Molinari: Why Penguins Will Make (Yes, Make) Playoffs (+)

ST. LOUIS — The Pittsburgh Penguins are in an abusive relationship with ice hockey.

Have been for a while now.

They enter every day hoping — maybe even believing — that things will be better.

That they must be better.

But just about every nightmarish day turns out to be even worse than the one before it.

That humbling 5-2 loss to New Jersey at PPG Paints Arena last Saturday seems almost quaint by comparison to the two games that followed it, doesn’t it? Heck, the same might even be true of their 6-0 defeat in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago.