Tim Benz: For Penguins, it's minimum expectations vs. maximum anticipation

Kris Letang summed it up perfectly.

The Penguins defenseman was answering questions just a few minutes after the club secured a playoff berth. His team had just beaten the Red Wings, 4-1, Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena to clinch a spot.

This is the 13th year in a row the organization has accomplished that feat.

It was hard to do it this year. The Penguins didn’t secure a bid in the playoffs until Game 81. They finished third in the Metropolitan Division and ended up just four points clear of missing the playoffs.

So when Letang was asked what it meant to make the playoff bracket yet again, his emotions were flat.

“I don’t expect less than that,” Letang said. “The roster we put out every year, we should be in the playoffs every year. The expectation is high in the dressing room. It’s not going to be any different (this year).”

Letang wasn’t alone in that assessment.

“When we play the game the right way, I think we can compete with any team in the league,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We have difference-makers through our lineup. We have depth at all of our positions. We have outstanding goaltending. I believe this is a group capable of great things.”

Even a guy such as Jack Johnson, who hasn’t been in Pittsburgh a full calendar year, gets that vibe.

“The bare minimum expectation here is to make the playoffs,” Johnson said. “Even during those times early in the year (when the team struggled), we had a lot of confidence that we’d get to this point.”

All those quotes are accurate. Any team that boasts a top defensive pair of Letang and Brian Dumoulin; high-scoring forwards such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Jake Guentzel; and a two-time Stanley Cup-winning goalie in Matt Murray should be minimally expected to make the playoffs.

Failing to do so would’ve been a massive disappointment.

In fact, I’ll take it one step further. Winning at least one round should be the minimum expectation.

Make it two steps further. The minimum expectation should be to beat anyone in the playoffs not from Washington or Tampa Bay.

OK. Boston, too. Maybe. That’d be a toss-up.

The problem for the Penguins is, they’ll almost definitely get the Capitals in the second round and probably Tampa (or Boston) in the conference finals.

Johnson pushed the envelope to the edge anyway.

“The expectation here is to win the Stanley Cup,” he said.

I’ll stop short of that. I’m going to draw a much thicker line between “minimum expectation” and “maximum anticipation.”

Is it fair to anticipate the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup? Sure it is. They’ve done so twice in the last three years.

Because of the talent on the Penguins roster, Pittsburgh hockey fans have every right to think their players are capable of winning a third in four tries.

But to expect it?

No. Not this year. Not with a monster like the Lightning — and their record-tying 62 wins — lurking in the Atlantic Division. Not with a fourth consecutive matchup possibly coming against the Capitals, who finally exorcised their Penguins demons last year.

Is it possible for Penguins to slay those two dragons back-to-back? Yes. They are that good and that battle tested. But that’s a different kind of “expectation” than the one Letang referenced.

“It’s a high standard. It’s high expectations, but I think we’re used to that,” Crosby said. “The fact that you have experience or that you’ve done it before doesn’t guarantee it for the next time.

“Having to get better as a group and come up with big plays and big games from everybody, that doesn’t ever change. But it doesn’t guarantee anything.”

This is the nexus of the discussion as the Penguins hit the playoffs. It’s the belief the fans should have in their team because of the talent on paper plus the “been there, done that” DNA in those names vs. the reality that they’ll probably be the lesser-seeded team in every round they play in this postseason.

That includes Round 1 against the Islanders, which starts on the road Wednesday.

“You get in that dance, it’s up for grabs for everybody,” Letang said. “Everybody has the same chances. I don’t think teams go in there and say, ‘We’ll just do one round and be happy.’”

I’ll disagree with Letang on this one. There’s no way the Avalanche and Stars have the same chances as the Lightning and Caps. But I get his broader point: So long as you are alive, you have a shot.

Certainly, the chances in Pittsburgh are better than most.

Expecting hockey into early May is definitely fair. Anticipating it in early June may not be.

But at least these Penguins have been good at blurring those lines for the last thirteen seasons.