A Sidney Crosby-less Penguins team, which currently sits second in the Metropolitan Division but is only a mere two points from missing the playoffs outright, needs as many wins as it can procure.
Pittsburgh (36-20-16, 88 points) looks to pick up two more crucial points at home against the Dallas Stars on Saturday.
Dallas (43-18-11, 97 points) fell to 0-3-1 during a current four-game winless streak when it dropped a 2-1 decision to open a four-game road trip at the New York Islanders on Thursday.
The Stars are in a quandary. They have already clinched a playoff spot and are virtually guaranteed to face Minnesota in the first round, so the team perhaps need to dig even deeper to find motivation for the final 10 games of the regular season.
“I think there is a natural little dip when you see that ‘X’ beside your name and then you’re coming into play teams like this,” first-year coach Stars Glen Gulutzan said after the Islanders game. “I liked that we stayed with it, but we’ve got another level, and we’ve got to find it. We’re far away from the game we were playing eight or nine games ago, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
Matt Duchene tallied the only score for Dallas with three minutes remaining in a 6-on-5 situation. The Stars are averaging just 2.3 goals per game over their last seven.
Dallas went 14-0-1, recording a point in a franchise-record-tying 15 straight games from Jan. 23 through March 14, but has gone just 1-4-1 since.
“We’ve got to get out of our lull a little bit, because there’s no light switch when you go into the playoffs, so you want to be sure you’re ironing out all the kinks now,” Gulutzan said.
The Penguins have gone 5-3-2 in their last 10 games, and are 17-11-8 at home this season, but they dropped two clunkers this week at home to the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado.
Coach Dan Muse’s team righted the ship somewhat Thursday night with a 4-3 shootout victory at the Ottawa Senators. Rickard Rakell had two goals and an assist, and Erik Karlsson added a goal and two assists as Pittsburgh overtook Columbus in the Metropolitan Division.
But the Penguins sit just two points above ninth-place Ottawa in the Eastern Conference.
And now Pittsburgh may be without its captain yet again, as Crosby sustained a lower-body injury early in the second period.
Crosby already missed 11 games post-Olympics after sustaining another lower-body injury against Team Czechia in the quarterfinals in Milan.
“When Sid leaves the game, we have two options,” Karlsson said. “We can hang our heads and admit defeat, or everybody can just say to themselves that, ‘I’m going to do my absolute best every time I get out there.'”
Crosby, the 38-year-old future Hall of Famer, leads Pittsburgh in goals (28) and points (64). Bryan Rust has been the top producer behind him at 26 goals and 59 points.
