Penguins profess confidence in trying to snap 4-game losing streak

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been through this before.

Especially these Penguins.

A four-game losing streak is far from ideal. But it’s not cataclysmic either.

This group of Penguins has been through worse.

They know how to pull the nose up.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” said defenseman Brian Dumoulin, one of the team’s more vocal leaders. “We know things haven’t gone our way these last four games. But we’ve got to have a short memory. I’m a guy that likes to stay in the moment as best I can, forget what happened. Just got to focus on playing the best we can.”

Little of what the Penguins have offered over the past four games, all road losses, has resembled what anyone could label as their best.

Their recently completed five-game road trip was concluded with four consecutive losses in which they were outscored 18-6. And it would be charitable to suggest the Penguins looked all that competitive in any of those defeats, with the lone exception, possibly, a 3-1 loss Saturday to the Seattle Kraken, a second-year expansion franchise.

“Obviously, it was a tough road trip,” forward Kasperi Kapanen said. “Teams go through that. I think it’s good that we’re kind of getting that early on, not later on in the season. Just focus and just simplify the game. Just get more pucks to the net. I don’t think we’ve been shooting as much. Looking at the shots on goal, I don’t think we’re up there as we were in the beginning of the year in general. That’s something that we’ve just got to focus on.”

Before practice Monday in Cranberry, the Penguins coaches focused on their team’s many flaws with a thorough video session. As a handful of players noted, one aspect that was stressed above all others was a simple one.

Go to the net.

“The coaches showed us some clips today of getting to the net front and trying to be there a little bit more,” forward Jason Zucker said. “A lot of times, when you’re fighting it, you’re trying to do too much. We can just keep it simple, get back to a simple game. That worked really well for us the first few (games of the season). Keep it simple, get shots on net, crash the net and bang in some rebounds.”

Sound puck management would be beneficial as well.

“Certainly, we want our players to make plays,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “We don’t want to take the sticks out of their hands. But we also can’t become a high-risk team through the process. We’re trying to define what those parameters look like in our game. When we’re at our best, we make good decisions with and without the puck so that we mitigate some of the risks associated with the game.”

These Penguins have endured streaks far worse than their current predicament. And far better.

Last season, throughout December and into January, the Penguins enjoyed a 10-game winning streak, the fifth-longest such sequence in franchise history.

“It’s a hard league, and you get humbled pretty quick, even on a good winning streak,” Dumoulin said. “It seems like we’ve had both of them so far this season already. We know we’re a good team. Maybe this will benefit us in the long run.”

In the short term, the Penguins have a considerable challenge in front of them with a home matchup against the Boston Bruins. Entering Monday, the Bruins have a league-best 16 points along with an 8-1-0 record.

The task is daunting. But not insurmountable.

Not for these Penguins.

“We’ve got guys who have been through a lot,” forward Jake Guentzel said. “We’ve got good leadership in this room. We’ve just got to stick with it.

“We’re back home now. So all we’ve got to do is just get one game and go from there.”

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