Here’s how the Penguins can make the Stanley Cup playoffs

Fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins who want to see the club qualify for the postseason will need to take the drastic but necessary step of inking theoretical one-day fan contracts with the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.

Even though the Penguins defeated Nashville, 4-2, on Monday in their final home contest of the season, their route to the playoffs rests with the Flyers beating the Washington Capitals in Philadelphia and the Canadiens triumphing over Detroit in Montreal.

Both games are at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

If Washington or Detroit win and gain two points, the Penguins’ upcoming finale Wednesday on the road vs. the New York Islanders will be rendered irrelevant.

“There’s only one thing we can do, is to win (our) game,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “Doesn’t matter if I put my eyes on (Tuesday’s games) or not, the only thing we need to do is come prepared and win that game.”

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Were either the Capitals or Red Wings to gain a point via an overtime loss, a Penguins win vs. New York would still do the trick, as the club would own the regulation wins tiebreaker over Washington and Detroit, with their 32 victories the highest among the aforementioned teams in the hunt.

For the second straight year, the Penguins could be playing a meaningless final regular-season game.

Pittsburgh (38-31-12, 88 points) enters the day looking in from the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Washington (39-31-11, 89 points) occupies the final wild-card spot in the East, with the Red Wings (40-32-9, 89 points) next in line.

The Penguins are next, followed by Philadelphia (38-32-11, 87 points).

The first tiebreaker, if needed, is regulation wins, with the Penguins (32) ahead of the Capitals (31), Flyers (30) and Red Wings (27).

Scenarios for final East playoff spot with all four teams at 81 GP:#allcaps:
-Any win vs. PHI
OR
-One point vs. PHI AND any #LGRW loss vs. MTL
AND
-One point vs. PHI AND any #pens loss vs. NYI
(Simplest path in East: Win and Caps are in) #LGRW:
-Any win vs. MTL AND #allcaps…

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) April 16, 2024

The Tampa Bay Lightning (44-29-8, 96 points) have already locked up the top wild-card spot.

In a best-case scenario — the Capitals and Detroit losing Tuesday in regulation — the Penguins will still need to gain a point vs. the Islanders to punch their ticket to the playoffs.

If that did play out, the Penguins would advance via their regulation wins tiebreaker.

Detroit needs two points and a Washington regulation or overtime loss to qualify.

Their deficiency in regulation wins means that even if the Red Wings beat Montreal, were the Capitals to do the same vs. Philadelphia, it would be the Capitals who advance to the playoffs via that tiebreaker.

For the Flyers to earn a bid, they must beat Washington in regulation, and Detroit and the Penguins must not gain any points in their finales.

After their win against the Predators, the Penguins canceled a scheduled practice Tuesday.

As the club prepares to travel to Long Island to play the Islanders, the consensus in the locker room appears to be an avoidance of frantic scoreboard watching to see how Tuesday’s relevant games play out.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves,” goalie Alex Nedeljkovic said. “We’re going to need help, but we can’t control that. We can’t think about that. We’ve got to just worry about ourselves, take care of our business. Because none of it matters if we don’t come back with the same effort Wednesday night.”

Captain Sidney Crosby offered context to the Penguins’ situation Monday night, saying that while not ideal, it’s far preferable to the position the team was in a few weeks ago — dead in the water.

But, like Nedeljkovic and Letang alluded to, the Penguins’ destiny now rests in the hands of others.

All Crosby is concerned with is preparing for the one variable the Penguins can control — how they perform Wednesday vs. the Islanders.

“Hopefully we get some help,” Crosby said. “All we can do is control being ready to play and finding a way to win that one.”