NHL Playoff Race: What the Penguins need to do

ELMONT, NEW YORK - MARCH 30: Anders Lee #27 of the New York Islanders checks Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period at UBS Arena on March 30, 2026 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) | Getty Images The Penguins lost to Tampa last night but still remain incredibly well-positioned to secure a playoff spot this season. Here’s the relevant standings for them as of now.

While there could be other avenues with a Wild Card spot, for now we’ll keep it simple on the most straight-forward path available to Pittsburgh: finishing in the top-3 of the Metropolitan Division. To ensure that, the Penguins simply must not be surpassed by two of: the New York Islanders, Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals. Regulation wins is the first tiebreaker if a team ends up with the same number of points, and that’s good news for the Pens since their 31 RW is unlikely to be overtaken by anyone they’re in competition with (the Caps have a case, but being seven points back with six games to go it’s highly unlikely they will be able to pull into a tie with Pittsburgh).

Since Carolina is 10 points ahead of the Pens, the realistic best case scenario for Pittsburgh is the second spot in the Metro, which easily enough accomplished by keeping all the teams currently behind them that way at the end of the season. Here’s a breakdown for that: First glance might look scary, but the maximum totals are not going to be anyone’s final outcome, and shifting down all the time. The Islanders and Flyers play each other tonight, if that games ends in regulation then someone’s max is being reduced by two points (if it ends in OT, it goes down by one for the losing side).

A team like the Caps had a max of 99 yesterday before their loss to New Jersey, same story for Columbus who had their max reduced from 102 to 100 as a result of losing last night to Carolina. Cut and dry, as of now, a good base-line magic number for the Pens’ is 8. Any combination of eight points earned by PIT or lost by Columbus and Philadelphia is going to lock up a Pittsburgh playoff spot.