'This Is What You Play For': Penguins Thrilled To Be Back In Playoff Picture, Confident About Identity

If one would have walked around the Pittsburgh Penguins' locker room at the conclusion of the past three seasons, it - like most NHL locker rooms after a team fails to qualify for the postseason - would have had a kind of somber, stale air that is very hard to get rid of. 

Losing stinks. Ask any of the players in the Penguins' locker room who have been to the promised land only to be thrown near the bottom of the pit how that feels. It's not a good feeling, getting to watch 16 other teams partake in something that you feel like you should be a part of.

Well, the Penguins don't have to be on the outside looking in this year or imagine that feeling either again or for the first time. Instead, they'll be a part of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that's a heck of a good feeling for the guys who have been around long enough to experience both ends of the spectrum.

"Couldn't be happier about it. Couldn't be more excited about it," Bryan Rust said. "Obviously, this is the time of year that everybody wants to play. I'm looking forward to it."

And he acknowledged how difficult those three years of no playoff qualification were.

"They haven't been fun," Rust said. "They haven't been fun going home and watching Game Ones, and seeing the crowds, and seeing the excitement and all that stuff on the couch. To be back in the mix and be a part of that, for everybody's who's been here, we're all really excited for it."

And the captain echoed those same sentiments, too, pointing out that missing the three years after 16 years of playoff surety made getting back there that much sweeter.

"This is what you play for, is the opportunity to compete for the Stanley Cup," Sidney Crosby said. "And I think, you know, after some years not being able to do it, I think you appreciate it even more. The regular season's done, so everyone starts fresh here now, and everybody's excited for the opportunity."

In the three seasons the Penguins failed to make the postseason, the Florida Panthers - who missed the playoffs this season by a pretty wide margin - came out of the East all three times, and Penguins' goaltender Stuart Skinner and the Edmonton Oilers made it twice out West. But with the cream of the crop being eliminated in the East, it feels as though things are wide open this time around.

And that, too, applies to the Philadelphia Flyers, who the Penguins will face in the first round starting Saturday at 8:00 p.m. ET.

The Flyers may have been the final team to clinch a playoff spot in the East, but their road to getting there was quite impressive. They were the NHL's best team since the Olympic break with a 18-7-1 record down the stretch, quite literally fighting and clawing their way to a playoff berth up until it was earned with a 3-2 shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Apr. 13.

As a young team built around speed, they are a bit different than the "Broad Street Bullies" of the past. And the team as-is - even if the rivalry has a storied history - is part of what makes this such an intriguing series.

"With the divisions, you're going to end up playing somebody you're pretty familiar with," Crosby said. "With it being as much of a rivalry as it is, with the history of the teams, I think it's great for everybody - it's great for the fans, for the guys on both teams who have been part of it. But, I think even going back to last series, [there are] a lot of new faces, a lot of new people on both sides.

"So, I think it's more about thinking about this for what it is and not really looking at the past."

And the fact of the matter is that the Penguins aren't the same team that they were 10 years ago, either. Yes, they can still outscore opponents - and they do score quite frequently, as they ended the 2025-26 regular season with the third-most goals-for in the league behind only the Colorado Avalanche and Hurricanes - but there is a lot of detail in their game nowadays that, perhaps, differentiates them from their past.

Continuing to nail down those details, Crosby said, will be the key to success in the playoffs.

"I think there's so many details. You can't rest on the fact that you've done something over the course of a season," Crosby said. "You've got to go out there and do it every night, and those things that are important tend to be a little bit harder. It's the physical play, finishing hits, blocking shots, wall plays, battles, all that stuff. All those things add up. That's why you preach them during the season, so they become habits.

"But all those things will be important, and those things will be the difference between winning and losing games."

And getting the chance to win hockey games in the playoffs is what the NHL is all about. Erik Karlsson - who has won three Norris Trophies and made the postseason for a string of years with the Ottawa Senators - last took the ice for a playoff game in 2019 with the San Jose Sharks. 

Back in the summer of 2023, there were only a few destinations Karlsson was willing to waive his full no-movement clause for. Pittsburgh was one of them, and in early August, Penguins GM and POHO Kyle Dubas executed - quite literally - the largest trade volume-wise in Penguins' history to bring Karlsson from the Sharks to the Penguins.

After a tumultuous first two seasons with the organization, Karlsson and the Penguins have finally started to realize the vision that the 35-year-old future Hall-of-Famer had for this team upon his decision to land in Pittsburgh.

"Obviously, that's why I came here to begin with," Karlsson said. "I believed in this group from an outside perspective, and being here now for three years, you know, the potential has always been there. And this year, we really found a way to bring it out of everybody and be where we are today.

"So, I'm very excited, and I'm looking forward to get the opportunity again to play for the Stanley Cup."

Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!