Pens’ struggling offense clashes with streaking Lightning
Following a season-best six-game winning streak, the Pittsburgh Penguins have fizzled on offense in two losses. They will try to snuff out the losing streak Tuesday night when they host the sizzling Tampa Bay Lightning.
Pittsburgh's defense and goaltending have been good enough to win most every night since the holiday break.
Before the recent hot streak, the Penguins endured a season-worst eight-game skid (0-4-4) from Dec. 7-20, with the last three of those contests ending in regulation.
In the middle of that skid, Pittsburgh acquired netminder Stuart Skinner from Edmonton in a Dec. 12 trade that sent goalie Tristan Jarry to the Oilers. Skinner dropped his first three decisions with his new team but has been stellar since, going 3-1-0 with a 1.01 goals-against average and a .955 save percentage in his past four outings.
Skinner, the losing goalie in the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two years as the Oilers fell twice to the Florida Panthers, saw his winning streak end with a 1-0 defeat to the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
"It's tough sometimes when you're coming in (after a trade) with a new group, especially in that position," said Penguins coach Dan Muse of the Edmonton backstop who stopped 18 of 19 shots by a Bruins team that tallied 10 times a day earlier against the New York Rangers.
"This is a guy who has been to two finals in a row," Muse added. "He's done a lot of really good things in the league. You see how he works every day, you see his preparation, you see the way he is as a teammate. When you're seeing it all the time, it isn't a surprise."
With Pittsburgh, Skinner is 3-4-0 with a 2.34 GAA and a .899 save percentage. Meanwhile, backup Arturs Silovs has won four of his past five starts, compiling a 2.96 GAA and an .881 save percentage in that span.
One of those two will be tasked with slowing the Lightning, who earned their 10th straight victory on Monday.
In the second of consecutive games at Philadelphia over three nights, the Lightning backed up a 7-2 win on Saturday with a 5-1 triumph on Monday. However, the latest victory may have come at a high cost for Tampa Bay.
Top-line center Brayden Point, who missed seven contests from Nov. 24-Dec. 6 due to an undisclosed injury, took hard contact from Philadelphia's Cam York while scoring a power-play goal for a 3-0 lead early in the second period. After the hit buckled his right knee, Point fell to the ice and threw off his gloves in obvious pain.
Coach Jon Cooper had no update on Point's condition postgame.
"You never want to see something like that, obviously," teammate Brandon Hagel said during the second intermission on Scripps Sports' The Spot broadcast. "Pointer's a big part of this team -- it gives me shivers talking about it -- but you want to step up for a guy like that.
"That guy puts his life and soul into every single day, every single hockey game."
Briefly injured in the second period, Hagel hit the net for the fourth straight game and added an assist. Nikita Kucherov recorded an empty-net goal and a helper to extend his point streak to 10 games (10 goals, 15 assists).
Cooper became the 25th coach to reach 600 career NHL wins, improving his record to 600-319-86 since taking over the position in March 2013.
The Lightning's 10-game streak ties the Colorado Avalanche (twice) and the Buffalo Sabres for the longest in the league this season. A win in Pittsburgh would tie the franchise record of 11 set in the 2019-20 season.