Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jared McCann used the “F” word repeatedly Saturday evening in the aftermath of his team’s 1-0 home win against the Buffalo Sabres at PPG Paints Arena.

He uttered it at least three or four times.

It was clear he had a message he wanted to convey.

“We did everything we did to put ourselves in the best possible spot,” McCann said. “We’re just going to look to who we’re going to play and just stay focused.”

With the Penguins wrapping up the 2020-21 regular season Saturday, McCann and his teammates appeared to turn their gaze quickly to the postseason, for which the NHL has yet to announce a start date.

When the Penguins will play next will remain uncertain.

What seed they will have was determined later Saturday night thanks to their rivals, the Washington Capitals, requiring overtime to defeat their other rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, at Capital One Arena in Washington. That result allowed the Penguins to win their first division title since 2013-14.

Locked into the top seed of the East Division, the Penguins will have home ice for the first round of the postseason, as well as the second round, should they advance that far. They will face the Boston Bruins or the New York Islanders in the first round.

“We like how our game has grown here over the course of the (season),” coach Mike Sullivan said. “For the most part, when you look at the last six weeks of the season, I feel like we’ve got better at our team game. Some of our newer guys are more familiar with how we’re trying to play right now. … We really like the group that’s assembled here. They’re real good people. I think they’re a tight group. They play hard for one another. We think we have sufficient depth here.

“We’re excited about the opportunity that’s in front of us. We know how difficult it is to win. We’re going to have go out and earn it each and every game.”

The Sabres definitely made the Penguins earn a victory in their season finale, outshooting them 29-23.

The only score came 1 minute, 58 seconds into the second period thanks to forward Jeff Carter, who collected four goals during Thursday’s 8-4 home win against the Sabres. Stealing a puck from Sabres defenseman Colin Miller off of Buffalo’s end boards, Penguins forward Frederick Gaudreau shuffled a pass to the front of the crease. Sabres forward Anders Bjork broke up the pass but deflected the puck into Carter’s right shoulder and it caromed into the cage. Carter was credited with his 17th goal of the season.

Goaltender Maxime Lagace, making his Penguins debut, made 29 saves to record his first career shutout.

There was an anxious moment late in regulation over the well-being of Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin. After his right knee collided with Sabres forward Dylan Cozens in the third period, Malkin did not record a shift for the final 8:48 of regulation.

“(Malkin) thought he tweaked something on that collision,” Sullivan said. “He got checked out afterwards and felt fine. We don’t anticipate any issues moving forward. We held him out for precautionary reasons down the stretch.”

The Penguins’ second line center, Malkin recently missed 23 games due to a presumed right knee ailment.

Having just completed a challenging regular season unlike any in NHL history because of the pandemic, the Penguins are ready for an entirely different challenge in the postseason.

“As an organization, we’ve handled very well,” McCann said of the rigors of the regular season. “Moving forward here, we’re just going to stay focused and look forward to the playoffs.”

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