Slumping Penguins 'haven’t had success for a reason' recently

Kasper Bjorkqvist has all of six NHL games on his resume.

So the Penguins forward is not exactly burdened with a great deal of experience of what the sport is like at its highest professional level.

But on Friday, he offered one axiom that rings true, no matter if you’re a cherubic rookie or a sapient veteran.

“What I’ve come to realize in all the games I’ve played so far, all the teams are pretty good.”

The New York Rangers fit that description. They enter Saturday’s game with the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena with a 33-13-5 record and 71 points, one more than the Penguins (31-14-8) in the Metropolitan Division.

That success has been buoyed as of late by a 5-0-1 stretch since Jan. 30.

In contrast, the Penguins are on a very different trajectory, assuming you consider a three-game losing streak qualifies as momentum.

“We just know we have to be better,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “Obviously, our starts recently haven’t been great. We have to be a heck of a lot better there. Got to dig in more. Work harder, work smarter. We haven’t had success for a reason. We all know that. We’ve got to just get back to what we know gets us success.”

It’s not difficult to figure out where that starts.

“It starts with a good start,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said following Thursday’s 6-1 home loss to the New Jersey Devils. “That would go a long way if we could give ourselves a better start. We’ve been chasing games the last few and it hasn’t turned out great for us. If we start there and we’ve got to put a few periods together. We’ve just got to be better. We’re not playing the way we’re capable of right now.”

Even beyond the scope of their three-game losing streak, the Penguins have given up the first goal in five consecutive games, including two wins.

Scoring first — or at any time in the game — doesn’t figure to be an easy task against the Rangers, one of the NHL’s top defensive squads. They have a team goals-against average of 2.47, third best in the NHL before Friday.

Primarily responsible for that figure is star goaltender Igor Shesterkin. In 33 games this season, Shesterkin has a 25-5-3 record, a 1.98 goals-against average, a .940 save percentage and three shutouts.

He is likely to be in net Saturday when the Rangers and Penguins square off for the first time this season.

“We, obviously, haven’t seen them this year, but it’s a team we’re familiar with,” Rust said.

“It’s a very good team. A very fast, skilled, up-tempo team. Their goaltending is phenomenal. They have some really good players. We have to try to be up to the task. This is a team that’s high in the standings for a reason. We’re fighting with them for positioning. This game is going to be a good test. We need to be ready for it.”

Pledging to be ready and actually being ready can be two different things, however. The Penguins’ last three games would verify that notion.

“Things creep into your game that maybe don’t allow you to play the game that brought you success,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s our job as a coaching staff to try to hold the group accountable to those things and make them aware of things and finding ways to right the ship. There’s been a number of those conversations over the last few weeks. We’ve had moments where we’ve been pretty good, and we’ve won some games. Then, we’ve had others where we haven’t.

“We just haven’t brought it with a level of consistency that’s required to get consistent results.”

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