Penguins Practice: Hard Truths & a Little Hope (+)

CRANBERRY — The Pittsburgh Penguins conducted their final public practice of the season at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex Wednesday.

They ran through 20-plus minutes of drills, with a heavy emphasis on special-teams work, just hours before they would learn whether it would prove to be their final full-team workout of any sort in the 2022-23 season.

If the Penguins qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs — that would entail the New York Islanders losing to Montreal in regulation at UBS Arena tonight and the Penguins winning at Columbus Thursday — their practices presumably would be closed to the public.

Wednesday afternoon, however, it seemed as if the curtain was much more likely to drop on their season than on the ice-level windows at their practice rink.