Any team getting eliminated always leaves a sour taste in the mouths of that team's fans. However, this elimination may be a little different for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Following a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens and a consequential elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Penguins have a lot of reevaluation to do heading into the 2020-2021 season.
For how good the Stanley Cup teams of 2016 and 2017 were (32-17 record), that is how bad the postseason Penguins have been since then.
In 2018, following a 4-2 conference quarterfinal series victory over the Philadelphia Flyers and a conference semifinal series deadlocked at 2-2 with the Washington Capitals, the Penguins have one just one game, while losing nine.
The Capitals would go onto defeat the Penguins en route to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history, and that was fine. The Penguins had played into mid-June each of the prior two summers and had nothing to be disappointed about.
But 2019 and 2020 have produced lackluster, even miserable, results.
Granted, the 2019 New York Islanders were better than the Penguins, as proven by their series sweep, but no one expected the series to play out that way. Heck, the Penguins only scored six goals in four games. You can't win a series by scoring six goals, and the Penguins couldn't even win a single game.
Now come back to this year. The Penguins earned the Eastern Conference's fifth seed and were supposed to be rewarded by playing the worst team in the entire tournament, the Montreal Canadiens.
To give you an idea of how bad the Canadiens were, here's some context.
They suffered two separate losing streaks of eight games each. Of their four meetings with the horrendous Detroit Red Wings (who finished the season with a 17-49-5 record and just 39 points), the Canadiens lost all four games.
Nonetheless, they finished the regular season 31-31-9 and were able to sneak in, finishing just three points ahead of the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils.
Despite the final seeding, the Penguins were horrendous prior to the four-month stoppage. In late February, Pittsburgh suffered a six-game losing streak, which included losses to the Sabres, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks, all of whom missed the playoffs.
The Penguins bounced back for three March wins over the Ottawa Senators, Sabres and Devils (all non-playoff teams), but sandwiched in between those victories were two embarrassing home defeats at the hands of the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes.
It felt like the Penguins expected to cakewalk in this series. And they deserved to lose because of that. Their stars were non-existent. The defense was too sloppy, and Montreal just had more heart.
But let's be real, the Penguins losing spares the fanbase having to see the team get even more thoroughly dominated by a quicker, more physical opponent like the Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning or Philadelphia Flyers.
Also, now the Penguins may have a 12.5% shot at getting the first overall selection in the 2020 NHL Draft, giving them the chance to draft generational talent Alexis Lafreniere. Lafreniere, who played for Rimouski in the QMJHL (same team as Sidney Crosby), would quickly speed up an inevitable retooling/rebuild for the franchise.
So, yes, Penguins fans have every right to be embarrassed and upset. But hopefully this early exit will give the upper management a head start in assessing what needs to be done to correct this season's shortcomings.
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