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.

Looking at the standings today, then Penguins are still four points out of a playoff spot in the East. The question is can they make it into one of the top eight spots before time runs out?

Let’s look.

Ahead of them are:
BOSTON 50 GP 88pts 5-3-2 in their last 10
WASHINGTON 59 GP 79pts 7-2-1 in their last 10
NEW JERSEY 60 GP 79pts 6-4-0 in their last 10
PHILADELPHIA 57 GP 71pts 6-4-0 in their last 10
MONTREAL 60 GP 69pts 3-6-1 in their last 10
FLORIDA 59 GP 68pts 7-3-0 in their last 10
BUFFALO 60 GP 68pts 5-4-1 in their last 10
NY RANGERS 60 GP 68pts 2-6-2 in their last 10
CAROLINA 60 GP 65pts 6-4-0 in their last 10

The Penguins are 64pts with 22 games remaining and are 5-4-1 in their last 10.

Let’s look at teams last 10 games played as an indication as to how they are playing right now and down the stretch. If we take that as an indication of how each team will play until the end of the season the standing would look like this:

1 BOSTON*
2 WASHINGTON*
3 NEW JERSEY*
4 PHILADELPHIA
5 FLORIDA
6 BUFFALO
7 CAROLINA
8 PITTSBURGH

With Pittsburgh just getting in with 88pts. Of course this is simplistic. The Penguins while 5-4-1 in their last 10 have played well enough to be better than than and Montreal and the Rangers will likely not both continue to slump as badly as they have been which is what opens up the last two slots for Carolina and Pittsburgh. If one of those teams gets hot it makes the Penguins chances more remote.

It isn’t over yet but the Penguins need a win today against Washington to keep the fat lady on the bench from warming up.

I was certainly impressed with the Penguins 5 goal explosion in the third period against the Rangers on Wednesday. But I temper than feeling with knowing that I sat though a horrific second period watching Fleury keep his team in the game; a game they should have rightfully been loosing by two or more goals when the third period started.

As it stands today, the Penguins are 24-21-4 (52 pts) in the East with 49 games down and 33 games to go. If they want to make the playoffs they are going to need to get to at least 90 points and even that would be cutting it close. In all honesty, this team needs about 21 (42 pts) more wins to not just make the playoffs, but be in a respectable position heading into the playoffs and be considered a contender to return to the Stanley Cup Finals. That means winning 64% of their remaining games or getting enough points through ties, wins and OT losses to make 42 pts happen.

Can they do it? Well, in their last six they are clicking at 67% when it comes to winning and they certainly have some cream puffs on their schedule between now and the end of the season. But beating up on teams like Tampa Bay, the New York Islanders, the Maple Leafs and even the Los Angeles Kings isn’t going to be enough. They need to not only get the points, but do so beating the Devils, the Candiens and the Bostons of the league too.

This team has the talent. But they have to use it. Tonight they have to use it against divisional foes, the New Jersey Devils.