Up-and-down Penguins face daunting path to Stanley Cup 3-peat

NEWARK, N.J. - In trying to become the first team to win the Stanley Cup three straight times since the New York Islanders' run of four straight from 1980-83, the Pittsburgh Penguins have struggled at times to look like a playoff team - let alone one capable of making history.

To be fair, no club gets through 82 games without a clunker here and there, but for the Penguins, the bad nights have been something more. The hiccups, while occasional, have set off alarm bells among a team that remains confident, but still knows it doesn't have all the answers.

The latest significant stumble for the Penguins came Tuesday, when they went to Detroit and suffered a 5-2 loss to a Red Wings team that's been out of contention for months and ranks 27th in scoring.

"It's a reminder that you can't just show up and expect to get two points," Sidney Crosby said. "I don't think we necessarily needed that in Game 77 or whatever it was, but we've got to learn from it, and it's in the past now. We've got important games ahead."

That included the very next game against the Devils on Thursday, as the wake-up call was heeded and Crosby himself scored in overtime for a 4-3 win. But that doesn't mean everything is settled for the Penguins, who generally have followed some of their worst games of the season with victories.

It wasn't Game 77, but Game 2, when the Penguins went to Chicago and took a 10-1 thrashing, only to turn around two days later and beat the Predators, 4-0. Later in October, the Pittsburgh lost 7-1 to the Lightning, but then beat the Oilers in overtime in the next contest. The very next week, a 7-1 loss in Winnipeg was followed by a 3-2 triumph in Edmonton.

As the season has gone on, the trend has continued. The Penguins were on the receiving end of an 8-4 mauling in Boston on March 1, but then went home two days later and beat the Islanders in overtime. Then, on March 10, the Penguins were handed a 5-2 defeat in Toronto, before going home and beating the Stars the next night.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

If there's a switch the Penguins can flip to turn from a Jekyll-and-Hyde team in the regular season into the force they've been the past two springs, now would be a good time to do it, especially because - with only four games left - there's still no "x" next to "Pittsburgh" in the standings.

"We've just got to have the mindset that it's a playoff game," winger Tom Kuhnhackl said. "We're fighting for the playoffs here. Every game is a very, very important game for us, and the kind of game we played in Detroit, where we didn't really show up, didn't really play our game, that just can't happen at this time of year. We've got to have that mindset that it's like a playoff game. " We're fighting for the playoffs, fighting for home ice, fighting for our lives. We just can't have the effort we had in Detroit."

Home ice is important, because while the Penguins know that a playoff spot is basically in their hands, even before clinching, they want to be in as good a position as possible once they get there. Winning a third straight Cup is already difficult enough with extra home games. Meanwhile, here are how many playoff series past teams have played without home-ice advantage on the way to winning a third (or more) consecutive title:

That's just four out of 26, including three by clubs in a six-team league more than half a century ago. If the Penguins fall behind the Blue Jackets in the final days of the season, they could find themselves needing to win four out of four series as the lower seed in order to complete their three-peat.

While the 2012 Kings did pull off the feat of winning four consecutive series without home ice in order to hoist the Cup, there was a key difference - Los Angeles did not come into those playoffs having been through back-to-back Cup runs, which take a toll. That's why the Penguins are taking these final games of the regular season seriously after their letdown in Detroit, and the results will play a role in shaping their chances to make history.

"It's a tough league and everyone's gonna play us hard, so hopefully we go in the right direction before the playoffs to give us that confidence and that swagger that we need," Penguins forward Jake Guentzel said. "We'll see what happens from there. It's always nice when you get that chance to get home ice. This is a big last five games."

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