Penguins shockingly eliminated from Stanley Cup qualifiers, but now have chance to win NHL Draft Lottery

There’s a reason for the Pittsburgh Penguins to look on the bright side of elimination

After the 2019-20 NHL season was paused back in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, the league and NHL Players Association began negotiating a return-to-play tournament. Initially, the Stanley Cup Qualifying Round was to feature best-of-three series’, but reports indicated that the Pittsburgh Penguins shot down this idea due to their fear of playing the Montreal Canadiens and their goaltender, Carey Price.

Even with the league agreeing to a best-of-five, the Penguins still couldn’t figure out the Canadiens, as they were eliminated in four games following their 2-0 loss on Friday. Even though it’s bad Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins won’t be making a run for the Stanley Cup, they received a pretty grand consolation prize:

A 12.5% chance of winning the first overall pick in the NHL Draft Lottery and the opportunity to select top prospect Alexis Lafreniere.

Penguins never had it in Toronto

The Stanley Cup Qualifying Round featured some pretty puzzling goaltending decisions by NHL coaches. That included Penguins coach Mike Sullivan, who opted to start Matt Murray in net for the first three games of the series instead of Tristan Jarry, who was impressive prior to the pause of the season.

Montreal took the first game of the series 3-2 in overtime on a goal by Jeff Petry, but Pittsburgh evened things up in the following contest with a 3-1 win. In Game 3, the Penguins had a 3-1 lead entering the third period, but Murray collapsed and surrendered three goals in the losing effort. With Montreal holding all the momentum entering Game 4, Sullivan named Jarry the starting goalie for a switch in luck and fortune.

The contest was dead-even through the first two periods of the contest, but Montreal got on the board in the third, thanks to a goal from Artturi Lehkonen with over four minutes remaining in regulation. Shea Weber would provide the dagger in the form of an empty-net goal in the waning seconds of the game. Price was unstoppable between the posts, as he stopped all 22 shots on net by Pittsburgh.

No one thought that the Penguins would be leaving the Toronto bubble this early, but here we are. Now, the team has a 1-in-8 chance of winning the first overall pick in Monday’s NHL Draft Lottery. If they do so, they’ll secure the rights to select winger Lafreniere, who is the universal top prospect in the entire draft class. This past season in the QMJHL with the Rimouski Oceanic, Lafreniere scored 35 goals and tallied 77 assists in just 52 games, per Elite Prospects. That’s how good this kid is!

Lafrienere lining up alongside Crosby is a nightmare scenario for any non-Penguins fans. But as 2020 has proven, anything and everything can happen, so we can’t rule this ridiculous possibility out.