The New York Islanders and visiting Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves with little to nothing on the line in Wednesday’s regular-season finale.
The Islanders (38-27-16, 92 points) clinched both a playoff spot and third place in the Metropolitan Division on Monday with a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils. They will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs.
That can’t change regardless of the result of Wednesday’s game.
The Penguins (38-31-12, 88 points) kept their playoff hopes alive with a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday but needed Washington to lose to Philadelphia and Detroit to fall to Montreal on Tuesday to avoid elimination. Instead, both of those teams won tight games, and the Capitals claimed the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
That negated a strong push by Pittsburgh, which was 10 points out of a playoff spot in early March and emotionally hit hard when the team traded away top-line winger Jake Guentzel.
The Penguins have posted an 8-1-2 surge record in their last 11 games.
“Given the position we were in a few weeks ago, I think we would have taken this opportunity,” captain Sidney Crosby said before the team sweated out Tuesday’s results involving other teams. He has nine goals and 14 assists during his last 12 games.
It turned out that push was too little, too late.
“If we play like this all year, probably, we clinch the playoffs,” Penguins center Evgeni Malkin said. “We have great potential here. We know that. But we started a little bit late, probably. But again, it’s fun to play with these guys the last three weeks after the trade deadline.
“We trade (Guentzel), everybody probably said, ‘They have zero chance’ (but) everybody plays amazing.”
It’s unclear how New York will approach Wednesday’s game. While it could serve as a tune-up for the series against the Hurricanes, the team also could opt to use its top players sparingly or even sit out a couple for rest purposes.
It’s possible the Islanders’ heads will be elsewhere, considering their reaction Monday to their drive to get into the postseason. The win against New Jersey gave them an eight-game point streak (7-0-1).
There was relief and talk of resilience after a streaky season when the team — like Pittsburgh — was out of the playoff picture at several junctures and struggling to find consistency.
“The amount of times that we were told we were down and out and toast is probably the most I’ve seen in a year,” New York forward Cal Clutterbuck said. “But we were never down and out.”
That could set up a letdown against Pittsburgh. Then again, New York might be wary of losing its momentum while playing a meaningless regular-season finale.
“The whole goal is to be playing your best hockey at the right time, and we’re putting things together here to continue to build off a foundation that’s putting ourselves in position every night to win,” Islanders winger and captain Anders Lee said.
“I think now you’re seeing that night in and night out, that full 60-minute type hockey game. Whether it’s the power play one night or the penalty kill one night, (goalies Semyon) Varlamov or (Ilya) Sorokin, everyone’s chipping in.”
–Field Level Media
