GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The Penguins having won two Stanley Cups in a row, there is always a target painted squarely on their backs. Every night, they're someone else's measuring-stick game. They're the team that 30 others aspire to be, and to knock down a peg or five.
"Anytime you’re playing the Pittsburgh Penguins with Sidney Crosby and a guy named Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, that’s a game that you try and benchmark yourself at," Ian Cole was telling me Friday after practice at Gila River Arena. "Even when I was in St. Louis, that’s something we did, for sure."
This isn't to make excuses for these Penguins -- winning championships surely beats the alternative -- but having to match the intensity of their opponent for 82 games is tiresome even under the best of circumstances. Clearly, these are not the best of circumstances after playing nearly 250 games, playoffs included, the past two seasons and having looked completely exhausted during their current three-game losing streak.
Crosby insisted Friday that the Penguins are frustrated and disappointed, but not shaken or stirred. They haven't lost confidence in themselves or in their ability to win games:
The captain's confidence clearly stems from having been close in each of the past four losses, all decided by one goal. With a bounce here or there, a play here or there, beginning with Saturday night's game against the Coyotes, he says the Penguins will dig themselves out of their rut.
While Mike Sullivan doesn't disagree with that assessment, he said they have to play with the attitude that made them champions in the first place.
"We’re capable and we believe in the group that we have," Sullivan said. "I think it’s important for us right now to stay resilient from an attitude standpoint and make sure that we keep some confidence and some swagger about us that allows us to have success."
A three-game slide in the middle of December isn't a dealbreaker, but it's cause for concern. The Penguins have endured and overcome a lot since Sullivan took over as coach Dec. 12, 2015, but Cole says they can bank on their past experience.
"I think guys certainly are searching," Cole said. "But the nice thing is about the success we’ve had the last couple years, we know we can do it with the guys we have here on this team. While I think maybe there’s some confidence, I don’t want to say issues, while things might not be going our way, we certainly know that we have done it before and can fall back on those situations. We just have to do it and do it more consistently."
It starts with becoming a more difficult team to play against. Sullivan has been preaching better detail to defense and generating offense from there.
It means taking direct routes and not skating in circles in their defensive zone as Kessel was caught doing here on Las Vegas' first goal Friday night when Hornqvist, now a left winger, appears to have reverted back to his old position:
"It just means stopping on pucks, finishing hits when they're there, no matter if you’re a guy that gets 7-8 hits a game or a guy that gets 2-3," Crosby said. "When they’re there, you've got to make sure that you finish them and be tough to play against.
"I think it takes speed away from the other teams and being responsible and being in the right spots. We all know what that is. But when we chase out there, those are little things that can make a big difference."
The Penguins need to get back to basics and play like a five-man unit, as Hornqvist suggested. They can't pass up shots to make the extra pass as they did in Las Vegas. That could mean getting pucks deep and getting in on the forecheck to create turnovers, i.e., keep it simple. For a team with just one goal in each of their last two games, a couple of "dirty goals" could open the floodgates.
No one can question the Penguins' effort, only the 20 guys in the room can do that, but they need to work smarter in both ends.
All those little things start to add up in what Sullivan, essentially echoing Bill Cowher, calls the "fine line between winning and losing" in a league where a few points separate a playoff team from a lottery pick.
Parity has been good for the league's bottom line but not so great for the Penguins, who currently sit on the playoff bubble with 35 points.
"It's a crapshoot," Conor Sheary told me. "It's who’s going to bring the work ethic and who’s going to get the goals."
In his three decades of experience in the league as a player and coach, Sullivan told me that this is probably the most parity he's seen. After losing to an expansion team in Las Vegas, even a game against an Arizona team that is just 7-22-5 under former Pittsburgh assistant Rick Tocchet is no gimme.
"There’s a lot of good teams," Sullivan said. "You just have to look at the standings, some teams will win a bunch in a row, they’ll lose a bunch in a row. With the exception of a couple of teams that have gotten consistent results, I think every other team in the league is going through ups and downs. We're no different."