The Pittsburgh Penguins are entering play this weekend still trying to capture a second consecutive Stanley Cup.

While it is hopeful they secure it, the fact this team is even in position to win the Cup is nothing short of incredible.

If this sport was anything but hockey, the Penguins would be a national story.

The injuries sustained by this club during the regular season and the playoffs have been more than enough to derail any team.

The last time the Pens repeated as Cup champion was in 1992. The best way to put this year’s team’s injuries in perspective is to draw a comparison with that team.

Matt Murray, this year’s No. 1 goaltender, gets hurt during pre-game warmups in the first game of the playoffs. He does not see the ice again until the Ottawa series in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Take netminder Tom Barrasso out of the equation for the 1992 Penguins in the first two rounds of the playoffs that year. Do they survive?

Probably not.

But let’s say they do.

This year’s Penguins haven’t had Kris Letang, one of the NHL’s top defensemen, throughout the playoffs.

That’s like saying the 1991 Penguins had to win the Cup without Paul Coffey — or the 1992 Pens had to do so without Larry Murphy. Coffey was traded during the 1991-92 season.

Either way, do the Pens win the Cup in either year, without Coffey or Murphy? Not likely.

Ian Schultz missed a number of playoff games this postseason. He’s the Pens’ No. 2 defenseman. So, take Ulf Samuelsson out of the mix for the 1992 team, or Murphy out of there along with Coffey in 1991.

You get the point.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Connor Sheary, Bryan Rust, Carl Hagelin, Trevor Daley, Patrick Hornqvist, Nick Bonino, Olli Maata ... You can go on and on. All of these guys have missed significant time, either in the regular season, postseason or both.

Yet, somehow, the Penguins finished with the second-best record in the NHL’s regular season.

They survived top-seeded Washington in seven games. They got past gritty Ottawa in seven games. They’re trying to survive a Nashville team energized by a city that has never won anything in pro sports.

When a team gets as beat up as the Penguins did this year, this stuff’s not supposed to happen.

Injuries and fatigue can take a team out in hockey.

That’s why it’s so hard to repeat as Stanley Cup champs in the first place.

If the Penguins wind up hoisting the Cup again, it will cap a truly remarkable run. They will have almost willed themselves to a championship.

The fact they have willed themselves this far is a testament to what they have.

Whether they emerge victorious or fall just short, the Penguins have the heart of a champion.

No one can dispute that.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle