from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

Good luck to the Penguins trying to bounce back from this defeat.

It is not a stretch to say their 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders in double overtime Monday night was one of the most painful playoff losses in franchise history....

But this latest loss still hurt badly.

The damn Islanders, right?

This is becoming a really rotten trend.

By losing Game 5 despite thoroughly outplaying the Islanders, the Penguins need to win Game 6 on Long Island on Wednesday night and Game 7 back at PPG Paints Arena on Friday night to avoid falling to 1-5 against the Islanders in postseason series. If they lose either game, they will be bounced from the playoffs in the first round for the third consecutive season.

There are two ways of looking at the Penguins’ chances for survival:

One, they need only to match their effort from Monday night in Game 6 in order to live and play another day.

Or two, they took their best shot at the Islanders, and it wasn’t good enough.

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