaker remains significant where gaining even a point in an Overtime or shootout loss would keep Pittsburgh’s playoff odds above 60% with two games to go. For the Bruins there’s also a lot on the lin ..read more

An improbable run has the Pittsburgh Penguins leading the second wild card spot by one point and controlling their destiny with three games to go. Will they pull this off or was squandering a chance to bury the Detroit Red Wings in regulation with a two-goal lead going to come back to haunt them? The synopsis of Pittsburgh’s 6-5 overtime win vs the Red Wings is despite all the flaws with this hockey club, the Penguins once again found a way to get two points and get back to controlling their destiny as things went the Penguins way on the scoreboard with the Capitals losing in Buffalo 4-2. Pitt ..read more

A 2-1 Capitals win over the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday Night that saw Alex Ovechkin hit the 30-goal plateau for the 18th time, has the Capitals back in position to control their own destiny, yet, was Washington winning in regulation still a better outcome for the Penguins despite the math? With four games remaining Washington’s max points total is 93 points, Pittsburgh and Detroit at 92 Points. Remaining Four games: Capitals @ Buf, vs TBL, vs Bos, @ Phi Penguins vs DET, vs Bos, vs Nas, @ Nyi Red Wings @ PIT, @ Tor, vs MTL, @ MTL There is no evidence the Capitals have a 4-0 finish run in them. B ..read more

Stunning, Fascinating, chalk it up however you want in what’s playing out with the Pittsburgh Penguins over the last week or so. After last Saturday’s shootout loss vs the Columbus Blue Jackets, there was still a gloom and doom feeling around this team. They had a massive challenge ahead with a daunting five game stretch in seven days and still needing a ton of luck with everything bouncing their way to be in the discussion for a playoff spot. A week later almost everything has bounced their way and it pretty much continued Saturday night, minus the New York Islanders winning. On a 6-0-2 run ..read more

The bounces just keep going the Penguins way……. Friday Night every team the Penguins needed to lose, lost in regulation. Friday Scoreboard: BUF 4 – PHI 2 | CAR 4 – WSH 2 | NYR 4 – DET 3 Philadelphia continues to get the worst goaltending in the NHL since January lost 4-2 to Buffalo and have dropped six straight. Washington on the road in Carolina jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Alex Ovechkin. It was short lived. Carolina would score four unanswered goals and cruise to a 4-2 win as Jake Guentzel had a big night in the Hurricanes comeback win with 2 goals, 1 assist. Washington is now flou ..read more

The Pittsburgh Penguins in a normal year have little reason to be looked at as a true playoff team. Neither do four or five other teams still in the mix. So why not join the party? Pittsburgh’s 4-0-2 run has given them life to go with a lot of help in the standings and is everything falling into place for a stunning end of the season run? Something about that Tuesday night’s win where Pittsburgh was so badly outplayed for the first two periods, yet they stormed back with five unanswered goals, has to make you think if just maybe the Penguins are destined for the playoffs? They suddenly have a ..read more

The Penguins’ brass is said to be operating (Will State of Today) with the belief that head coach Mike Sullivan does not have wondering eye for greener pastures and the organization would be stunned if he came to them looking for a mutual parting after the season. With nine games remaining in the regular season, those close to the situation have been given no heads up that something is coming. Pittsburgh behind the scenes is operating into April, business as usual in that Sullivan is onboard with the next phase of a retool. Next season Sullivan enters the start of a three-year contract worth a ..read more

The Penguins 4-3 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night was another microcosm of the 2023-2024 Pittsburgh Penguins. In the loss Pittsburgh allowed a shorthanded goal off a Kris Letang gaffe in the first period and things unraveled quickly in the third period when holding a multi-goal lead for a mere couple seconds At 8:59 of the third, Rickard Rakell gives Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead off a great individual 1-on-1 goal, something that was reminiscent of ‘Last Season’ Rakell. Nine seconds later Kirill Marchenko makes it a 3-2 game and it was just a matter of time before it was a tie ..read more

21-3-2 vs Blue Jackets since February 2017 Until the Penguins are mathematically out of things, from actions with the lineup on a nightly basis to everything you hear out of the organization is going to continue to be about trying to claw back in the wildcard race. Even the lure of securing a Top-10 pick and holding onto their 2024 First-Rounder hasn’t seen management ready to embrace losing as Kyle Dubas on radio and on his weekly GM show was touting a big week ahead with the home and home series and into next week where the Penguins could get back into the race. Following a 3-2 win over the ..read more