PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – A couple of necessary wins over the weekend got the Pens back into the top two Wild Card playoff spots. A three-game road trip starts Tuesday at Nashville with the question-can they keep it going?
The last time the Pens won three in a row was after a victory at Florida on December 15.
“We got to focus on the now and build on these two,” said Pens defenseman Brian Dumoulin. “We got to continue to try to build. We can’t focus on what those last two months were like. We got to believe in this group. We got to have a good feeling in this room. We have to trust each other, work for each other and continue to play playoff hockey.”
“We can’t exhale. We can handle momentum better, we got to stay in the moment and keep growing as a team.”
“Still a long way to go and It’s just two games, but I think we did a lot of good things,” said Pens forward Teddy Blueger. “We responded well. Still tough games ahead of us. Each game is crucial. It was a good weekend, we have to move by it and focus on the next one.”
“I think it’s something we can build on for sure,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “Every game is a new challenge, but certainly I think our team can take a lot of confidence out of the last couple of games that we played. Every team that we play in this league is a tough challenge. The fact that we beat two pretty good teams. I think our guys need to take away a positive feeling.”
What was different in the two games was where they got the scoring. Evgeni Malkin started the scoring in the 3-2 overtime win in St. Louis, but defenseman Marcus Pettersson scored his first goal of the year and in OT, Bryan Rust scored his first in seven games. Against Tampa Bay-Drew O’Connor, Brian Dumoulin scored his first, Blueger with his second and Jeff Carter scored for just the second time since early January to lead the Pens to wins.
“We played the game the right way,” Sullivan said. “We were trying to defend when we had to. Our goaltenders made some timely saves when we broke down or made some mistakes. From a process standpoint, our intent was where it needed to be. Our energy, our effort were where it needed to be for us to have success. Those are things we can build on.”
“Doing the little things consistently well. Our coaching staff believes that’s an important aspect of winning games. We are not asking players to move mountains out there. Focus on the task at hand, stay in the moments. Do the little things consistently well-protecting the net front, knowing your responsibilities off faceoff losses, the wall play, controlling the net fronts t both ends of the rink, being strong in puck battles. We talk about this stuff daily.”
“That has to be part of the mantra going forward.”
Tuesday night it’s facing a Nashville team still with a chance to make the playoffs, but yet appear to be sellers before Friday’s trade deadline. While the Pens are in the second spot, they are only one point up on Buffalo, three on Detroit, Washington and the Panthers and five on Ottawa.
“I think we just got to put ourselves in the position to get in,” Dumoulin said. “Give us a chance, a know a lot of teams don’t want to play us in the playoffs. We just to keep building, keep working for each other and getting better. From now on we have to play playoff hockey to get in.”
“We can’t exhale. We can handle momentum better, we got to stay in the moment and keep growing as a team.”
“It provides evidence that when we play a certain way, we can have success,” Sullivan said. “I think anytime, as a coaching staff, when you are trying to preach a certain message or you are trying to get across a certain message to the group, it’s important that you have success so that there is tangible evidence that if we play the game a certain way, success will follow. I think we can build on this weekend. We have a lot of tough challenges ahead of us.”