Molinari: Encouraged By Penguins’ Play? Be Exasperated, Too (+)

The Pittsburgh Penguins have lost two of their past three games.

Nonetheless, with 10 games left in the regular season, they still hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference playoff field, although their margin of error the rest of the way might be best measured in microns.

They still control whether they will participate in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the 17th consecutive season, but the only way to guarantee that at this point would be to go 10-0 until the end of the regular season.

Is that possible?

Sure.

Of course, so is Brad Marchand and Tom Wilson finishing 1-2 in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy, which recognizes “the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct, combined with a high standard of playing ability.”

That’s about as likely as the Penguins not losing any of their remaining games, a stretch that begins when Wilson and his Washington teammates visit PPG Paints Arena Saturday evening.

Considering that the Penguins are 1-5 in their past half-dozen games and that no fewer than three teams — Florida, Washington and Ottawa — are anywhere from one to five points behind them, their prospects for fending off all of those challengers might seem to rival those of holding back a tsunami with a tennis racquet.