Mark Madden: Play of Sidney Crosby, systemic excellence lifted Penguins to East division title

I’m just another heart in need of rescue, waiting on love’s sweet charity … and for the NHL playoffs to start. Meantime, check out these refreshing hockey notes. Here I go again …

• Many (including me) had the Pittsburgh Penguins pegged as a borderline playoff team before season’s start. Instead, they won the East division. How did that happen? It was mostly a combination of Sidney Crosby and new-found systemic excellence. The latter trickled down from the former. The latter was also more easily done with Evgeni Malkin out. If Malkin is 100% for the playoffs and buys in, it was a fortuitous timeline. But there’s doubt about Malkin’s knee.

• Nobody picked the Penguins to win the division. You didn’t, either. Besides the aforementioned factors, no one expected Mike Matheson and Cody Ceci to jell as a legit No. 2 defense pair. The Penguins went 16-5-2 sans Malkin. Kris Letang played perhaps his most fundamentally sound hockey. Jeff Carter arrived via trade and exploded. A lot had to happen.

• The Penguins’ feel-good vibe could disappear in the postseason, as it did in their past three playoff series. This is the real test. One-and-done = a roster you won’t recognize next season.

• Connor McDavid got to 100 points in 53 games playing in the Canadian Minor Professional Hockey League. He had last year’s MVP on his wing. Edmonton will finish second in the North. Crosby had 62 points in 55 games. Evgeni Malkin missed 23 games. The Penguins went to the top of the East. I’m not sure who the better player is. McDavid is player of the year. Crosby is most valuable.

• McDavid is often referred to as a “cheat code.” That’s true. But in that division, he’s playing Pong.

• Maxime Lagace’s shutout in the regular-season finale provides just what the doctor ordered heading into the playoffs: GOALIE CONTROVERSY! (Just kidding. Until Tristan Jarry displays the inconsistency that plagued him too occasionally in the regular season, anyway.)

• Brandon Tanev isn’t back yet. Both goalies are hurt. Malkin appeared to tweak his bum knee during Saturday’s game. NHL teams never tell the truth about injuries, so it’s easy to assume the worst. It’s good the Penguins have a week off before the playoffs. The Penguins did fine without Malkin for much of the season. But he’s needed to win the Stanley Cup.

• So is Matheson. The defensive corps is greater than the sum of the parts, but that only applies when all six regulars are available. Without Matheson, the Penguins don’t really have a No. 2 pair. Whoever partners Ceci is vastly inferior, especially in terms of fit.

• That’s the biggest upgrade from last year: John Marino and Marcus Petterson were the No. 2 pair for the 2020 playoffs. Now they’re the No. 3 pair. Thanks, Jim Rutherford.

• If Matheson can’t play, Ceci’s partner for Game 1 of the playoffs should be P.O Joseph or Juuso Riikola. The Penguins’ whole defensive outlook is based on pairs of lefty-righty. Nothing Mark Friedman or Chad Ruhwedel has shown playing their off-side merits changing that.

• There’s no such thing as an easy playoff series in the East division. But Boston has the Penguins’ bogey goalie in Tuukka Rask and the matchup debate provided by Patrice Bergeron’s line. Playing Washington offers the potential of a body count. The New York Islanders are a solid foe, but the Penguins beat them six of eight and the Islanders aren’t the same team that swept the Penguins in 2019. Playing the Islanders is preferable by being the least of all evils.

• If all the forwards are healthy — it seems almost laughable to say that — Frederick Gaudreau must stay in the lineup, preferably on that line with Carter and Jared McCann. Gaudreau has become something of a bottom-six catalyst and has five points in his last three games. If the odd man out is Evan Rodrigues, that’s a solid spare part to have on call.

• Carter enters the playoffs insanely hot, with nine goals in 14 games as a Penguin. Those numbers are spectacular, but Carter’s play isn’t. He just knows where to go and what to do. None of his four goals Thursday was memorable. But they all went in. (These are compliments.)

• Cynics think Boston will tank its last two games by way of preferring a first-round matchup vs. the Penguins. Nah. Teams tank for draft picks, not to jockey for playoff position. The Capitals have lost four of six. Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom missed Saturday’s game with injuries. T.J. Oshie left that game hurt. Boston should rather play the Capitals.

• Extrapolated over an 82-game season, the Penguins would have had 113 points. Only the 1992-93 team had more (119). The Penguins were fourth in the NHL in man-games lost. Malkin missed 23. Mike Sullivan should be Coach of the Year. But he won’t be. Previously winning Stanley Cups and coaching Crosby informally (and absurdly) disqualifies him.

• Turner Broadcasting reportedly is courting Wayne Gretzky to be an analyst when the network becomes an NHL broadcast partner next season. Would he be good? Not sure. But it would have to be better than handing another ex-goon a microphone.

• Perhaps there should be a place in hockey for an old-school, play tough, make-the-players-miserable coach like John Tortorella, who’s out at Columbus. But there isn’t. Not unless new New York Rangers GM Chris Drury makes his first mistake by hiring him. That might happen. Tortorella coached the Rangers from 2009-13. Drury played there from ’08-11. The Rangers were bullied and humiliated by Washington and Tom Wilson and now may over-react.