Shea-ved Ice: Lack Of Belief Costing Penguins During Stretch Run
With two games left in the regular season, the Pittsburgh Penguins still control their own playoff destiny.
They squandered a chance to lock up a spot in the playoffs on Tuesday against Ottawa. However, obtaining any combination of two points against the Islanders and Sabres will get the Pens in the postseason.
That opportunity may seem remarkable, especially considering their 3-5-2 slide over the last 10 games, playing sub .500 hockey since Christmas and holding a dismal 9-16-4 record against the Metropolitan Division.
That's not even figuring in the long list of injuries and illnesses the team has dealt with all year. The injury situation is even more apparent now, considering their cap situation and inability to call up players.
If someone ever says wins in October and November don't matter, show them this body of work from the 2014-15 Pittsburgh Penguins.
Many things have been written over the past few weeks about what's wrong with the Penguins. Is it Mike Johnston? His staff? Jim Rutherford? The players? Injuries? Fatigue?
Picking one of those is an impossible rabbit hole. On some level, they all connect.
To me, the end result of those factors is that this team simply doesn't believe it can beat anyone.
Take Tuesday's debacle against the Senators for example. A win in regulation would have locked up a playoff spot for the Penguins.
Things looked good as Sidney Crosby put the Pens up 1-0 just 10 seconds into the contest. Beau Bennett emerged with his first goal in 31 games and Patric Hornqvist tacked on another for good measure to put the Pens up 3-0 after 20 minutes.
That's generally a pretty good position to be in, right?
All it took was a bad bounce off of Derrick Pouliot's skate to completely unravel the Penguins.
That bounce and resulting shorthanded goal, did two things.
First, it planted a seed of doubt in the Penguins' mind.
Second, it gave the Senators a renewed sense of belief.
The Senators have been a team high on belief during their remarkable run to get back into playoff contention. (As of this writing, they hold the first Wild Card spot and a one-point edge on the Pens.)
Over the final 40 minutes of the game, the Senators outshot the Penguins 37-16. They held the Penguins to just three shots in the third period and none in overtime.
Marc-Andre Fleury turned in a 40-save, stellar performance and lost. Far too often lately, Fleury has been on the losing end of things, despite being arguably the best player on the ice in black and gold.
If anyone should be irate, it's him. In spite of all his critics - for recent playoff woes that aren't entirely his fault - he's stepped up this season and been a rock between the pipes.
Right now, the Penguins are simply wasting his best efforts. Without Fleury, this team is out of playoff contention. Period.
Now, some of the players are even admitting confidence is lacking in the locker room.
According to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article, Rob Scuderi said the team has been "fragile" for a couple of weeks.
The same article quotes Brandon Sutter as saying, "It seems like a couple of bad breaks is all it takes to get us off our game."
Do those quotes paint the picture of a confident team? Does it sound like this teams believes they can win?
At least Sidney Crosby is saying the right things amid the tailspin.
"We've got to wipe this one away. We've got two games left here to earn the right to play in the playoffs. It's up to us now, but we've got to forget this one pretty quick," Crosby said.
Saying it is one thing, doing it is another thing entirely and time is running out.
It's time for the Penguins to start believing in themselves again, despite all the outside factors and pressure. The next two days are their season.
If ever there was a time to come together and use the "us against the world" mentality, it's now.
If they don't, it could make for another tumultuous summer.
You can follow Casey Shea on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sheavedice
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