This is What It Will Take For the Pens to Get Through the Playoffs

PHOTOS BY KRISTY GRAVER

A loss to the Bruins this week was nothing for the Penguins to fret about, but if they didn’t leave Boston with perspective in lieu of points earned in the standings they did themselves a disservice.

And, maybe, made a fatal mistake.

The Pens had been on a roll in advance of their visit to Boston on Tuesday night, and were coming off perhaps their most complete game of the season on Sunday (a 5-0 suffocation of Las Vegas). But the Bruins, too, had been on fire of late and had won 10 consecutive games on home ice.

So Bruins 2, Penguins 1 was neither a surprise nor a devastating blow to the Penguins’ playoff hopes; it’s the manner in which the game was lost that’s destined to resonate, one way or the other.

The Pens scored first, as has been their habit, and this time they did so just 42 seconds into the game. By the time that happened, they had already surrendered a couple of glorious scoring chances, and they would continue to do so once the puck was fished out of the Boston net.

By the 6:00 mark of the first period it was 2-1, Bruins; Pens head coach Dan Muse had seen enough. Muse opted to call his one and only timeout with 54 minutes left in regulation because the Penguins needed a wake-up call.

They weren’t playing. They weren’t competing. They weren’t winning puck battles in the corners or paying proper attention to coverage responsibilities. They weren’t moving their feet, not nearly with the necessary consistency, at least.

They, too, were getting some looks — but they weren’t playing playoff hockey. And that’s what it’s going to take much more often than not the rest of the way to finish the job and actually qualify for the playoffs.

Muse knows that, apparently, which is why he wasn’t willing to write off the start on Tuesday night as one of those nights.

Such lapses, be they early, late or in the middle of the second period, can dictate games the rest of the way. Which is why they need to be avoided at all cost, especially as long as the Penguins are playing without Sidney Crosby.

SIDNEY CROSBY | PHOTO COURTESY PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Even when Crosby returns from his injury, the Penguins aren’t going to be able to rely on star power, or Crosby’s aura, to get them over the finish line.

They’re going to have to respect the demands of the game at this stage of the season and respect what, for the most part, will be a succession of opponents that are either desperate, determined or both. This starts March 5 against Buffalo and continues throughout the remainder of the campaign as long as there are games to play.

They’re going to have to respond accordingly.

It’s been a while since the Pens have played in the postseason, individually and/or collectively. Tuesday night was a refresher course in what it’ll take to get there, and if and when they arrive.

It was a reminder about how nothing can be taken for granted. About how every dump-in matters, every back-check, every net-front battle, every check delivered and every hit taken to make a play.

It’s that way because now that the road is narrowing, and the games are becoming tighter, plays that would have been considered inconsequential in November have the potential not only to decide games but also the season’s fate.

Every shift is that big of a deal all of a sudden. No one can exhale. No one can coast, even for a moment.

The Pens are good enough to see this through, but not if they aren’t consistently as good as they can be for as long as they have to be as the degree of difficulty continues to ratchet up.

It’s a test of will as well as skill from here on out. Hitting snooze when the puck drops is no longer an option, nor is letting up for even an instant before the clock hits triple-zeroes.

The Penguins have met plenty of challenges to position themselves to achieve something special this season — but their most daunting ones are yet to come.