Covid forced the NHL into restructuring its divisions. Popular opinion holds that the realignment was not kind to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I’m not sure that’s true.

Washington has the NHL’s oldest roster. It lost starting goalie Braden Holtby, and Holtby’s replacement, Henrik Lundqvist, won’t play because of heart problems. Top-four defenseman Michael Kempny is likely out for the season. Besides the goaltender who can’t play, the Capitals’ key offseason gets were a 43-year-old defenseman, the wrong Van Riemsdyk and Penguins rejects Justin Schultz and Conor Sheary. Alex Ovechkin is 35. Can he score forever? (Maybe.)

Boston lost Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara, ravaging the left side of the defense. Each averaged more than 20 minutes per game. Krug was also the Bruins’ power-play quarterback, and a good one. The Bruins’ top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pasternak may be hockey’s best but scored a disproportionate 47% of the Bruins’ goals last season. The Bruins aren’t as old as Washington but are the league’s ninth-most elderly roster.

Philadelphia is a worry. The Flyers have the league’s youngest roster, and have a good team and good goalie (Carter Hart) simultaneously for the first time in decades. But last season, Claude Giroux dipped below a point per game for the first time since 2017. Jakub Voracek had just 12 goals in 69 games. The kiss of death: The Flyers got ex-Penguins defenseman Derrick Pouliot.

That last part is a joke: Pouliot won’t play anything but video games. But the Flyers still aren’t great in the back. Top defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov are undersized.

That’s not to say those teams should be discounted. Each is very good.

But each also has concerning flaws, like the Penguins.

The Penguins have zero bottom-six scoring and zero top-six depth. Witness impotent Evan Rodrigues filling in for passport-challenged Kasperi Kapanen on Sidney Crosby’s top line. When Rodrigues scored in a training-camp scrimmage last week, the referee should have stopped the fight. No one can move up the depth chart easily when a top-six forward isn’t available. (Maybe Brandon Tanev can, but he never does.)

The Penguins’ defense is better than it’s getting credit for outside Pittsburgh. Same goes for Tristan Jarry, who should have been the No. 1 goaltender last season.

There are lots of questions about the Penguins, not least the age of their stars and the willingness of those stars to adjust accordingly. The latter wasn’t on display in this past season’s playoff loss to No. 24 seed Montreal, nor was a Plan B on the part of coach Mike Sullivan. The Penguins want to play a speed game but aren’t as fast as they were or as they think they still are.

When the entire MassMutual Division is considered, the Penguins are likely to be battling the New York Islanders and New York Rangers for the fourth and last playoff spot.

But they’re only slightly less likely to be battling for first place. It will be an extremely fine line. It’s easy to imagine the Penguins continuing a descent than has seen them not win a playoff series since 2018. It’s also easy to imagine Boston or Washington sliding because of age or Philadelphia faltering because “the Flyers is the Flyers,” as JuJu Smith-Schuster might say.

The New York Islanders and New York Rangers might sneak up from behind.

But the Islanders succeed based almost purely on system. That grinds a team down, and specifically wears out creative talent like Mathew Barzal.

The Rangers have legit youngsters sprinkled through their roster, including 2020 first overall draft pick Alexis Lafreniere, 2019 second pick Kaapo Kakko and two options in goal. MVP finalist Artemi Panarin is the league’s best winger. But to make the playoffs, the Rangers would have to arrive early. They signed Jack Johnson, don’t forget.

Philadelphia wins the MassMutual. It pains me to write that. (Or maybe it’s a tribute to Stan Fischler.) The Penguins, Boston and Washington could finish anywhere from second to fifth. The Islanders and Rangers could creep up. Covid could beat everybody.

If you put me to a decision, here goes: 1. Philadelphia. 2. Boston. 3. Penguins. 4. Washington. 5. Rangers. 6. Islanders. 7. Buffalo. 8. New Jersey.

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