Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins were lost two weeks ago. Now they’re in the playoff mix

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby insists he’s not a scoreboard watcher.

Not publicly anyway. Maybe it’s because the Pittsburgh Penguins’ longtime captain is too occupied with his team to worry about anyone else. Or maybe it’s because Crosby never had much reason to check during Pittsburgh’s run to 16 straight playoff berths between 2007 and 2022.

Or maybe it’s simply because Crosby doesn’t have to check his phone to figure out where the Penguins stand. The evidence is on the countless videoboards that greet players wherever they go inside PPG Paints Arena.

“When

I come to the rink, it’s on everywhere,” Crosby said with a smile. “So it’s hard to miss it.”

So is his team’s sudden — and unexpected — late-season push.

Two weeks ago the Penguins were nine points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Fourteen days and 12 out of a possible 14 points later, Pittsburgh will take the ice Thursday against Detroit tied with the Red Wings for ninth in the East, just one point back of Washington with four games remaining.

Heady territory for a team that looked as if it was going through the motions in the aftermath of the trade that sent Stanley Cupwinning forward Jake Guentzel to Carolina. The night the move was made, the Penguins

were in a daze while getting drilled 6-0 by Washington. The cloud lingered.

“You acknowledge it and you try to push it down, you try not to think about it, but it affects everybody,” goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said.

Seven losses over their next nine games followed. It wasn’t until Guenztel’s return in a Hurricanes uniform that the Penguins appeared to wake up. A 4-1 win over Carolina in which Pittsburgh skated with a purpose and discipline that’s been elusive over the previous five months provided a reminder to the guys in the room that the Penguins could still hang with the league’s best when they’re not sulking or making the kinds of mistakes that let multigoal leads evaporate, a common theme during their first 70ish games.

That confidence has surged in lockstep with the emergence of Nedeljkovic. Signed in the offseason to serve as the backup to Tristan Jarry, Nedeljkovic has become a fixture in the lineup during the most important time of the season.

Not that he wants to talk about it. Nedeljkovic, who is 6-02 in his past eight starts, shrugs when asked about his impact. Instead, he points to what’s going on in front of him.

“We haven’t given up a lot of odd-man rushes,” Nedeljkovic said. “We haven’t given up a ton of grade-A chances. We’ve done a good job of keeping things to the outside and then when it matters in the last five, six minutes of the game we’ve really buckled down.”