Mark Madden: Penguins no longer an elite team, have to realize nothing is guaranteed

The Pittsburgh Penguins need to understand what they are. They are underdogs. They have been for quite some time.

Yes, you can be an underdog with Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. The evidence is plentiful, not least finishing 10th in a terrible conference with 38 wins and 44 losses to miss the playoffs for a second straight time.

President of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas is inscrutable. I know what he says but not sure what he really thinks. This offseason will be revealing.

I’m not sure what owners FSG want. (FSG would definitely like to sell 97.4% of the tickets again next season.)

But the Penguins don’t see themselves as they are. They are underdogs. Not elite. No longer in the class of the NHL’s top teams.

Because they deny themselves that perspective, things happen that shouldn’t.

You need laser focus when you’re an underdog. You need to think ways to finagle yourself past teams that are better than you.

You can’t outskate New Jersey. The Devils are faster.

You can’t pinch willy-nilly against Edmonton. The Oilers will crush you with odd-man breaks.

If you’re up 4-0 against Colorado, or anybody, keeping the opponent at zero is more important than scoring a fifth.

You can’t play how you prefer if it won’t work … and it isn’t working, not often enough.

You need to consider score, situation and foe.

You also have to approach games like every point counts. Because the last two seasons, every point did.

That invokes two crucial junctures en route to the Penguins missing the playoffs.

No, not honoring Jeff Carter after the season finale at the New York Islanders. That was irritating because you shouldn’t have an on-ice celebration after wrapping a campaign where you failed to make the playoffs.

But Carter had a good career, even if I’ll never see him as a Penguin. He’s a Philadelphia Flyer or a Los Angeles King.

That was overwrought but did no harm.

But the period surrounding Jake Guentzel being traded to Carolina was embarrassing. It did considerable damage.

The Penguins went 1-7 in the games on either side of that swap and appeared to need group therapy, Kleenex in bulk or at least a chorus of “Kumbaya.” Lars Eller wasn’t specific but seemed to note his frustration with that silliness when he spoke to the media Thursday.

You like Guentzel. We get it. But be pros. Players get traded all the time.

As a member of the ’91 and ’92 Stanley Cup champions noted to me, “We traded (Hall of Famers Mark Recchi and Paul Coffey) in ’92. It’s hockey.”

The Penguins then won a second straight Cup, doubtless helped by nobody getting overly sentimental.

The locker room was reportedly mad because management appeared to be giving up on the season. So, for several weeks, the locker room gave up on the season and, ultimately, ruined it.

The Penguins beat Seattle, 3-0, at home Jan. 15. Their next game was Jan. 20 at Las Vegas.

The Penguins went to Las Vegas four days early. They did so to party. Under the guise of the annual rookie dinner, to be sure.

But that’s just one night. The Penguins were in Vegas for five. Hardened alcoholics have trouble surviving five nights in Vegas. That itinerary might kill Nicolas Cage.

One practice got canceled. Erik Karlsson missed the next day’s practice. I wonder why.

The Penguins blew a 2-0 third-period lead at Vegas, losing 3-2. They wore out. I wonder why.

Two days later, they lost 5-2 at rotten Arizona, with Malkin and Letang conspiring to score a bizarre own-goal during a delayed penalty.

Thus concluded the road trip. (They also lost the next game, 3-2 at home to Florida.) But everybody had fun in Vegas.

You’re going to Vegas to win a hockey game. Not make a National Lampoon movie.

The Penguins missed the playoffs by three points.

You can blame the power play. You can blame failure in three-on-three overtime. There’s a lot to point fingers at.

But the informal players’ strike over the Guentzel trade and the shenanigans in Las Vegas can’t be ignored.

Powerhouse teams can indulge stuff like that. But the ’91 and ’92 Penguins teams were exactly that, and they didn’t.

They got better after Recchi and Coffey were traded. Heck, John Cullen got traded at the deadline in ’91. He was immensely popular in the room and finished that season with 110 points.

The NHL didn’t have a team in Vegas then, though. I would like to have seen that group in Vegas.

Every point counts. These Penguins were guaranteed nothing and won’t be next year, either.

Here’s hoping, at long last, they realize that. (They won’t.)

Here’s hoping, at long last, they have Crosby run the power play from the right half-wall. (They won’t.)