NEW YORK -- This was not like the Penguins' previous trip to Madison Square Garden, when their game was so lifeless it should have attracted cadaver dogs.
So no, effort and focus were not the problem in their 3-0 loss to the Rangers Thursday night.
Perhaps the culprit was the illness that seems to be moving through their locker room as unhindered as Mario Lemieux dissecting a defense, and caused Sidney Crosby and John Marino to spend the evening in street clothes.
Or maybe it's the fault of their ongoing issue with complementary scoring. (And, on this night, primary scoring.)
Or perhaps their inability to get untangled in some defensive situations deserves the blame.
Maybe -- probably -- all of those.
But giving their sweat glands -- or their brains -- the night off had nothing to do with it.
"Tonight was a tight game," Kris Letang said. "We battled hard."
While the factors responsible for this loss can be debated, its impact cannot: It was the Penguins' third consecutive defeat and dropped their record in the past eight to 2-5-1.
Six of the games in that span have been against opponents sitting first or second in their division standings, and their no-show performance at the Garden two weeks ago was the only time during that stretch when they were overwhelmed.
"We've played a lot of good teams," Letang said. "Bigger teams, more physical teams, and I thought we played well in all of those games. Every one of those games could have gone either way."
Emotions between the Penguins and Rangers percolated to the surface at the end of the third period, as the teams mingled, wrestled and traded verbal hostilities before leaving the ice. No penalties were assessed and no damage was done.
That these teams had wearied of seeing each other was no surprise, because this game was their third meeting in 14 days. And it surely didn't imbue the Penguins with serenity and good will that New York won all of them.
What's more, the Penguins and Rangers might be seeing a lot more of each other in just a few weeks, because a Round 1 matchup in the Stanley Cup playoffs is a distinct possibility.
Letang insisted that "I'm not concerned" about a possible best-of-seven series with New York, although he allowed that "We have to keep preparing to enter the playoffs, and feel confident with ourselves."
One step toward that objective would be reducing the number of goals the Penguins allow off the rush, although it merits mention that their past two opponents, the Rangers and Avalanche, have outstanding transition games.
Both of New York's second-period goals -- by Frank Vatrano 24 seconds after the first intermission and Artemi Panarin at 9:47 -- came on backhanders at the end of sequences during which the Penguins appeared to have enough bodies back to defend, but still gave up quality scoring chances.
"We do have numbers back," Mike Sullivan said. "We just have to sort the coverages out."
On Panarin's, for example, Chad Ruhwedel got turned around in front of the net as Panarin was cutting, right to left, across the slot before beating Jarry from the left hash.
Of course, a world-class talent like Panarin can make a habit of causing opposing players to reconsider their choice of professions.
"I thought I had a good angle on him coming across, and then he changes the angle quick and he's able to get a hell of a backhand off," Jarry said. "And it goes in a good spot, where I wasn't able to get it."
Gee, it's almost as if that's exactly what Panarin had in mind.
It's the sort of thing Crosby has been doing since he broke into the NHL in 2006, so there was no way of downplaying the impact of losing him for this game.
Still, the Penguins knew in the morning that Crosby and Marino might not be available for the game, and Sullivan said they were certain of it by mid-afternoon.
That gave the coaching staff a bit of time to reconfigure its forward combinations and two of its three defense pairings -- the Brian Dumoulin-Letang tandem remained intact -- but while the Next-Man-Up mentality is admirable, it doesn't always work out as hoped.
"Obviously, (Crosby and Marino) are pretty impactful players," Sullivan said. "But we have in our lineup to win games. That's the mindset we need to have."
Fair enough, but it's hard to make that case when a guy widely regarded as one of the 10 finest players is NHL history, Crosby, is replaced in the lineup by a 21-year-old rookie, Filip Hallander, who never had skated a shift in the league.
What's more, their roles were almost as different as their resumes: Crosby is a No. 1 center, while Hallander was deployed at left wing on the fourth line.
