Rachel Schaffner – Staff Writer

rls6117@psu.edu

Having a great season opener against the Arizona Coyotes and Tampa Bay Lightnings, the Pittsburgh Penguins claimed the first place position for several weeks at the start of the 22-23 season. While it has been a month since the NHL regular season started, things are still too early to tell if the Penguins, or any team in the NHL, is worthy of being in the Playoffs. However, NHL’s official Instagram posts around the closing of the regular season, around February or March, is a ‘what-if’ post. Saying ‘What if the post-season started now?’ and they would show the top four teams that were in a current position to be put in the playoffs. That asks the question here: what if the playoffs started now?

To ask such a question now is not ideal since it has only been a month since the start of the season. The teams have not even gone through the trades that take place around this time or even later in the season. Trades are necessary for the teams as it is a way to bring other experienced players onto the roster to give teams a boost they need to keep up the winning streak that teams need to have a chance at putting them in a playoff worthy position. However, not everyone on the roster is up for grabs, especially star players like Sidney Crosby. Only players who possibly have a low level contract are up for trading. 

Currently, with their seventh place standing in the Metropolitan division, some could say that the Penguins have underperformed when it comes to looking at how they were at the very beginning of the season. Winning against possibly one of the best teams in the league, being the Tampa Bay Lightnings, fans of the Pens had some hope going into this season. 

As for myself, I was one of those fans who had high hopes when they won two games with six goals. With their six loss streak and them plummeting from the top position to almost the bottom, people might start thinking that the Pens are slipping over themselves. For myself, I think while there is still much time to think about the playoffs, all the teams, especially the Penguins, have a long road ahead of them before they are ready to even think of playing in the playoffs. 

While I am a fan of the Penguins and was raised in a household where hockey runs deep within our blood, I still have my doubts when it comes to the Penguins claiming a sixth Stanley Cup. They have not been able to even reach the finals bracket since their back-to-back wins in the 15-16 and 16-17 playoffs, the Penguins have struggled against the other teams since.

Looking back at the most recent playoffs, the 21-22 postseason, the Penguins did not make it to the second round, losing to the New York Islanders. Looking further back to the year where the Pens attempted for a three-peat, they lost in the second round in 2018 to their biggest rival: the Washington Capitals. It was a running joke within the Pens fanbase where the Washington Capitals always lost in the second round of the playoffs, however, the Capitals broke that curse and won their first ever Stanley Cup that year. 

That following year, 2019, Pittsburgh failed to get to the second round and lost to the New York Islanders. The 2020 postseason was a bit of an odd one since it was abruptly stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They had a qualifying round followed by the first round. Pittsburgh then could not make it past the qualifiers, losing to Montreal. 

Maybe the Washington Capitals put the curse on the Pittsburgh Penguins, making them unable to get past the first round of the playoffs. If that is the case, let us hope that this season they can remove this curse and reach farther than the playoffs. I am hoping that is the case because I would like to see the Pittsburgh Penguins raise not only another banner in PPG Paints Arena, but raise a sixth Stanley Cup.