Perhaps the most frustrating part of 2023-24 season for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and especially the past month, is that for all of their inconsistency, all of their flaws, and all of their recent losing they are still sort of in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Well, the most frustrating aspect of the season is all of the bad hockey.
But it only gets magnified when the Eastern Conference playoff race has turned into a wide open slog where nobody is running away with it and almost everybody is still in it. It is a second straight “what if” season where you go back and look at all of the missed opportunities and stupid losses that just kept adding up.