T.J. Oshie scored an empty-net goal to break a 1-1 tie with three minutes to go in the third period, and the Capitals went on to defeat the Flyers, 2-1, at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The win clinched the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference for Washington, who will face the top-seeded Rangers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Capitals’ victory officially eliminated the Penguins from the postseason. Pittsburgh will now be home watching the playoffs for a second straight season. The Red Wings, who defeated the Montreal Canadians in overtime for the second night in a row on Tuesday night, were also eliminated due to Washington owning the tiebreaker. The Flyers were also eliminated, and if you want to know why their head coach, John Tortorella, pulled his goalie late in a tie game, it was because Philadelphia had to win in regulation to keep its postseason chances alive. Therefore, if you think he screwed the Penguins and Red Wings with his decision, think again.

Everyone has to take care of their own business first.

As it pertained to the Penguins, they failed to do that for most of the season, so they needed to go on an 8-1-3 run over the final couple of weeks just to be on the bubble for the final wildcard spot.

Pittsburgh came into the season as the oldest team in the NHL, and that number was enhanced slightly thanks to a trade with the San Jose Sharks last summer that brought defenseman Erik Karlsson to town.

Karlsson, 33, came to Pittsburgh as one of the best offensive-defenseman of all time and one of the greatest power-play quarterbacks in recent memory. The belief was that he would help to improve a Penguins power play that was often underwhelming despite the presence of some of the greatest offensive firepower in the NHL–including Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Unfortunately, after finishing in the middle of the pack at 21 percent in 2023, Pittsburgh is dead to last with a 14.6 percent conversion rate on the power play in 2024.

Instead of improving an older core that was underperforming, Karlsson just became another member of an older core that underperformed.

You couldn’t say that about Crosby, however. No, the 36-year-old has produced one of his better seasons in recent memory, as he’s scored 92 points–including 42 goals and 50 assists. Crosby basically put the Penguins on his back and dragged them onto the playoff bubble in the final weeks of the 2023/2024 regular season. Crosby has been so good this season that he was voted the NHL’s most complete player by his peers for the fifth year in a row. 

Some argued that the Penguins shouldn’t have traded away popular forward and prolific goal-scorer, Jake Guentzel, at the deadline. If they hadn’t, maybe he would have been enough to put them into the playoffs. Sorry, but Pittsburgh had all season to prove to general manager Kyle Dubas that Guentzel was worth keeping around despite this being the last year of his contract. Besides that, one of the assets Dubas acquired in the trade, veteran Michael Bunting, has been one of Pittsburgh’s best players during this recent resurgence.

That’s right, I’m still talking in the present tense because the Penguins have one game remaining against the Islanders at UBS Arena on Wednesday night.

Will it be surreal watching the Penguins skate around in a meaningless regular-season game? Not any less surreal than it was last year at this time.