The Pittsburgh Penguins' historic playoff run officially came to an end on Wednesday night after the New York Islanders defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 to clinch the final spot in the Eastern Conference.
Wednesday’s win over the Habs, coupled with Pittsburgh’s loss to the Chicago Blackhawks the previous night, have ended the Penguins 16-year playoff run – which was the longest active playoff streak in major North American professional sports.
"Obviously, we’re all disappointed that we missed an opportunity last night," head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters after practice on Wednesday morning. "And from that standpoint, we’re all human. We all have emotions and we’ve gotta live with those."
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The last time the Penguins missed the postseason was in 2006 – Sidney Crosby’s rookie season. Star forward Evgeni Malkin and veteran defenseman Kris Letang have never missed the playoffs.
According to NHL.com, Pittsburgh has a 103-87 record in the postseason from 2007-2022 and three of those playoff runs have resulted in the Penguins hoisting up the Stanley Cup (2009, 2016, 2017).
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The Penguins suffered a massive blow to their playoff hopes with a 5-2 loss to the Blackhawks on Tuesday night. Instead, their future rested in the hands of the Islanders, who would have secured the wild-card spot with either a win or loss in overtime.
"You knew it was going to come down to the last game or two and we got an opportunity tonight to control our own destiny and it didn’t work out," Crosby told reporters after the game.
Sullivan said Wednesday that he was still hoping to play a "meaningful" game in Columbus when the Penguins close out the regular season against the Blue Jackets.
Now with their season over, the head coach said his lineup for Thursday’s game will "more than likely" be influenced as a result of the Islanders game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
