The Pittsburgh Penguins have a prime opportunity to vault up the playoff race.

To close out the 2023 calendar year, the Pittsburgh Penguins are set to have one of their toughest tests of the season, and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time.

The Penguins are at a bit of a crossroads with their season; through 30 games they’ve struggled to win at a consistent rate and still hover around the .500 mark.

At 14-13-3, they are four standings points out of a playoff spot, with a couple of games in hand on key opponents.

What makes these last five games of 2024 so crucial, however, is that three of them come against Metropolitan division opponents that are not only ahead of the Penguins in the race, but haven’t lost to the Penguins in quite some time.

To close out the year, the Penguins will face the Carolina Hurricanes once and the New York Islanders twice; in 2022-23, the Penguins went 0-5-3 against those two teams.

One of the main goals heading into the 2023-24 season was the Penguins needing to establish dominance in the Metro Division.

So far, the Penguins are 2-2-2 against Metro teams, but lost their first contest against the Hurricanes.

Yet to face the Islanders, the Penguins will have some real tests as they look to get back in the playoff hunt.

Finding standings points against these two important teams would not only improve the Penguins positioning in the race, but vastly improve the mojo around the team.

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