Penguins' Rust Throws Subtle Shade At Capitals & Ex-Coach Reirden, Says Pittsburgh Would Have Upset Rangers If They Made Playoffs Instead

The Penguins forward believes his team would have avoided a first-round sweep, unlike the rival Capitals.

Against all odds, the Washington Capitals made the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, only to be swept at the hands of the Presidents' Trophy winners. And in an alternate reality, Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust believes that his team could've done what D.C. didn't do, and dethrone the top team in the league.

In a brand new interview with gamer Ninja on his stream, Rust said that he believes that if his Penguins had made the playoffs over the Capitals, they would've made it further in the postseason and pulled off an upset.

"I think we would've beat the Rangers. Oh yeah," Rust told Ninja. "Depending on a couple factors, but I think we would've beat them."

Rust further explained that it had to do with matchups and the fact that he felt his team had a better chance against New York.

"It is a matchup thing. You look across the league, and there's just teams that you do well against and just teams that you don't. And I feel like the Rangers would have been good for us, if we could've figured out our penalty kill against their power play. If we could've figured out our special teams a little bit, I think we would've had a chance."

In their season series, Pittsburgh defeated New York just once and was outscored 10-9 over three games.

The Penguins missed out on the playoffs for the second consecutive season, as the Capitals snuck in with three more points and won the tiebreaker with more regulation wins than the Detroit Red Wings.

The Rangers' power play was a huge factor in their first-round sweep of D.C. with six PPGs over four games.

Rust added that he believed that if the team got its act together on special teams at both ends, it would have been a different narrative, but then took a shot at the team's special teams performance.

That's when the 32-year-old also took a bit of a jab at ex-Capitals head coach and Penguins assistant coach Todd Reirden, who ran the abysmal Pittsburgh power play (15.3 percent, 30th in NHL) and was fired to open the month of May.

"Our power play was absolute trash all year," he added.