Penguins face quick turnaround against Canadiens (Mar 15, 2018)
The Pittsburgh Penguins won't have long to dwell on a wild loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday as they will play their 16th of an NHL-leading 19 back-to-back games at the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
The Penguins (40-26-5) blew 2-0 and 3-2 leads against the Rangers before losing 4-3 in overtime. The loss cost the Penguins a chance to move past the Washington Capitals and take over first place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Penguins are tied with the Capitals with 85 points, but Washington has two games in hand. The Capitals play the Islanders on Friday in New York.
"We'll look at it and assess it objectively, try to remove the emotion, learn from it, move by it and get on to the next one," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said of the loss to the Rangers. "That's the mindset that we have to have right now.
"At this time of year, you have to make sure you play a 60-minute hockey game. You can't play 40 minutes and think you're going to win."
"We had a great first and second (period) and we played so much with the puck that I think we got cocky. We didn't manage it (in the third). It bit us. They came back in the game," Penguins defenseman Kris Letang told pittsburghpenguins.com.
"We totally ruined it. We had a great first two periods, were too confident, didn't respect them enough. We were sloppy in the third. We threw away that game in the third. We have to learn from that."
The Penguins got a boost with the return of forward Bryan Rust, who missed two games after sustaining a concussion on March 7. Rust scored the Penguins' first goal, his 11th of the season, against the Rangers.
The Penguins are 4-1-1 in their past six games. They will be finishing their 16th set of back-to-back games against the Canadiens. The Penguins are 7-6-2 in the second game of back-to-backs so far this season.
Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray, who has missed the past seven games with a concussion, has been taking full shots in practice and traveled with the team to New York and Montreal, but no date has been set for his return.
Casey DeSmith started his ninth game of the season against the Rangers on Wednesday. Tristan Jarry backed up DeSmith against the Rangers.
After Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw sustained a concussion against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, the Canadiens called up forward Michael McCarron from the Laval Rocket of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
McCarron, 23, has 24 points (seven goals and 17 assists) in 52 games with the Rocket this season. He has no points in eight games with the Canadiens this season.
Artturi Lehkonen had two goals to help the Canadiens to a 4-2 win over the Stars on Tuesday in a back-to-back situation. The win ended a five-game (0-4-1) losing streak for the Canadiens.
"I told the guys if after this one you're not hurting, after playing three games in four nights, it's because we haven't given enough," Canadiens coach Claude Julien told montrealcanadiens.com. "I'm sure that a lot of them are sore right now, but you always feel better when you win a game."
The Canadiens (26-32-12) are without goaltender Carey Price (concussion), defenseman Shea Weber, who underwent surgery to fix a torn tendon in his left foot, and captain Max Pacioretty (knee). Weber's recovery time is expected to be six months.
Goaltender Antti Niemi had his fifth win of the season against the Stars. Forward Brendan Gallagher had a career-best 26th goal of the season.
