Miraculously, Penguins still in the hunt as postseason nears

Sidney Crosby and Marcus Pettersson celebrate a goal at Prudential Center in New Jersey on Tuesday — Photo via GETTY

I figured the Penguins were toast when they placed Jake Guentzel on injured reserve in mid-February. Kyle Dubas basically conceded as much when he dealt Guentzel to the Hurricanes three weeks later.

The stretch that followed featured some of the most disturbing hockey we’ve seen during Mike Sullivan’s time as head coach. The Penguins appeared to be on the fast track to finishing the season as a lottery team.

Heck, it was only a week ago that their odds of qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs had dipped to 1.5%, per MoneyPuck.

Now? Well, these consistently-inconsistent Penguins are back in the hunt for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after a five-goal, third-period outburst to beat the Devils in New Jersey on Tuesday night.

They are currently three standings points out of the second wild-card spot with seven games to go, and their odds of making the postseason have improved to 15.2%.

Those odds remain daunting, but with three of the Penguins’ final seven games of the season coming against teams they are trailing in the race (Capitals, Red Wings, Islanders), it’s possible that things will get really interesting in a hurry.