The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Calgary Flames played a grueling game on Wednesday night reminiscent of what the Penguins will have to play night in and night out come the post season. It was a game that Marc-Andre Fleury stole for the home team with superb goal tending so the Penguins should count themselves lucky to have gotten two points out of it. But now there is a bigger task for the Penguins to tackle – the New York Rangers.

The Rangers come into town to play the Penguins on Saturday and are right behind the home team in the race for playoff positioning. Pittsburgh boasts a record of 40-27-8 (88pts/75 GP) to the Rangers 39-27-9 (87pts/75 GP) mark. In order to hang on to 6th place in the East Pittsburgh will need to win. Pittsburgh has been hot in March, again, going 9-1-2 so far with only the Rangers left before the month ends.

The grit the Penguins have been displaying lately is refreshing and once again I am forced to say that this team looks better than the team which entered the playoffs last year on fire. This year the team is much more balanced and did a much better job at the trade deadline bringing in a better compliment of players for the money than they did last year with the acquisition of Marion Hossa.

Lots of focus has been placed on what the Penguins have to do over their remaining seven games to secure a playoff spot. The number bandied about in terms of points required to make the playoffs is 94. By that logic, and it is fairly sound, the Penguins need to win three of their remaining seven.

But with Florida in 9th place and also with seven games remaining, I do not think that is safe enough of a bet. The Panthers right now have 83 pts. IF they were to get hot and win out, they could finish with 97 total points. So as I write this, and depending on this weeks action and results this will certainly change, I do not care about “magic numbers.” The Pens must win and keep winning to stay alive. And with games against the Rangers, the Hurricanes, the Panthers and the Canadiens (all teams either right behind them or right ahead of them in the standings) I think it is safe to say that these are all must win games. If the Penguins win each of these four they will make the playoffs.