CRANBERRY, Pa. -- This is, for the most part, the team won 17 of 19 games between early December and late January.
That surged from a 5-6-4 start to first place in the Metropolitan Division, where it had squatter's rights as recently as a week ago.
That bulled its way into conversations about serious contenders for the Stanley Cup.
And that now has lost three games in a row, and often looked pretty bad in the process.
Whether the Penguins bottomed-out with a 6-1 loss to the Devils Thursday remains to be seen -- a five-goal defeat at home by a team that will sit out the playoffs sets a standard that won't be easy to clear -- but there's no question the Penguins have contributed mightily to their miseries of late.
The attention to detail that served them so well, and for so long, has lapsed. Their decision-making often has been suspect, their execution sloppy.
If the Penguins have looked like the team that was performing so well a month or so ago, it's only because they haven't introduced another third sweater since then.
"We haven't had success for a reason," Bryan Rust said after practice Friday. "I think we all know that. We have to just get back to what we know gets us success."
The cause-and-effect of some of the Penguins' issues of late -- for example, how their penalty-kill has suffered since Teddy Blueger was sidelined by a broken jaw -- is hard to miss; others are not nearly as obvious, perhaps because the bad habits responsible for some of their problems developed gradually.
"It's like anything," Mike Sullivan said. "It's a process. It's not like you flick a switch and, all of a sudden, you play a different game. Things creep into your game that maybe don't allow you to play the game that's brought you success. ... Human nature is not easy to figure out sometimes, and that's one of the biggest challenges of coaching. It's our job, as a staff, to try to help our group get on the same page."
Oddly, the Penguins had a four-game winning streak sandwiched between a 0-1-3 skid and their current 0-3 slump.
"We've had moments where we've been pretty good, and we've won some games," Sullivan said. "Then we've had others where we haven't. We just haven't brought it with the level of consistency that's required to get consistent results."
Doing that, John Marino suggested, will entail "being harder on pucks, (better) puck management ... all the little things." Reducing the number of quality scoring chances they allow would help, too.
"We know we have to play better and, obviously, be better in certain areas," Marino said.
Their game against the Rangers Saturday at 3:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena would be a good time to get started on those upgrades, since the second-place Rangers are one point ahead of them in the Metropolitan and have two games-in-hand,
But even though the Penguins recognize the facets of their game that have deteriorated over the past four or five weeks, they likely never will be able to pinpoint the time at which their game began so slip out of synch.
"Hockey is a funny game, and it's a long season," Rust said. "Just like in any sport -- or any aspect of life -- things can go great, and then all of a sudden, they go wrong, and you don't really know where that turning point was. But then you have to try to get it back on track. I think that's kind of where we are right now."
MORE FROM THE PRACTICE
• The Penguins recalled defenseman P.O Joseph from their farm team in Wilkes-Barre a few hours after the practice.
• Mike Matheson will be out "week to week" because of an unspecified upper-body injury, Sullivan said, ending a 40-game run during which the Penguins' three defense pairings were intact. Mark Friedman, fresh off a two-game conditioning stint in Wilkes-Barre, moved into Matheson's spot opposite Chad Ruhwedel during practice. It is not known whether he or Joseph will be there for the Rangers game.
• Marino will be facing his former Harvard teammate, incumbent Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox, Saturday. "He's one of the smartest players I've ever seen," Marino said. "He's pretty fun to watch out there."
• Blueger, still in a no-contact jersey and full face shield to protect his broken jaw, took part in the practice.
• Sullivan reconfigured his second, third and fourth lines for the workout, including plugging Kasper Bjorkqvist into Zach Aston-Reese's usual spot with Brian Boyle and Dominik Simon on the No. 4 unit, but cautioned against assuming the new lines will be the ones he'll deploy against New York. "The way we practiced today has nothing to do with anything," he said. "We'll make lineup decisions accordingly."
• Rust, on the Rangers: "It's a very good team. Very fast. Skilled, up-tempo team. Their goaltending is phenomenal. They have some really good players. ... This is a team that's high in the standings for a reason."
• Injured goalie Louis Domingue was on the ice for about an hour before the workout, mostly with goaltending coach Andy Chiodo. Domingue was wearing a sweatshirt and track pants, and was limited to skating drills. He does not appear to be a candidate to return to active duty anytime soon, although the Penguins have not given any indication of when they expect that to happen.
• Personnel combinations:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn-Jeff Carter-Evan Rodrigues
Kasper Bjorkqvist-Brian Boyle-Dominik Simon
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
Mark Friedman-Chad Ruhwedel
No. 1 power play: Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Guentzel and Rust
No. 2 power play: Carter, Kapanen, Rodrigues, Pettersson and Heinen
