The playoffs have already begun for Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t in the playoffs.

Except, they are.

In their own reality.

With the absence of having that “x” next to their names in the standings, the Penguins have manufactured a professed desperation that the final four weeks of the regular season will dictate if they will qualify for the postseason.

“This time of year, we have to have a short memory,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said Saturday to media that traveled to New York after a 6-0 road loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. “For all intents and purposes, we’re in the playoffs right now. That’s how we feel. We’re playing with our backs against the wall. We’ve got an opportunity to solidify a playoff spot. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

The Penguins do seem to be a good bet to garner that “x” in the standings, if only because the teams chasing them for the final wild-card seed in the Eastern Conference — the Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators — are just as, if not more, dysfunctional than them.

But the expectations of the Penguins are much higher than simply getting into the playoffs, especially as the final seed in the conference.

“It’s a tight league,” center Sidney Crosby said. “The margin of error is small. A mistake here or there is the difference between being on the right side or the wrong side. We have to make sure we’re better defensively and limit the opportunities that we’re giving up.”

As of late, veteran forward Jeff Carter and defenseman Brian Dumoulin have become the focal point of criticism for the Penguins’ defensive miscues.

On the Rangers’ first goal Saturday, Carter failed to tie up Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad before he scored. Then on the second goal during a power-play sequence for the Rangers, a defensive-zone turnover by Dumoulin led to forward Artemi Panarin scoring.

Sullivan offered a stout defense of each player.

“(Media) like to pick on certain guys,” Sullivan said. “You like to go to them all the time. We respectfully disagree with you on a lot of circumstances. When goals are scored, we look at a lot of the details on the hows and the whys. The reality is it’s more than one person for the most part when goals end up in the back of your net. Those are easy guys to pick on. What I will tell you is all year long, we’ve put them in difficult circumstances. Those guys play against top players in defensive situations all the time.

“It’s not just any one guy. … Are we making some mistakes? Sure. But when you get put in those situations as often as those guys do … there was a stretch of 20 games leading up to the last little while here where they were doing a pretty admirable job in that same circumstance. … It’s never any one guy’s fault when those types of things happen. It’s a team game out there. There’s six guys on the ice, and it’s all of those guys’ responsibility to execute. And we didn’t do it in certain situations.”

What is certain is the first day of the playoffs is scheduled for April 17.

What isn’t certain is if the Penguins will be participants.

“These guys that put the uniform on, they’re proud guys,” Sullivan said. “They care, a lot, about what’s going on here. Nobody feels it more than the players themselves and the coaching staff. We believe in this group, and we believe we have what it takes. We’re going to have to pick ourselves up off the mat, dust ourselves off and get back into the fight.”

Note: The Penguins had a scheduled day off Sunday.