Forget the Metro, so how about home-ice advantage now?

Disappointing? Blown opportunity? Yeah, the Penguins will concur with both of those.

But in the grand scheme of things, their 3-1 loss to the Capitals is not a cause for great concern, they say.  No need to put the Smithfield Street Bridge on high alert.

Indeed, recent history suggests that the Penguins will get by just fine after the "sting" of not winning the Metropolitan Division ... for the third straight year. Sure, it would have been nice to hang another banner from the rafters at PPG Paints Arena, but the only banners they care for are the ones that read "Stanley Cup" and "Champions."

You know, just like the ones they won in 2016 and '17, when they also didn't win their division.

"We never win the division," said Evgeni Malkin, apparently forgetting the 2013-14 title that the Penguins won in the inaugural season of the Metro. "It's not the first time. So it's not a surprise. We're fine."

Matt Murray didn't seem too concerned:

Mike Sullivan's disappointment in not winning the division?

"Hadn’t really given much thought about it, to be honest with you," he said. "We're in this for the ultimate goal. Would it have been nice to win a division? Sure, it would have been."

All of which is true. But the thing is, in each of the last two years the Penguins won the Cup by finishing second in the Metro and having home ice advantage in the first round.

And make no mistake, home is where the Penguins would like to be. Even after Sunday's loss, they still have the NHL's second-best home record at 29-9-2. On the road? They are 16-20-4, their 36 points ranking 20th in the league.

Second place is where they currently reside, but they hold just a tenuous two-point lead on the Blue Jackets, who they will face Thursday night in Columbus before finishing out the season Friday night at home against the Senators.

Needless to say those two games, Thursday's in particular, will take on far greater significance, as Sidney Crosby was telling me:

The Blue Jackets still have a game in hand on Pittsburgh with upcoming games against the hapless Red Wings on Tuesday, the Penguins on Thursday and then the NHL-leading Predators, who figure to be sitting out some regulars in a meaningless season finale, on Saturday. Just can't see the Predators doing the Penguins any favors there.

Oh, and the Blue Jackets have won 12 of their last 14 and one of their two losses was by one goal and the other was in overtime.

Is the possibility of not having home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs a deal-breaker for the Penguins? Hardly. But, much like everything else this season, it won't be easy.

1. Power play can’t finish.

The Penguins not only missed their chance at possibly winning a division, they missed their chances on the power play. All five of them, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 1:20 in the second period.

The NHL’s top-ranked unit had good entries, extended zone time, were able to work the puck around quickly and had plenty of shots (a dozen to be exact). They basically did everything but the most important thing: Score.

Sullivan said: “I thought that’s probably as good as our power play has looked in the last month.”

Don’t know about that, but they definitely had their chances and when they did, things happened like Malkin absolutely drilling the crossbar behind Philipp Grubauer:

“That’s how it goes sometimes,” Crosby said. “We probably executed better than we did the last few games. The last game we got (three goals). Tonight we got nothing. If we continue to get those looks, the puck will go in the net.”

The Penguins should only hope so.  It was the second straight game that they received five power play opportunities. Of course, the ones they got Saturday were against the Canadiens and their 31st-ranked penalty kill.

Strangely enough, this was the third game this season that the Penguins have failed to convert when receiving five chances — Oct. 7 vs. Nashville and Feb. 6 vs. Vegas — and the first time they’ve lost.

2. Can’t blame the penalty kill this time.

The one area the Penguins really need to clean up before the start of the playoffs is the penalty kill, and this was a good start.

Once ranked as high as fifth and now down to 20th, the PK actually did yeoman’s work against the Capitals’ seventh-ranked power play.  Washington also went 0-for-5 on 11 shots, despite having an offensive arsenal that rivals Pittsburgh's with T.J. Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson on the No. 1 unit.

Sunday’s game was the first in five games that the Penguins didn’t yield a power play goal. So there's that. The last team to go 0-for-5 against the Penguins PK was the Flyers on March 7.

