For the Pittsburgh Penguins, this postseason has the chance to be something of a redemption tour. They were largely discounted in the preseason because they seemed to reach peak top-heaviness. Turns out Pittsburgh had one of the most balanced offenses in the League, not just amongst the forwards but with the defensemen chipping in quite a bit as well. In the early part of the season, they were scuffling along, not looking altogether confident, and the injuries to the blueliners started piling up. Then-general manager Jim Rutherford seemed poised to make a move to help shore up the team, but apparently someone above Rutherford’s pay grade didn’t like what he was cooking up and Rutherford departed. By the time he left at the end of January, it seemed like things were in such disarray that there was little hope of coming back from it.

Because I seem to enjoy the whole “this is a weird time to be starting the playoffs” thing, I went back to see when the last time I made a playoffs preview post at what would usually be considered the normal time of year for it. In 2019, my Stanley Cup Playoff preview post was published April 19, so we’re just about a month later than we usually are for the beginning of the playoffs. Well, as they say, better late than never, and considering how close we were to it being “never” last season, I believe we will definitely take it being late for the second season in a row.