Penguins try to regulate themselves after back-to-back road losses

Taking to the ice for practice Wednesday in Cranberry, the Pittsburgh Penguins were serenaded by the iconic 1990s hip-hop anthem “Regulate,” which was blaring over the public address system.

As the song’s composer, Warren G, said, “rhythm is life, and life is rhythm.”

The Penguins dismiss any notion there is anything askew with their rhythm even after unappetizing results in their professional lives over the past week.

Coming off a pair of road losses to the Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes — the latter of which included an obscene own-goal — the Penguins don’t see any reason for alarm heading into their final two games before the upcoming seven-day respite for their bye week as well as the All-Star break.

“It’s clearly two bad games,” Penguins defenseman Kris Letang said. “The only thing I can do is look forward. We have two more games before the break, and we have to win those two games.”

The Penguins, who host the Florida Panthers on Friday and the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, entered Wednesday out of a playoff position with a 21-17-6 record and 48 points. Before Wednesday’s games, the Detroit Red Wings (24-18-5, 53 points) held down the final wild-card position in the Eastern Conference.

Thankfully for the Penguins, the playoffs don’t begin until mid-April. But they realize their margin for error is limited for their designs on returning to the postseason.

“We’re in a dogfight right now,” forward Bryan Rust said. “We don’t like where we are in the standings, and we’ve got to start winning games. The more we realize that, the more we’ll play with a little bit more urgency and hopefully play a lot better.”

Considering how poorly they played against the Coyotes in a 5-2 loss, improvement shouldn’t be difficult to achieve. The nadir of that contest was an own-goal in which forward Evgeni Malkin botched a seemingly mundane puck exchange with Letang during a delayed penalty and caused the puck to slide into the Penguins’ vacant net.

That embarrassing sequence was preceded by a come-from-ahead 3-2 loss to the Golden Knights on Saturday in which the Penguins allowed all of the opposition’s offense in the third period.

“The Vegas game, we feel like we kind of beat ourselves in the third,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said. “Then I think with the Arizona game, it’s a big swing. Kind of a fluky play. (The Penguins) go from getting a power play to get back in the game to down two (goals). That happens sometimes. We’ve got a couple of days here to get some good practices and try to have some good games before the bye week.”

The Penguins certainly had a dutiful, regulated practice session Thursday. Several players were out beforehand working on an auxiliary sheet of ice with assistant coach Ty Hennes before the session formally began. Following a high-paced 50 minutes of drills, several players lingered on the ice finetuning any deficiencies.

“I thought today was a good workday, honestly,” goalie Alex Nedeljkovic said. “Guys came out from the get-go, ripping pucks and putting a lot of effort out there and making sure it was a good practice. Overall, it was a good workday, a solid workday. Hopefully, we can carry it into (Thursday’s practice) and into the weekend.”

The Penguins profess they will mount up this weekend.

“I don’t think we ever like losing regardless of how the game goes,” Crosby said. “You don’t like to lose. But I don’t think we’re really dwelling on it at this point. We have two games before the break. We’ve got a chance to get back in the mix with the wild-card spot. We’ve got to grab points.”

Note: Reserve forward Colin White, recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Jan. 13, skated on the right wing of the second line with Malkin at center and Drew O’Connor at the left wing. That left Rickard Rakell, typically deployed on one of the top two lines, to skate on the third line with Lars Eller at center and rookie Valtteri Puustinen on the left wing. … Rookie defenseman John Ludvig worked out on the ice in a non-contact jersey before practice and departed when the session formally began. Currently designated to long-term injured reserve because of an undisclosed ailment, Ludvig is eligible to rejoin the active roster Saturday.