Mike Sullivan is well aware of what's at stake for his team.
The Penguins can clinch a playoff spot as early as tonight with a win against the Canadiens and a Panthers loss in regulation to the Bruins. Obviously, he'd like the Penguins to take care of that not-so-small detail sooner rather than later. But in order to do that, the Penguins will have to do something they haven't done in 24 days, and that's register consecutive wins.
"We know how important these points are down the stretch, you want to put points together," Sidney Crosby said. "You want to feel good about your game."
The Penguins have taken one step forward and one step back their last 11 games. During that run, they've lost to non-playoff teams and they have won some inspiring victories. But with four games remaining in the season, Sullivan said he'd like to find some semblance of consistency.
"When you can string some wins together it helps team confidence and helps your overall mindset," Sullivan said. "There’s a lot of benefits from it. We have an opportunity tonight to try and win a game, to try and put ourselves in a better position to solidify a playoff spot, to gain some traction. There's a lot on the line. I think the approach we have to take is just staying in the moment. We have to focus in on the details. We can’t get overwhelmed by all the circumstances surrounding it with all the things that you guys talk about. We're just going to focus on the details of playing the game and that’s going to put us in the best situation to be successful."
To that end, Matt Murray will start in goal even though the Penguins will host the Capitals -- the only team they trail in the Metropolitan Division -- just 24 hours later. That could mean that Murray will make consecutive starts in a back-to-back for the first time this season.
"Our mindset right now is to solidify a playoff spot; we don't have one right now," Sullivan said. "We're trying to take each game as it comes. We're going to put our very best lineup on the ice."
The Penguins certainly have some wind at their sails following Thursday night's win come-from-behind 4-3 OT win over the Devils. It's just a matter of replicating that effort and not playing down to the level of their competition tonight against the Canadiens, Tom Kuhnhackl was telling me.
"We just have to make sure that we play to our strengths, use our speed to our advantage and be smart with the puck," Kuhnhackl said. "We do that, we’ll be golden."
The Penguins still have an outside chance at winning their division, but Conor Sheary says the Penguins can't be caught looking to Sunday with Saturday still to go.
"Our focus has to be on the game at hand," Sheary was saying. "We’ll be out there tomorrow night (vs. Washington) when we need to, but these are two important points for us tonight to climb in the Metro and get closer to securing a playoff spot."
• There's a perception that Evgeni Malkin defers too much to Phil Kessel -- and vice versa -- when the two are paired together as they were against the Devils. Sullivan said he doesn't care who shoots the puck, as long as they are always looking to shoot first and foremost.
"The only thing we try to emphasize when we choose to put them together is we just talk to them about taking what the game gives them," Sullivan said. "They’re both shooters and we want both those guys, when they get to the scoring areas to think shot first. They can always create their offense off the rebound if the puck doesn’t go in the net, but a fair amount of them go in."
• Shot-blocking and communication are the two areas where Riley Sheahan says the slumping penalty kill needs to improve. Sullivan said that the PK is better than what it's showing, but the "optics are bad" when they allow one power play goal on one shot as they did Thursday.
• Sullivan said that Derick Brassard (groin) is still day to day but is making progress.