The Pittsburgh Penguins are locked into second place in the Metropolitan Division and know who they’ll play in the first round of the playoffs.
That said, they still have some areas to clean up heading into their regular-season finale on Tuesday night against the host St. Louis Blues.
The Penguins will host their in-state rival, the Philadelphia Flyers, in the first round beginning later this week, but they don’t plan to stroll through their matchup against St. Louis.
“It’s going to be important to finish off the regular season the right way,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “I’d love to do that with a win.”
The Penguins (41-24-16, 98 points) lost their past two games, a home-and-home series against the Washington Capitals.
Pittsburgh got shut out 3-0 in Washington on Sunday, but Muse thought his team played better in the second game after losing 6-3 at home on Saturday.
“Opportunities for rebounds were there,” Muse said. “We were able to generate some good looks, too. Their guy played well, so that’s part of the game as well. It was better than (Saturday), but still some things we’ve got to take away and make sure that we’re cleaning up.”
Muse definitely would like to see some pucks go in the net before the playoffs begin.
“Going off of (Saturday), I felt like we weren’t in the offensive zone very much and it’s a credit to (the Capitals),” Muse said. “I thought we did a better job of getting and spending some more time there, I think. Even still, some opportunities to shoot more pucks, get pucks into the net front area.”
Pittsburgh will have home-ice advantage against the Flyers in the first-round series.
“We’ve got a work week now, too, where we’ll be able to get a couple good practice days before Game 1,” Muse said. “There will definitely be some areas we can continue to work on and just make sure we’re feeling good about all parts of our game.”
The Penguins played without forwards Noel Acciari (upper body), Anthony Mantha (lower body) and Ben Kindel (upper body) as well as defensemen Ryan Shea (upper body) and Connor Clifton (upper body). Each is day to day.
The Blues, who are coming off a 6-3 win at the Minnesota Wild on Monday, will conclude their disappointing season on Thursday at the Utah Mammoth.
St. Louis (35-33-12, 82 points) stayed in the Western Conference playoff race up until Saturday. Despite beating the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-3, the Blues were eliminated when the Los Angeles Kings recorded a 1-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
It’s the third time in the past four years that St. Louis will miss the playoffs.
The Blues have faced scoring issues most of the season, both at even strength and with the man-advantage.
They are averaging 2.73 goals per game, which ranks 28th in the league this season, Their 17.5% success rate on the power plays ranks 27th.
“It could be hard to come out in these games when you’re eliminated and they’re sitting nine regulars and it has that feel to it,” Blues forward Jake Neighbours said. “But, you’ve got to find a way as a player to come out with a little more energy and passion and play for the fans and play for the logo.”
