The moment that sparked the Penguins’ optimism, resolve: ‘We found our identity’

a. — The Pittsburgh Penguins , against all odds, started to make a late-season push six months ago. On the morning of April 1, they sat in the locker room at Madison Square Garden in the hours before a game against the New York Rangers .

"That's when it happened," Lars Eller said.

That's when what happened?

"When we became the Penguins again," Eller continued.

Eller isn't the only one who believes something happened to the Penguins on April Fools' Day. Seemingly to a man, the Penguins reference that gathering as the moment they may have emerged from a nearly two-year-long funk. Eller is hardly a longtime spokesman for the Penguins, but then again, he knows a thing or two about them.

"I am a Penguin now and I have played against the Penguins for a long time," he said. "I know what it looks like, how the Penguins are supposed to win. It's not just about high-end talent or superstars. It's attacking in a five-man unit, scoring dirty goals on rebounds. Not as much tic-tac-toe as you might think. It all started that day. I hope it doesn't stop."

Despite their talent and star power, the Penguins are expected to miss the playoffs for a third straight season. They have one of the NHL 's oldest rosters and compete in an Eastern Conference that boasts heavyweights like the defending champion Florida Panthers , the Toronto Maple Leafs , the Tampa Bay Lightning , the Carolina Hurricanes and the Rangers. And yet, quietly, the Penguins talk about the upcoming season as though they know something other people don't.

All roads point back to the same meeting.

"That's interesting," Mike Sullivan said. "I remember that morning very well."

So do his players.

As February gave way to March last season, it was clear that the Penguins were going nowhere. Then they traded Jake Guentzel , and the Penguins plummeted down the Eastern Conference standings.

By March 24, when they played a matinee in Denver, the Penguins were 10 points out of a playoff spot and the season was essentially over.

But they went 2-0-2 that week.

"It's funny that we blew a 4-0 lead and lost in overtime in Colorado, because that really sucked and you wouldn't think that would be the start of something for a team," goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said. "But it was."

The Penguins beat the Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets at home later in the week before sustaining an overtime loss in Columbus.

"We didn't actually play great in those Columbus games," Nedeljkovic said. "But we were suddenly putting up points, and some other teams in the East were struggling. We were alive. And we were going to New York."

No one was taking the Penguins seriously as a playoff contender at the time. They were still well out of the race and had back-to-back games at Madison Square Garden and in New Jersey, two places that hadn't been kind to the Penguins in recent years.

Making matters worse, an illness had ripped through the team that Monday morning. It should have been the beginning of the end.

Instead, it was just the beginning.

"I will never forget that," winger Rickard Rakell said. "Sully sat down with us and we had a talk."

Sullivan gathered the Penguins for a meeting that morning. Even though the Penguins still weren't playing at the level he preferred, he saw a sudden progress and a subsequent glimmer of hope for his team's playoff aspirations.

"I remember the day specifically," Sullivan said, referencing the illness that ripped through the Penguins. "It was an interesting experience. We had guys throwing up. It was violent. It was sudden. I think, when those types of adversities happen, and you're not really prepared for it, it can affect groups in one or two ways. It can either galvanize a group or it can go in the opposite direction."

Sullivan knew his team had quietly positioned itself to at least make a Hail Mary playoff attempt. Sick or not, he decided to use that moment to challenge his team.

"It was the moment we came together," defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. "That day in New York, it was a big moment. Sully brought up some percentages, telling us if we went undefeated we had a chance. And if we went 8-1, we had a chance, and what the percentages were if we could pull off something like that. We just wanted to go balls to the wall. That was the goal. And we did."

Several contributing factors played into the Penguins' attempt to crash the postseason party.

• Sidney Crosby , who had been in a funk during the Guentzel trade saga, erupted starting in Colorado, finishing the season with a 25-point binge over the last 13 games.

