Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
The Penguins, struggling to find some traction in the cutthroat Metropolitan Division standings, are feeling good coming off what feels like a potential momentum-swinging win against a division rival.
The key, they say, will be following it up with another equally inspired performance in their next game.
That’s basically been the story of the Penguins’ last two weeks, and it will be again tonight against Carolina.
Each of the Penguins’ last three wins has been followed by talk of how it could serve as an inflection point for the season. The first two times, they came up flat their next time out.
The followed up a 3-2 shootout win against Columbus two weeks ago with a 4-0 debacle against the Ducks, and their emotional 5-4 victory against the Blue Jacket (also in a shootout) last week was backed up by a 2-1 loss in Carolina two nights later.
It’ll be the Hurricanes once again tonight, as the Penguins try and build on their 5-1 win in Philadelphia Tuesday. It was arguably their most complete performance of the season, but it’ll be pretty quickly forgotten if things go poorly tonight.
“We have to learn from it,” Patric Hornqvist said. “I think the [second] Columbus game was really good, then against Carolina we didn’t play well. Actually against Detroit [Dec. 31] I thought we had the effort, we had the scoring chances, but we couldn’t find the back of the net. That’s what happened in Philly. We had the chances, and we ended up winning 5-1. Don’t worry what’s happened before. Just look forward. It’s a new year, and a new opportunity for us.”
The Penguins are undefeated in 2018 so far, but getting to 2-0 will mean taking down the same Carolina team that beat them last week.
Mike Sullivan said he thought his team got outplayed in the second period of that game, but the other two were mostly even. Both Sullivan and Sidney Crosby said the key to beating the Hurricanes is making sure they don’t get transition opportunities the other way. Their first goal Friday night came on an odd-man rush in on Tristan Jarry.
“They're a fast team,” Crosby said. “I think just not feeding their transition — they can get going back there pretty quick — and I think just making sure we try and play in their end as much as possible. We did it for parts of the game, but not the whole 60 minutes the last time we played them.”
If they can get that 60-minute effort tonight, it could give the Penguins their first set of back-to-back wins since they beat the dismal Sabres twice in a row Dec. 1 and 2. For a team still on the outside of the playoff picture, putting consecutive wins together will be absolutely essential over the final 41 games.
“It means a lot,” Hornqvist said. “We need to string a few together here. If we don’t do that, we’re going to miss the playoffs. We can’t be one-and-done. We just have to find a way to be more consistent, at least here at home, too.”
Crosby said he was hopeful this team would be able to find the second gear that good teams have as the season turns into the second half. That starts tonight.
“Every point is so important now with the playoff race and where everyone is in the standings,” Crosby said. “These divisional games, these matchups, they're important. We've got to make sure that we follow it up.”
Morning notes:
- Brian Dumoulin and Carter Rowney were absent from the morning skate today. Sullivan said Dumoulin has been diagnosed with a concussion but is doing “extremely well” and is day-to-day. Rowney, meanwhile, will be out “longer-term,” at least four weeks, with an upper-body injury. Four weeks would include approximately 13 games.
- With those guys out, here were the lines this morning:
Simon-Crosby-Sheary
Hornqvist-Malkin-Kessel
Hagelin-Guentzel-Sprong
Kuhnhackl-Sheahan-Reaves
Hunwick-Letang
Maatta-Oleksiak
Cole-Schultz
- Matt Murray was the first goalie off, and he’ll start tonight, with Tristan Jarry (back today after leaving early Tuesday) presumably getting tomorrow night’s game in Brooklyn.
- No surprises on the first power-play unit: Letang, Malkin, Crosby, Hornqvist and Kessel. The second unit was: Schultz, Sheary, Sprong, Guentzel and Maatta/Oleksiak rotating in the last spot.
Sam Werner: swerner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SWernerPG
First Published: January 4, 2018, 5:25 p.m.