The Penguins look finished, but can they make a final playoff push?

Of course Marc-André Fleury will be waiting between the pipes for Minnesota tonight.

Of course he will.

These Penguins are so theatrical, it couldn’t have worked any other way.

The Penguins face a very real possibility of missing the postseason for the first time since 2006. They no longer control their own destiny. We’ll have a much better feel for their chances by about 10 p.m. ET Thursday. Even if the Penguins miss the playoffs, you have to appreciate how dramatic their gradual erosion has been. They didn’t just fade away early in the season and make a playoff absence inevitable. Far from it. At the holiday break, Dom Luszczyszyn’s model gave the Penguins a 97 percent chance of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Slowly, painfully, they have broken down before our very eyes, blowing games because of a general inability to play intelligent hockey. It’s been something to watch, like a Broadway play, which is apropos because their most recent playoff appearance was on Broadway. And they didn’t just lose. They lost in overtime of Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. Because of course they did.

The Penguins are 4-8 in their past 12 games. For all of their greatness this season, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are finally showing some wear and tear. Crosby hasn’t scored a goal in six games and has only two goals over those 12 games. He went seven games without an assist, the longest such stretch of his career.

Malkin, like Crosby, has only two goals during those 12 games. He’s gone five games without a goal, his most noteworthy moment during that stretch being a temper tantrum that got him ejected on Sunday against the Flyers.

Kris Letang? He doesn’t have a goal in 11 games, doesn’t have a point in three and has been a microcosm of the Penguins’ volatility all season.

Do the big guys have anything left? That storyline alone is enough to find yourself a ticket to PPG Paints Arena on Thursday, is it not?

These Penguins are never boring, which is part of their charm.

I find it interesting to note which four games they’ve won during this otherwise dreadful stretch of hockey:

They won in Colorado in dominant fashion.

That game was a masterpiece from Crosby. He had but one point, and yet, he was easily the best player on the ice. It was a startlingly brilliant performance from him. Don’t think for a moment that Crosby, Malkin and Letang don’t see themselves when they see Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar. The Avalanche are what the Penguins once were. For one night, the Penguins put it all together and put on a show when confronted with their past selves.

They beat the Capitals in their most riveting win of the season.

After blowing a 3-0 lead, Malkin scored the goal of the season to deliver a dramatic win. The Penguins and Capitals have waged war for 15 unforgettable seasons. Washington was effectively eliminated from playoff contention by that loss. And while the Capitals finally won a battle against the Penguins in 2018, there was a sense in the Penguins locker room that night that they wished to remind the Capitals of who won the war. When the Penguins see Alex Ovechkin and his teammates, they feel a little younger, a little more engaged. I’m convinced of that.

They beat Nashville.

It’s been six years, but they climbed hockey’s Mount Everest against the Predators. It was fitting that this group beat Nashville twice in the last couple of months.

They beat the Flyers to sweep the season series.

Some rivalries never really die.

So, to summarize, the Penguins beat their two longest-standing rivals, they beat the team they last defeated to win the Stanley Cup and they beat the reigning champions. A cynic would say this was all coincidental.

I don’t really see it that way. Collectively speaking, I think this team’s legs are shot. They show up on some nights, sure, but on many others, there is just sluggishness galore. Like in New Jersey on Tuesday, for instance. Twitter was erupting with tweets saying “They don’t care! Where’s the passion?”

But they do care. I assure you they care. If their legs are dead, hockey teams have a funny way of looking like they don’t care. This is hockey’s oldest team by a mile.

I suspect some mental fatigue has settled in, too. Even Crosby, Malkin and Letang have their limits.

Crosby, Malkin and Letang have combined for only five goals over those past 12 games, which isn’t surprising. When they aren’t playing highly productive hockey, the Penguins simply can’t win. They’ve proven it. Their third and fourth lines are obscenely bad because of horrendous roster management. We’re talking Mikael Granlund. We’re talking Jeff Carter. We’re talking Danton Heinen. We’re talking Josh Archibald.

Look at the blue line. Chad Ruhwedel is playing every night. Mark Friedman is playing every night. Pierre-Olivier Joseph looks out of gas from his first full NHL season. Brian Dumoulin isn’t really Brian Dumoulin anymore. Jeff Petry has been horribly disappointing.

There’s considerable pressure on Letang, who has understandably had some other things on his mind this season.

In the end, this whole season is about Crosby, Malkin and Letang, right? The rest of this Penguins team, apart from Jason Zucker, Rickard Rakell and Marcus Pettersson, has been outrageously disappointing.

All that’s left of this season is the Penguins’ playoff streak, to see if Crosby, Malkin and Letang can will Pittsburgh into the playoffs. The last couple of weeks, quite frankly, don’t indicate that the odds are in their favor.

But maybe facing Flower is the stimulation they need. Before the Big Three led the Penguins, there was the Foundation Four. This could be the final time Fleury, 38, plays in Pittsburgh. It’s getting close to that time. And if Minnesota wins Thursday, the Penguins are probably through.

How’s that for some drama?

The Penguins have had a city’s attention for a generation. There have been three championships, Hall of Famers, superstars and unrivaled consistency. It’s been the golden era of Pittsburgh hockey.

That chapter may finally close tonight. Or, maybe the Big Three push the sun into the sky for another day.

Either way, it won’t be boring.

(Photo of Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)