from Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

The Stanley Cup playoffs will begin April 10.

The Penguins’ plans for that day are far from settled.

Perhaps they will be finalizing preparations for Game 1 of an opening-round series against a still-undetermined opponent at a site that won’t be known for a while.

Or maybe they will be getting in their last full practice before beginning their Round 1 series the following night.

And it’s still possible, if not likely, that they’ll be a few days into the longest offseason the franchise has endured since the spring of 2006, the last time the Penguins needed cable TV – or enough spare cash to purchase a ticket in some other NHL market – to witness playoff hockey.

As usual, an array of factors will determine precisely what the Penguins will be doing – and where they will be doing it – when the league’s two-month postseason marathon gets underway.

The most significant variable might be their ability to get reasonably healthy, and stay that way because coping with, and ultimately overcoming, injuries is part of the challenge of winning a championship in the NHL.

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