Like the Pittsburgh Penguins seem content with lately, I’m not going to put a whole lot of energy into this Gameday. Six games remain on the regular season schedule, three more without Evgeni Malkin, and all we can do at this point is hope no one else gets injured or sick.

If the Penguins secure one point tonight, they’ll have clinched their playoff spot, and that’s all that anyone seems to care very much about right now, as though the supposed clean slate of the postseason will bring about the necessary improvements in focus and performance that Pittsburgh needs in order to have an honest chance at a serious playoff run.

I sincerely hope it’s as simple as that and it’ll be like flipping a switch…but the team has played so poorly of late that all of my cynicism has returned, wiping out all the positivity that they engendered back when they were winning ten games in a row.

The finish line is just around the corner. Just…try not to smack your face into the pavement when you fall across it, please?

Editor’s Note: It’s also possible that the boys are experiencing the collective shits, quite literally, and that may be affecting their performance. I dunno about you, but when my guts are heaving, I tend not to stay well focused at work. So maybe they ARE working very hard… at not shitting themselves every time they go over the boards.