Sidney Crosby clinches playoffs
Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a playoff spot, meaning Crosby will return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again and giving the Penguins a tangible postseason objective to build for (x.com). For fans, that’s both a narrative win — Crosby’s continued playoff relevance — and a practical moment that locks Pittsburgh into postseason roster planning and matchups (x.com).
Pittsburgh looked like it might spend April watching other teams, and then Thursday night turned into a reset: the Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 5-2 in Newark and locked up a Stanley Cup Playoffs berth on April 9. Sidney Crosby assisted on two goals in the clincher, and Pittsburgh ended a postseason drought that had lasted three seasons. (apnews.com) That drought matters because playoff hockey had become the one thing Crosby-era Pittsburgh almost never missed. Before this season, the Penguins had failed to qualify in 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 after making the playoffs 16 straight times. (apnews.com) Crosby is 38 now, and the old expectation that Pittsburgh would just roll into the postseason every spring had finally broken. Getting back in means the franchise’s core trio of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang gets another playoff run instead of another early summer. (nhl.com) The clincher was not a fluke one-off result from a bad team sneaking through. Pittsburgh’s own announcement said the club ranked in the National Hockey League’s top 10 in wins with 41, points with 98, goals scored with 282, power play at 24.6 percent, penalty kill at 81.8 percent, and goal differential at plus-33. (nhl.com) Crosby’s box-score line this season helps explain why the door stayed open long enough for that push. ESPN listed him at 29 goals, 43 assists, and 72 points at age 38, and he had just piled up 10 points across four April games before the clincher. (espn.com) There was also a real bench change behind this turnaround. Pittsburgh hired Dan Muse as head coach on June 4, 2025 after Mike Sullivan missed the playoffs in each of the previous three seasons, so this berth lands in Muse’s first year running the team. (nhl.com) For Crosby, another playoff appearance adds to a résumé that already includes three Stanley Cup titles in 2009, 2016, and 2017. The difference now is that he is no longer the young star dragging a contender forward; he is the veteran captain keeping a franchise relevant deep into his late 30s. (nhl.com) For Pittsburgh, clinching on April 9 changes the next week from scoreboard math to playoff prep. The Penguins can now spend the final days of the regular season sorting lines, goaltending, and first-round matchups instead of wondering whether Crosby’s season is already over. (cbsnews.com)