Other than a really poor Olli Maatta clearing attempt on Washington’s first power play, there wasn’t much not to like.

3. Orlov’s goal was a backbreaker.

All you needed to know about the importance of this game and how badly the Penguins wanted to win was when Sullivan announced that Matt Murray would be starting in goal.

It was the first time that he’d started both ends of a back-to-back this season (they've had 18 of those). With both games at home this weekend and with a chance to get Murray into a rhythm, Sullivan was all-in with his No. 1 goalie.

But Murray was just OK, making 31 saves on 34 shots. But this goal he allowed to Dmitri Orlov at 13:46 of the second period was especially deflating after the Penguins had been swarming the Capitals’ net on a power play seconds earlier:

Granted, Orlov used Maatta as a screen on the wrister but any shot from the top of the circles is a save that Murray needs to make.  Murray said Maatta's screen fooled him a little bit, but he was otherwise fine with the defense in front of him.

"Pretty solid for the most part," Murray said. "They’re a good team so they’re going to get their looks, but I thought we did a pretty good job of forcing them to create instead of giving them too many free opportunities."

4. Notable milestones and streaks were extended. 

Indeed, after a few anxious hours, Phil Kessel extended his consecutive games played streak to 690 after suffering a lower body injury a night earlier against the Canadiens.

Kessel was a game-time decision but gave it a go after testing his injury during warmup. He had three shots on goal, to match his number of giveaways, to say nothing of his minus-2.

As impressive as Kessel's games streak is, 10th longest all-time, it was second fiddle on this night to Alex Ovechkin, who played in his 1,000th career game. Ovechkin was relatively quiet by his standards with four shots, one of them a nice right pad stop by Murray in the opening minute of the game.

Ovechkin became the 321st player and seventh Russian — joining Sergei Gonchar, Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Zhitnik, Sergei Zubov, Slava Kozlov and Alexei Kovalev — to reach the milestone.

While it's quite popular in these parts to carp about Ovechkin — he was booed lustily every time he touched the puck, as usual — and his playoff shortcomings, it is quite remarkable that he's been so durable given the reckless abandon with which he plays the game.

Just for comparison's sake: Crosby, who also entered the league in 2005-06, played in his 862nd career game on Sunday. He won't reach game No. 1,000 until midway through the 2019-20 season. If all goes well.

5. You don't step on Superman's cape.

And you don't yell at Malkin in Russian while on the bench.

Seriously, that's apparently what set him off in the final minute of the game.

The bizarre episode started when Malkin flung the stick out of Oshie's hands and engaged him in a glorified wrestling match between the benches. Apparently, fellow Russian Evgeny Kuznetsov had some choice words for Malkin, who had to be restrained from going back on the ice after receiving a 10-minute misconduct.

If you can read lips, this will be highly entertaining:

"He spoke Russian when I fought Oshie," Malkin said. "I don't know why he's speaking to me in Russian. If you're sitting on the bench, you sit on the bench. You're not on the ice."

Kuznetsov wasn't available to reporters, and neither Oshie nor Ovechkin claimed to understand what set off Malkin.

"I didn't understand what he was saying," Ovechkin said.

"I kind of turned into him, and we collided," Oshie said. "After that, I have no idea what happened."

Malkin said he wanted to send a message to the Capitals that his team was "ready for the playoffs." Given the history of bad blood between the teams, it was all rather predictable. They combined for 38 penalty minutes but it was mostly scrums and face-washes, you know, playoff hockey.

Malkin is probably not the player the Penguins want involved in that stuff, but Sullivan said he was fine with it.

"Geno’s an emotional guy and he plays his best when he’s engaged and he’s invested emotionally," he said. "I thought he played hard tonight. What took place at the end took place on both sides. It wasn’t on one side. That’s hockey." 

Have to wonder though if any of this stuff happens if Ryan Reaves is still with the Penguins. Keep in mind that the Penguins acquired Reaves for the express purpose that he would be a deterrence specifically against — you guessed it — the Capitals and Blue Jackets.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY