Sweet Sixteen: Penguins' postseason streak now the longest active in North American sports
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Pittsburgh Penguins postseason streak is now the longest active streak in North American professional sports.
With the team's 6-3 victory over the Islanders on Thursday night, the Pens punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 16th consecutive season.
Putting the streak in perspective, it's the longest active streak in the National Hockey League by far.
Closest to the Penguins are the Capitals who will more than likely make their eighth straight postseason appearance and the Nashville Predators who also are likely to make an eighth straight appearance, as well.
While the streak is not the longest in NHL history, it's tied for eighth with the Atlanta/Calgary Flames.
Since the streak began, the Penguins have risen to one of the top franchises in the NHL.
The Penguins have won 100 playoff games, with only Boston close behind at 90.
Of course, leading the charge for the Penguins is the "two-headed monster" of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Crosby has scored 191 points and Malkin 174 in the postseason.
These past 16 postseasons have seen just about everything a fanbase and a franchise can: three championships, four appearances in the Stanley Cup Final, two different home arenas - that's right the streak started at the Civic Arena - and even a postseason without the franchise's two icons, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
In the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the team was without the duo as Crosby was battling a concussion and Evgeni Malkin was rehabbing from knee surgery.
That year, the team pushed the Tampa Bay Lightning to seven games, but ultimately lost game seven, 1-0.
The Penguins made the playoffs for the first time in the Crosby-Malkin era in 2007 when they took on the Ottawa Senators but were quickly dispatched in five games.
The young Penguins took losing as a lesson as the very next year, they would storm through the Eastern Conference, sweeping the Senators in a first-round rematch, then dispatching the Rangers and Flyers both in just five games.
However, their magical ride would end at the Civic Arena in game six of the Stanley Cup Final when the Detroit Red Wings would capture the Stanley Cup over the Penguins.
Again, the Penguins took the loss as a lesson and returned to the postseason in 2009, beating the Flyers, Capitals, and Hurricanes en route to a Stanley Cup Final rematch with Detroit.
The Penguins flipped the script this time, winning game six on home ice to force game seven.
It was on June 12, 2009, that the Pittsburgh Penguins would win the franchise's third Stanley Cup, defeating the Red Wings in Detroit 2-1.
After the championship, it would take the Penguins seven years to return to the Stanley Cup Final, coming closest in 2013 when they were ultimately swept by the Boston Bruins in the conference final.
With doubts swirling around the team's core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Marc-Andre Fleury, in 2016, the quartet would silence those questioning if they could ever win the Stanley Cup again with back-to-back championships.
The Penguins caught fire down the stretch of the 2015-16 season, clinching a playoff spot and then never looking back.
Throughout the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Pens defeated the Rangers, Capitals, and Lightning, setting up a date with the San Jose Sharks.
It was exactly seven years to the day, June 12, 2016, that Sidney Crosby once again picked up the Stanley Cup as the Penguins' captain when they defeated the Sharks in game six in California.
The team defended its championship the very next year, bringing back a largely unchanged roster, the Penguins were able to defeat the Blue Jackets, Capitals, Senators, and Predators, becoming the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-1998 to win back-to-back Stanley Cups and the first team in the NHL's salary cap era to accomplish the feat.
Since the back-to-back championships, the team has only been out of the first round once, and that was in 2018 when they lost to the Capitals in the second round.
The Penguins have lost in the first round to the Islanders two of the last three postseasons.