The struggling Pittsburgh Penguins look to regain their scoring touch when they visit the San Jose Sharks on Monday.
The Penguins are 3-7-3 in their last 13 games, and are ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference standings. Pittsburgh is 2-3-0 over the first five stops on its seven-game road trip and has scored just one goal in each of those losses.
“We’re giving up easy offense … and we’re not scoring on our chances,” forward Kevin Hayes said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken. “Everyone’s working hard. Everyone in this room wants to win. It’s frustrating. These last couple losses that we’ve had, we’ve felt like we’ve been playing good enough to win.”
The potential loss of Evgeni Malkin could add to the scoring difficulties. Malkin left Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury and is questionable for Monday.
Bryan Rust (lower-body injury) was also out on Saturday, while Blake Lizotte (illness) has missed the Penguins’ last two games.
Even with this depleted lineup, offense might be a bit easier to come by for both the Penguins and the Sharks on Monday. The clubs have given up the most goals of any teams in the NHL — Pittsburgh’s 189 is topped only by San Jose’s 195.
The Sharks’ 34 points are the fewest in the NHL, and they have lost six straight games (0-6-0). Opponents have scored at least six goals in each of San Jose’s last four games.
Most recently, the Sharks led 2-1 through 14 minutes against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Saturday. The hopes of an upset were quickly dashed as the Panthers exploded for six unanswered goals in what finished as a 7-2 rout.
“I think they felt our push in the first (period), and we immediately found out what a Cup-contending team looks like. Their pushback was much better than ours,” Sharks defenseman Jake Walman said.
Alexandar Georgiev allowed four goals on 15 shots before being pulled early in the second period Saturday, and Yaroslav Askarov then allowed three goals on 17 shots. The goaltending duo have mostly alternated starts over the last five weeks, but Georgiev could get another start Monday given his brief outing against Florida.
Will Smith has five points (two goals, three assists) and Fabian Zetterlund has four points (two goals, two assists) over concurrent four-game point streaks for the San Jose forwards.
Rickard Rakell has four points (one goal, three assists) during a four-game points streak for the Penguins.
Sidney Crosby leads the Penguins with 52 points (14 goals, 38 assists). Mikael Granlund leads San Jose with 43 points (14 goals, 29 assists).
Since Joel Blomqvist faced the Kraken, Alex Nedeljkovic is likely to start in Pittsburgh’s net on Monday. Nedeljkovic has been inconsistent this season, posting an .893 save percentage and 3.26 goals-against average over 22 games.
In the teams’ first meeting of the season, the Penguins won 4-3 in a shootout on Nov. 16 in Pittsburgh. The Penguins are 6-1-0 in their last seven games against the Sharks, including wins in their last three visits to San Jose.
–Field Level Media
