Frustration might emanate from both ends of the ice when the Pittsburgh Penguins and visiting Vegas Golden Knights face off on Sunday evening.
Vegas lost for the fourth time in its last six games (2-3-1) following a 4-3 overtime decision to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. That result comes off the high of the Golden Knights celebrating their Stanley Cup title by racing to an 11-0-1 start to the season.
On Saturday, there was a common theme that the Knights cited in their loss to the Flyers.
“It’s puck management. That’s what it is,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
“At the end of the day, you mismanage the puck … it ends up in our net. So we almost got what we deserved. You mismanage enough pucks, it’s going to cost you.”
Added forward Jonathan Marchessault, who collected two goals and an assist against Philadelphia: “I think our managing the puck in between the blue (lines) was not as good as it is normally.”
And, just to drive it home, Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud said: “You’ve got to manage plays. That goes (for the) entire team, the five-man unit that’s out there. … But that’s something we can fix.”
That fix will have to come quickly.
“We’re starting fresh (Sunday) no matter what,” Cassidy said. “It’s Pittsburgh, and they’ll present their set of challenges.
That’s also something the Golden Knights can agree on.
“That’s one of the opportunities of playing back-to-back — if you lose the first one, you get to get right back at it,” Whitecloud said.
Adin Hill is expected to start in net for Vegas after Logan Thompson played Saturday.
Pittsburgh dropped a 4-2 setback to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, marking its second straight loss following a five-game winning streak.
“I don’t think you can look back,” said Penguins superstar captain Sidney Crosby, who scored both of his team’s goals against the Hurricanes to boost his season total to a team-leading 12 and stretched his point streak to 11 games (nine goals, eight assists).
“It’s not going to be automatic every night. It’s something that you’ve got to work to play a certain way every night.”
Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry, conversely, insisted that the momentum and positive reinforcement from the winning streak have not faded.
“No, we could learn a lot of things from it,” Jarry said. “We played a lot of good hockey during those five games, and I think it will translate into games that we’re going to play. We can lean back on that. It will help us throughout the games that are upcoming.”
It hasn’t translated to wins the past two games, and now the Penguins will host the defending champs.
“We’ve just got to play the right way,” Jarry said. “They’re a good team. They play the game the right way. They play hard, and we just have to match them.”
Jarry, however, isn’t likely to start that game after playing Saturday.
Magnus Hellberg has been backing up Jarry, but Alex Nedeljkovic, the backup at the start of the season, is eligible to come off long-term IR Sunday. The Penguins have not named a starter.
Pittsburgh probably will need to make at least one change among its forwards after winger Vinnie Hinostroza left Saturday’s game with what coach Mike Sullivan labeled a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media
