Under different circumstances, I would say “kudos” to the Pittsburgh Penguins for their fortitude in pulling themselves back into Tuesday’s game against the New York Islanders, in which they were down 3-1 to their Metropolitan Division rivals beyond the halfway point in the game. The Penguins are desperately trying to hang on to their playoff hopes, needing all the points they can scrounge, particularly against a team they are trying to drag down and hopefully behind them in the standings. It might have been commendable for Pittsburgh to draw the game even at 4 thanks to goals and points from the unusual suspects like Marcus Pettersson, Lars Eller, Valtteri Puustinen, and Drew O’Connor. But if they want to actually make the playoffs, they need to win games, ideally in regulation, especially against a team ahead of them in the standings. They failed to do so, instead seeing Adam Pelech score his first goal of the season and give the Islanders a 5-4 victory. It was the Penguins’ eighth one-goal loss since January 11. They went 0-for-3 on the power play.

I’m writing this before general manager Kyle Dubas’ press conference yesterday, so something could be different by the time you read this. (Odds are good that, if something did happen, this paragraph will be different too!) But considering that he’s waited this long to do anything, why would any of us expect anything to change? Mike Sullivan’s not getting fired, nor is Todd Reirden. Maybe some trades will happen between now and the March 8 trade deadline, but Dubas seemingly can’t decide if he’s going to buy or sell. If he’s going to buy, he should have done so weeks ago. If he’s going to sell, again I’m guessing he’ll wait until the deadline to see if maybe the team’s fortunes will change on their own. With the way things are going, the Penguins will win the next eight games, Dubas will decide to buy at the deadline, and then Pittsburgh will resume their season-long struggles to compete and miss the playoffs by one point. (#pessimismblog)

I haven’t felt much like observing the Penguins’ opponents lately because it doesn’t seem to matter who they play. Whether or not they win depends mainly on themselves and not who they’re playing. That said, Pittsburgh has the chance to sweep the Montreal Canadiens in a season series for the first time since 2018. The Canadiens are a bad team and playing the second night of a double-header (playing Buffalo last night), so there’s some hope for something positive, and that’s all the positivity that there’s room for right now when it comes to the Pittsburgh Penguins.