PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Casey DeSmith will start in net as the Pens have a good chance to clinch third place in the Metropolitan Division and face the Rangers in the first-round as they host Columbus Friday night.
“What is important to our team is two things,” said Pens Head Coach Mike Sullivan. “We want to finish in the best possible position that gives us the best chance to be successful moving forward. We want to gain some traction with respect to our own team game so we feel good about our game going into the playoffs.”
It will come down to this tonight, the Pens win or get the game into overtime, even if they were to lose, locks in third place. They could also get there with a Washington, minus Alexander Ovechkin, loss in Madison Square Garden tonight.
The Pens are struggling, winners of only four regulation games this month. They saw any slight hope of winning a division slide right by and still the chance they are the eighth seed in the East.
It’s not just how they lost, but what they are not doing out there. Some interesting comments Thursday by center Teddy Bluerger.
“We got to get back to playing to our identity and being more tenacious and relentless,” Blueger said. “I think we have to be more supportive of each other, bring more energy. There’s going to be times over the course of a game, course of a series where we aren’t playing well. Maybe someone makes a mistake and you have to be more resilient and battle through that.”
“Friday’s game is a bit of a dress rehearsal of getting those details right. Getting that momentum and that right mindset going into the playoffs.”
“We got to bring some of that. It’s very contagious when something goes south. When we have some negativity, I think it tends to spiral down and take its toll on everyone. I think it’s something that is important and overlooked at times. It’s contagious on the bench for sure. I think we got to understand things aren’t always going to go our way and when they don’t we have to be more resilient. I think part of that is having that positive mindset and the support from everyone on the bench and playing for one another.”
“Obviously it’s coming down to crunch time,” DeSmith said. “We are trying to go into the playoffs with some momentum, play the right way on Friday and get something going here. It’s all about momentum we just want to start building that by doing the right things, doing the little things. Playing for each other mostly.”
“The circumstances are always different when you look at different years,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby. “I think momentum is a funny thing. You grab a little momentum and you try to ride that.”
“It’s important to try and grab that as early as possible. We want to finish off strong on Friday and make sure we are ready no matter who we face. It’s really about momentum and trying to find that, especially early.”
“We are trying to build some traction,” Sullivan said. “We are trying to feel good about our game. We are trying to put our team in the best possible position moving forward. There’s still meaning to this game. The stakes are high at this point. Most importantly it’s important that we build some traction and we feel good about our team moving forward.”