Although it was likely a meaningless victory in the grand scheme of things, the Pittsburgh Penguins nevertheless found their first win against a likely playoff team for the first time in a month with their 4-1 win over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes. Buoyed by a three-point night by captain Sidney Crosby, they also got a goal from their third line that will hopefully be the forbearer of things to come next season. Jesse Puljujärvi hopped off the bench to follow the rush into the offensive zone, and within three seconds he got possession of the puck and wristed it between the pinching Ryan Graves’ legs and into the top corner past Hurricanes net minder Pyotr Kochetkov to start the scoring in the beginning of the second period. Puljujärvi’s goal came against the tide as Carolina spent much of the night heavily out-chancing his line with Lars Eller and Valtteri Puustinen, but what ends up mattering is what the results are in the box score, and only an unassisted goal by Dmitry Orlov stood as the lone blemish on what was otherwise Pittsburgh’s first good game in some time.

A night to remember for VladdyDaddy and Son…
6th birthday, 1st game a Penguin victory…
and BRIAN RUST’s game stick!

The Penguins are effectively out of the playoff race – there’s one less spot to fight for with the New York Rangers clinching a playoff spot on Tuesday – and now the focus seems to be to find out what Pittsburgh has in the depths of their organization. With the attrition to the bottom six of late, Puljujärvi, Puustinen, as well as Jonathan Gruden and Sam Poulin will all get extended opportunities to show that they may belong in western Pennsylvania as opposed to northeastern next season. Over the last several years, head coach Mike Sullivan has not been too keen to give ice time to younger players, but depending on the health of the regulars he may have no choice, and frankly with the postseason almost completely out of reach there’s no good reason not to give those players a chance now. Unless there’s a stunning reversal from general manager Kyle Dubas, Sullivan will be the Penguins’ head coach again next season, and, with the exception of Puljujärvi (who is signed through next season), many of those young guys will possibly find themselves given relatively cheap extensions to fill in the bottom six again next season. The players and the coach should get used to each other now and over the remaining few weeks of the regular season.

Tonight Pittsburgh hosts the only other team in the Metropolitan Division that is worse than them (and by quite a ways), the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Columbus will return the favor Saturday evening. In light of the rumors that the NHL is considering expanding its ranks over the next few years, the Blue Jackets serve as a cautionary tale of how expansion hasn’t created 100% parity in the League. Currently on pace for their fifth-worst season all time, they are already effectively locked into the fifteenth losing season in their twenty-three years of existence. I don’t know how a team can be so bad for so many years and not inevitably get better because of high-value draft picks, but Columbus has that shit figured out. Part of the problem has been whiffing on picks (Ryan Murray, Alex Wennberg), but another part is trading away decent players who probably refused to extend with them because the Blue Jackets are consistently bad (Pierre-Luc Dubois, Ryan Johansen, Sonny Milano, going further back Jakub Voracek and Derick Brassard). They have yet to draft a surefire franchise cornerstone who can bring excitement to the team and give players a reason to stick around.

Three of the Blue Jackets’ best players have been sidelined for weeks if not months. Patrik Laine, who has struggled with health and personal problems over the past several years, has been out indefinitely since going on the Player Assistance Program in December. Their third overall pick this past summer, Adam Fantiilli, has been out since January with a leg laceration. Kent Johnson, taken fifth overall in 2021, is likely done for the season after being put on injured reserve at the end of January. A bevy of other players have come out of the lineup over the past few weeks with health problems as well. It’s all adding up to another very bad season for Columbus, and they will head into the offseason looking to start all over again with a new general manager after firing Jarmo Kekalainen in February and another high-value draft pick that they can only hope will help them turn things around in the next few years.