• Nedeljkovic started in each of the last 13 games and, while he wasn't spectacular, provided just the steady goaltending the Penguins required.

• Unheralded rookies Jack St. Ivany and Ryan Shea gave the Penguins a reliable third pairing on the blue line for the first time all season.

• Drew O'Connor scored six goals in a nine-game stretch, finally arriving as the impactful player the Penguins had envisioned.

While no one dismisses those players' contributions, the Penguins insist something bigger was at play.

"I'll tell you what happened," Rakell said. "After we had that meeting, we just stopped thinking so much. We just started playing hockey. Something clicked in us and we just started playing the way we were capable of. We knew no one believed we had a chance at that point, but we didn't care what people thought. We played free. We played hard, but we played free. That was the moment when the switch flipped.

"Sully got us together and, all of a sudden, everyone had a different kind of purpose. We just started to trust each other and become ourselves at that point. Huge moment. And I hope it carries over to this year. I think it will."

Unlike previous seasons — even championship seasons — Sullivan never lost his cool with the 2023-24 Penguins. A cynic might suggest he never lost his cool because he knew his Penguins weren't equipped with enough good players. That's not the case. Sullivan's belief in the Penguins exceeds that of the most optimistic fan.

Still, Sullivan knew very well that the Penguins were a team in transition, as the Guentzel trade confirmed. At the team meeting in New York, however, the coach was apparently at his best, setting the stage for the pivotal moment.

"Sully brought us together, but it was the players who ended up talking amongst ourselves," Nedeljkovic said. "We just decided that what we had been doing hadn't been working, that we didn't want the season to end. And it just happened."

Sullivan's message was pretty simple.

"I try to see things for what they are," he explained. "I try to be real. One thing we will never do here in Pittsburgh is make excuses. We always feel like we have enough to win, regardless of the circumstances. That was part of the conversation. I knew we had more."

The Penguins, led by Crosby's three points, handled the Presidents' Trophy-winning Rangers easily, 5-2.

Twenty-four hours later, the Penguins trailed 3-1 through two periods in Newark, a place in which they rarely win. Feeling the fatigue from illness and aging while playing on consecutive days, it seemed like the end.

Then, Crosby and Malkin each scored twice in the third period, and the Penguins won.

"It all went back to that chat," Nedeljkovic said. "We all felt it. Something was different. We win those two, and then we play maybe our most complete game of the season in Washington. Just like that, we were feeling it. We can really learn something from that moving into this season. Yeah, it's a new year. But lessons were learned."

What were those lessons?

Eller says the Penguins learned how to be more direct with their communication and, through that, how to stop repeating their mistakes. The result was striking.

"We found our identity," Eller said. "That was Penguins hockey, what we did down the stretch. We strung together some great hockey. I remember thinking after that meeting, 'Yes, there it is. We are on our way.' And I believe it will transfer into this season. We got belief that day in New York. That belief carried us and can into the future."

It was appropriate that the meeting took place at the world's most famous arena in New York. The Penguins have been possibly the NHL's most famous team this century. They have played the Rangers more times (five) in the postseason during the Crosby era than any other team. The last time the Penguins tasted the playoffs was May 15, 2022, when they lost at Madison Square Garden to the Rangers in overtime of Game 7 — a loss that haunts and angers Penguins players, coaches and fans to this day.

We'll soon find out if Sullivan's meeting will carry over to a new season or if it was merely a last gasp for a team on the decline. For their part, the players unanimously believe it was real and that it will positively affect the 2024-25 season.

As fate will have it, the New York Rangers will be waiting on Wednesday, when the new season begins. The game will be played in Pittsburgh, but one morning in New York will still echo in the Penguins' minds.

"We were in a slump for a long time," Pettersson said. "I realize there are new bodies in here, but it doesn't matter. I know it's going to carry over. We learned a lot that day. That was the day we said, 'Screw it, we are coming together as a team.'"

(Photos: Dave Sandford / NHLI via )