Penguins clinch berth

Pittsburgh looked dead in January, and on April 9 it was walking out of Newark with a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils and a Stanley Cup Playoffs spot. The clincher ended a three-year postseason drought for a team that had missed every spring since 2022. (nhl.com) The old core was all over the game that got them in. Sidney Crosby had two assists, Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, and Kris Letang added an assist in the same night the Penguins officially locked up second place in the Metropolitan Division and home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference First Round. (nhl.com) The path was simple by the end: beat New Jersey in any fashion and the berth was theirs. The National Hockey League’s April 9 clinching scenarios listed that one result as enough, and Pittsburgh got it without needing help from any other scoreboard. (nhl.com) This was not one of those late sneaks where a team backs into the field at the last second. After the win, Pittsburgh sat at 98 points with a 41-22-16 record, clear in second in the division behind the Carolina Hurricanes and ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers at 92 points. (espn.com) (nhl.com) Bryan Rust put the mood into one line after the game. Rust, a 33-year-old winger in his 12th National Hockey League season, said he enjoys giving doubters a “big middle finger,” which tells you exactly how this room heard the outside noise during the drought. (clutchpoints.com) (nhl.com) The doubters had material to work with. Pittsburgh had gone from 16 straight playoff appearances from 2007 through 2022 to three straight misses, which is a hard fall for a franchise that won Stanley Cups in 2009, 2016, and 2017 with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang at the center of everything. (nhl.com) This season also changed in net. Stuart Skinner was acquired from the Edmonton Oilers on December 12, 2025, and the goalie who had reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous two seasons made 19 saves in the clincher for his new team. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2) Coach Dan Muse is in his first season behind Pittsburgh’s bench, so this was not just a legacy act from aging stars. Muse said after the game that the roster had dealt with injuries and lineup changes all year, and Crosby said “everybody has had a part in this,” which is a neat way of saying this comeback took more than one line and one era. (nhl.com) The Devils were the wrong opponent if you wanted a soft landing. New Jersey came in eliminated but still dangerous with Jack Hughes in the lineup, and Hughes scored in the game, but Pittsburgh answered with goals from Malkin, Rust, Tommy Novak, Erik Karlsson, and Yegor Chinakhov’s three-point night driving the offense. (nhl.com) (espn.com) So the quote landed because the standings finally backed it up. A team that spent three springs on the outside is back in the bracket, back in its building for Game 1, and back to making the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era feel unfinished instead of over. (nhl.com 1) (nhl.com 2)