PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – For a fourth straight game the Pens gave up at least four goals, falling 6-1 to New Jersey Thursday. It extended the losing streak now to three straight and the second, five-goal loss of the season.
“A good start would go a long way,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby. “We have been chasing games in the last few and it hasn’t been great for us. It starts there and try to put a few periods together. We have to be better. We are not playing the way we are capable of.”
It's hard facts they’ve been chasing games. Since January 21, only twice have the Pens scored first in a game. Once against the last place Kraken and the other time was against sixth place Ottawa.
“It’s difficult to be down 3-0 at the beginning of the game and fighting it the rest of the way trying to get back into to it,” said Pens defenseman Mike Matheson. “It’s not a recipe for success. You end up forcing things and trying to make plays that aren’t necessarily there just because you see the scoreboard reading 3-0.”
“You think, geez, we need to do something to get back in this game. It’s not a lack of will or care from anybody. It’s pretty obvious to me that everyone in the locker room wants to win as bad as possible.”
Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said they are having lapses in games and putting themselves in tough spots. He added the team has beaten themselves in a number of ways.
“I wouldn’t say it’s one thing,” Crosby said. “When you look at being in situations where you are not playing your game, you have to simplify things. It starts with winning battles and competing and everything seems to kind of follow when you have those details.”
“It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to string some periods together and we haven’t done a good job of that and result has shown that.”
“There is definitely frustration,” Matheson said. “Our job is to win hockey games and when you are not doing it, it is really frustrating. I think there would be an issue if there wasn’t any frustration. If we were in this rough stretch and no one cared.”
Having recently moved into first place in the Metropolitan Division, the Pens have lost 7 of their last 11 games. Coming up a first meeting of the year with the upstart Rangers Saturday at 3pm.