Penguins face playoff bar set higher than ever

The NHL season is a six-month, 82-game marathon. Using history as a guide, the Pittsburgh Penguins probably should have crossed the finished line already.

The Penguins came into a home game against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night with 97 points in the standings, needing to secure two more over the final two games — or have Montreal or Columbus fail to secure two more — to clinch a playoff spot for the 13th consecutive season.

In all 12 of those previous playoff seasons, the Penguins’ 97-point total would have been good enough to qualify.

Since the NHL started handing out one point for overtime or shootout losses in 2005-06, the most points a team has finished with and still missed the playoffs is 96. The Florida Panthers did it last season, and the Boston Bruins did it in 2014-15.

“It’s a tough league, especially if you look at our division,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “All the teams have been winning. No game is easy in this league. It’s been a battle all the way. It’s been fun.”

Pettersson is right about the Metropolitan Division being tough. It’s the only division in the league with five teams that have cracked the 90-point mark.

More broadly, the Eastern Conference is tougher than the Western Conference.

The Penguins’ 97-point total would be good enough for first place in the Central Division. Montreal and Columbus came into Thursday tied for the eighth spot in the East with 94 points. That’s six points more than Colorado, which holds the eighth position in the West.

Veteran center Matt Cullen said the Penguins need to keep their point total in perspective. They should celebrate the fact that they’re among the top teams in the league since the trade deadline with an 11-4-3 record while still acknowledging there’s work left to be done.

“When you look at the numbers, that’s a lot. It’s a lot of points,” Cullen said. “I think it shows, No. 1, how even and how good our division is. I think that it’s a good number. We’ve earned that. We’ve played some good hockey, and we’ve played our best hockey here down the stretch.

“For us, yeah, you look at the number and you say, ‘Yeah, we should have a spot locked up,’ but you can’t get too caught up in that. It’s about focusing on your game and keep doing what you’re doing. We’ve just got to bring our best game. This is a team that seems to find its best hockey when we’ve needed it the most.”