The Metropolitan Division has produced the past three Stanley Cup champions and, after Monday's shocking news out of Washington, it is the only division with a coaching vacancy. Two of them, in fact.
Now that Barry Trotz has resigned his post, the Capitals join the Islanders as the only NHL teams without a coach.
As far as the Penguins are concerned, that's not such a bad thing.
First, to the Capitals. The odds of them repeating as Stanley Cup champions are already slim to begin with. That's what made the Penguins' run to the Cup in 2017 all the more remarkable. It's just about impossible to do in this day and age of parity and a salary cap.
Give Trotz and the Capitals credit for finally winning the Cup, but it always felt more like a salvage mission. It was more about rescuing the legacy of Alex Ovechkin and less about the start of a budding dynasty.
The track record for teams with a different coach after winning the Stanley Cup is even less inspiring. It's only happened four other times.
The 1992 Penguins are the only team to repeat with a different coach and that was under extremely extenuating circumstances, not something as trivial as a contract dispute. Scotty Bowman was made coach only after the death of Bob Johnson. Not to diminish either coach, though, the Penguins had Mario Lemieux -- arguably the best player of all time -- and quite the supporting cast around him.
When Bowman left the Canadiens after Montreal's fourth straight championship to become GM in Buffalo, the Canadiens lost in the second round in 1980 under Serge Savard. It also didn't help that Ken Dryden retired.
When Bowman retired for good following the Red Wings' 2002 championship, Detroit lost in the first round the following season under Dave Lewis.
When Mike Keenan abruptly left the Rangers following their 1994 Cup win, New York got swept in the second round the following year with Colin Campbell behind the bench.
How much longer the Metro will have two vacancies remains to be seen, but the guess is it won't be for much longer.
Todd Reirden, the former assistant under Dan Bylsma and for the last four years on Trotz's staff in Washington, is the front-runner for the job. He'd be an outstanding choice and would certainly bring some continuity.
No matter who is coach, the Capitals are still going to be a playoff team. But Trotz represented the Capitals' best chance at repeating. No matter how slim the odds.
• What would be interesting is if Trotz jumps ship to take over the Islanders. The 55-year-old will have more options available down the road but the Islanders job should be fairly attractive. Seriously.
Though New York has missed the postseason the last two years and John Tavares is still a pending unrestricted free agent, the situation is not bleak.
The Islanders are returning to the renovated Nassau Coliseum while their new home is being built near Belmont Park, which will go a long way toward finally bringing stability to the organization after the failed Brooklyn experiment. And then there is the recent hire of Lou Lamoriello as president.
Obviously, Lamoriello's first order of business is to get Tavares' signature on a new contract, but if he can woo Trotz that's quite a bargaining chip.
Though he's 75, Lamoriello still knows how to build teams and Trotz is fifth all-time in coaching wins with 762, 20 shy of Al Arbour.
That's not to suggest this would make the Islanders a Cup contender but it could make them another team in the Metro that the Penguins would have to contend with.
• The Ottawa Senators have gone from a Chris Kunitz goal in overtime of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final into a complete dumpster fire in a little over a year.
Coming off a massively disappointing 67-point season, the on-ice stuff is almost the least of their problems.
First, assistant GM Randy Lee was charged with second-degree harassment for allegedly making lewd comments and rubbing the shoulders of a 19-year-old male hotel shuttle driver during the combine in Buffalo on May 3. He has pleaded not guilty and will have his day in court next month.
Then, Monika Caryk, the fiancee of forward Mike Hoffman, was accused of cyberbullying the wife of star captain Erik Karlsson about miscarrying the couple's son.
With little option, the Senators shipped Hoffman for pennies on the dollar to the Sharks on Tuesday, who immediately flipped him to the Panthers.
And now the Senators have to turn their attention to retaining Karlsson, a UFA next summer, who has long been rumored to be on the block. Given all of the above, Karlsson would be well within his right to want out.
And who says the NHL is boring?
• So after months of speculation, the Penguins didn't land Max Domi in a trade from the Coyotes. The son of Tie Domi -- a good friend of Lemieux, if you hadn't heard -- was dealt to Montreal straight up for Alex Galchenyuk.
Domi would have looked good in a Penguins sweater and, for that matter, so would've Galchenyuk.
That deal was essentially made to give both underachieving former first rounders a change of scenery. If the Penguins do make a deal this weekend or before the start of free agency July 1, I'd suspect it might be in more line of landing a reclamation project and not a trade of the blockbuster variety.
• Nobody asked me, but if I'm the Penguins, I'm selecting Jack Drury with the 56th overall pick.
That's if he's still available, of course. He's the 27th-ranked North American skater according to Central Scouting and mock drafts have him going as high as early in the second round.
But the Harvard freshman-to-be seems to have all the traits that the Penguins look for and have had success with in the recent past. He has a high motor, plays a 200-foot game with tenacity and is intelligent, obviously. It also doesn't hurt that his bloodlines include his father, Ted Drury, and his uncle, Chris Drury.
• Whoever the Penguins take in this weekend's draft, chances are you can see them up close and personal next week at the Penguins development camp at the Lemieux Sports Complex. The three-day event concludes next Friday with a 3-on-3 tournament. Seriously, if you're in need of a hockey fix, this is always a pretty cool event to see.
• Now that Vegas has an NHL team, does Sin City still have to host the NHL Awards every year? I get wanting to hold it in a destination city and no arms have to be twisted to get players -- or media -- to go there. But aren't there any other cities? Why not a rotation of Miami, L.A., New York and Vancouver? I mean, how hard is it to attract a celebrity host who butchers the names of the league's star players?