PITTSBURGH — The captain has crazy glutes, but this has become heavy lifting for even him.
With their power play struggling, Evgeni Malkin looking listless throughout the first month of the season and the Penguins getting no offense whatsoever from their fourth line, much of the offensive burden has fallen on Sidney Crosby’s line.
Wearing defenders down with a vicious cycle and picking their spots on the rush, that top-line trio of Crosby, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust had scored eight 5-on-5 goals in the last eight games entering Tuesday. All three of those forwards scored in Sunday’s 6-3 victory of the Washington Capitals. Rust buried two.
But during Tuesday’s rematch at PPG Paints Arena, the Capitals kept the Crosby line under wraps. And the rest of the Penguins rarely threatened in a 3-1 loss.
The second line was hardly noticeable in this two-game miniseries against the rival Capitals. Malkin didn’t have a point in either game. Kasperi Kapanen has now gone five games without a goal. And Jason Zucker had none in the last four.
Blue-liners Kris Letang and John Marino have yet to light the lamp this season.
The power-play unit squandered two chances to seize an early lead Tuesday.
And the fourth line has not chipped in with a goal since Jan. 19. Mark Jankowski had zero points in the last 12 games and Sam Lafferty and Drew O’Connor, who was a healthy scratch Tuesday, are still searching for their first goal of 2021. Obviously, they are used sparingly. But the occasional contribution would be nice.
Down 3-0 in the third period and looking for a spark, Mike Sullivan tried a couple of new combinations. But the coach’s options are limited at this point, assuming he wants to keep the Crosby line, one of hockey’s hottest, together for now.
The Penguins entered the season with a top-heavy lineup and two top-six options in Jared McCann and Evan Rodrigues are currently on injured reserve.
Sullivan moved the energetic Tanev next to Malkin and Zucker. But even that couldn’t wake up those two. That move also meant breaking up Teddy Blueger’s line, which has been an effective two-way trio in the first eight periods since Zach Aston-Reese returned to the lineup.
Aston-Reese did score with 4:55 left in the game, making it three straight games with a goal. But he got a lot of help from a Capitals player who knocked Marino into goalie Vitek Vanecek, giving Aston-Reese the top half of the net to target.
That would be all the Penguins got past a struggling Vanecek, who stopped 26 of 27 shots to snap a four-game losing streak for both the Capitals and himself.
The Penguins had chances to get on the board early with the Capitals taking a pair of penalties in the game’s first four minutes that overlapped for 21 seconds. They swarmed around the offensive zone and fired five shots on goal, plus one that Crosby rang off the pipe from 10 feet out. But they couldn’t beat Vanecek.
The Capitals gained momentum as the first went on, recording 15 shots in the period on Tristan Jarry, who was back in goal after stopping 28 shots in Sunday’s win.
Conor Sheary finally beat Jarry on Washington’s 22nd shot of the night. The winger, who signed with the Capitals in the offseason after the Penguins did not make a push to re-sign him, found a soft spot in the slot and sniped Jarry upstairs.
The Capitals continued to carry the play throughout the second, in part because the Penguins had to park a player in the penalty box four times. The Penguins held on against the NHL’s top-ranked power play, killing all four of those penalties, and Tanev came oh-so close to scoring on a short-handed breakaway.
But the visitors clearly gained momentum from all of that offensive zone time. And 19 seconds after rookie Pierre-Olivier hopped out of the penalty box, Jakub Vrana ripped a wrist shot from the right circle over Jarry’s glove to make it 2-0.
Lars Eller, left alone in front, scored early in the third to put the game away.
The Penguins had won their first three games against the Capitals by a combined score of 15-10. That included Sunday’s 6-3 victory at PPG Paints Arena.
The Penguins, who entered Tuesday as one of four NHL teams still undefeated at home, will host the New York Islanders at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.
