Detroit hasn't been eliminated from contention for a Stanley Cup playoff berth.
Not just yet, anyway.
Probably won't happen for several more minutes.
Maybe even a few more after that.
But the hard truth is that the Red Wings, whose 5-1 loss to the Penguins Sunday at PPG Paints Arena dropped their record to a league-worst 14-43-4 -- that maroons them a full 15 points behind 30th-place Los Angeles in the overall standings -- effectively were out of the playoff race by Halloween, having already sabotaged their season with a 0-7-1 death spiral.
The Red Wings have, of course, had some glorious chapters in their history -- this, after all, is the team of Gordie Howe and Nicklas Lidstrom, of Alex Delvecchio and Pavel Datsyuk -- and should add more in coming winters if franchise icon Steve Yzerman can replicate the building job he did in Tampa Bay before taking over as GM in Detroit.
But 2019-20 is not about the past or future, and that franchise's miseries in the present mean that the time when it was known in hockey circles as the Dead Things might seem like the good old days for some Red Wings partisans.
The Penguins knew all about Detroit's problems long before this game, of course. Most, if not all, of them likely were aware that the Red Wings entered the afternoon having scored the fewest goals in the league and allowed the most, which is not a classic formula for success in this league.
They insisted that none of those numbers mattered, though. That they recognized the potential danger Detroit posed, even if the Red Wings are the closest thing to a forfeit victory the NHL has to offer these days. Detroit has, after all, finished on the sunny side of a final score 14 times, so there was no reason to believe it couldn't make it 15 if given the opportunity.
"They're battling hard," Jason Zucker said. "They have a lot of pride, wearing that jersey, and they're competing hard, for sure."
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill, whose odds of retaining his position after this season might not be much better than those of his club reaching the 2020 Stanley Cup final, made it clear that he was satisfied with his players' effort.
"Sometimes the score indicates the game, sometimes it doesn't," Blashill said. "I didn't think it did tonight. ... I understand it looks bad, 5-1, on the scoreboard. (It looks as if) we got beat bad. But that's not the way the game went. ... I thought we played hard. We competed hard."
One thing he surely didn't like was that for the third time in the past three games, the Red Wings opened the scoring -- then gave up four (or more) unanswered goals. That just might be a subtle clue as to why they went 0-4 on the road trip that ended Sunday.
Containing Patric Hornqvist probably wasn't the Red Wings' most urgent concern before the game, given that the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, among others, were on the opponent's bench.
Regardless, Hornqvist finished with two goals and an assist, and the only effective defense against him came from the NHL office, which switched credit for the Penguins' first goal from Hornqvist to Sam Lafferty after the game:
That ruling denied Hornqvist his third career hat trick and third career four-point game, but while it probably stung Hornqvist a bit, it didn't change the numbers that mattered most: The ones on the scoreboard.
The victory allowed the Penguins to climb within one point of first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division. They have a game-in-hand on the Capitals, as well as three game remaining against them, so a division championship is within their reach, even if it isn't a primary objective at the moment.
"We know it's a pretty tight division, in the standings," Tanev said. "But we don't look at that stuff, necessarily."
The Penguins played the final half of the game without winger Zach Aston-Reese, who Sullivan said suffered an unspecified lower-body injury that was being evaluated.
Because the Penguins have a scheduled day off Monday, no more information on him is expected to be released until their game-day skate Tuesday.
Hornqvist moved into Aston-Reese's place on the third line with Teddy Blueger, and settled into his new role nicely. Shortly after Aston-Reese departed, a Tanev pass sprung Hornqvist down the slot alone to make his second goal possible.
That goal gave the Penguins their ultimate margin of victory, although the outcome had been settled much earlier, in part because Matt Murray had the latest in a series of strong starts.
He made 27 saves to extend his record since the NHL's holiday break in December to 7-1-1. He did his best work against the Red Wings during the first period, when he was beaten by a Valtteri Filppula backhander from the inner edge of the right circle:
Murray came through with enough key stops to let his teammates realize it was an afternoon game before Detroit got too far in front.
"Especially in the first period, they had some great chances," Tanev said. "Matt was tremendous for us."
Even though those opening 20 minutes aren't going to take up much space on the Penguins' 2019-20 highlights video, they did manage to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, thanks to Murray and goals by Lafferty and Letang.
"Even with a subpar first period, it was great to come in with a lead," Zucker said. "And then attack in the second."
A pair of goals by Hornqvist sandwiched one by Sidney Crosby during the first 12 minutes of that period, choking off any possibility of a Detroit comeback:
"We had a lackluster start," said Andrew Agozzino, who assisted on Hornqvist's first goal. "In the second period, we kind of took over and we were a little more committed to chipping pucks (past the Detroit defensemen) and playing behind them a little bit. Once we did that, our skill set kind of took over."
The Penguins finished with a relatively modest 35-28 edge in shots and, according to Blashill, were essentially even with Detroit in quality scoring opportunities.
"We had chances," he said. "We didn't score. They had chances. They scored."
Fair enough, although the Red Wings aren't exactly bereft of talent up front, with forwards like Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi on the payroll.
"They're dangerous off the rush," Murray said. "They're skilled, offensively. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. Anybody can beat anybody in this league."
No doubt. In the case of the Red Wings, they just can't do it very often.
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