With Crosby out, Sullivan plugged Evgeni Malkin into his spot between Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust.
New York coach Gerard Gallant responded predictably, focusing his defensive strategy on containing that unit, and it worked.
Malkin, who has a long and well-documented history of lifting his play to rarefied levels when Crosby is out of the lineup, didn't do it in this game.
His line generated only two shots, both by Guentzel, and didn't get the first of those until about three minutes remained in the second period.
Sullivan's reconfigured second line, which had Jeff Carter flanked by Evan Rodrigues and Rickard Rakell, showed up on the stat sheet a lot more often, as Rodrigues recorded a team-high nine shots on goal, while Carter had five and Rakell, two.
Trouble is, Carter's line got as many pucks past Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin as Malkin and his wingers did.
Which is to say, none.
Shesterkin has frustrated a lot of opponents this season -- he's a favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender -- and he benefited on this night from solid defensive work by his teammates.
"There weren't many scoring chances on both sides," Letang said. "And their goalie did a good job at key moments."
The loss dropped the Penguins six points behind the second-place Rangers in the Metropolitan Division and leaves them six ahead of the fourth-place Capitals, who have two games-in-hand.
Despite losing ground in the Metro lately, though, Sullivan seems confident that his team will resume collecting points at something closer to its customary pace.
"We've played a lot of good hockey this year, and we have a good team," he said. "We believe in this group, and we know we're capable."
If nothing else, the Penguins' past few losses are reminders that other teams also have guys on scholarship who want to win, which is why victories can be tough to come by sometimes. Especially when the circumstances are less than ideal.
"I think we've been doing the right things," Jarry said. "I just don't think we've been getting the bounces and some of the points the last couple of games, but I think the team has been playing very well and I know that it will turn around."
It will have to, or it won't be long before those cadaver dogs are called in to search for the remains of the Penguins' dream of a long playoff run.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Despite their recent skid, the Penguins' magic number for clinching a playoff berth for the 16th consecutive season is eight; any combination of points they earn and that the New York Islanders fail to get equaling that total will put them into the postseason. (Columbus still could match the Penguins' 92 points if it wins its final 10 games and the Penguins lose all of theirs, but that seems like a bit of a long shot.)
• Hallander's NHL debut didn't go exactly as it had in his boyhood dreams. He logged a game-low five minutes, 14 seconds of ice time over 11 shifts and was not credited with an individual statistics such as a shot, hit or shot-block.
• Vatrano, who has 99 goals in 391 career NHL games, has gotten nine of those in 16 games against the Penguins.
• The Penguins announced that Radim Zohorna, like Crosby and Marino, was not available for the game because of a non-Covid illness.
• Anthony Angello, who is 6-foot 5, 210 pounds but rarely plays that big, recorded a couple of huge hits with about 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the game, as he dropped K'Andre Miller with a hard check, then felled Tyler Motte a few seconds later. He was penalized for interference on the hit against Motte, who immediately adjourned to the New York locker room, but the check itself was clean and hard. Angello's chances of taking a regular shift in this league will be greatly enhanced if he continues to play the body so vigorously.
• Jason Zucker, whose season mostly has been an audition for a post-playing career as a crash-test dummy, was held out of his third consecutive game after aggravating the core-muscle injury that had to be surgically repaired, but was able to participate in the team's optional game-day skate.
• The Penguins failed to take at least one point out of Madison Square Garden for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when they also went 0-2 there.
• Rangers center Mika Zibanejad nearly put the game out of reach as the second period was winding down, but his shot from the left side of the crease clearly entered the net after time expired and was immediately waved off.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Madison Square Garden:
1. Igor Shesterkin, Rangers G
2. Frank Vatrano, Rangers RW
3. Artemi Panarin, Rangers LW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Jason Zucker, left winger, is practicing after aggravating a core-muscle injury that required surgery.
• Brock McGinn, left winger, has resumed skating after being sidelined by an unspecified upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Malkin-Rust
Rodrigues-Carter-Rakell
Heinen-Blueger-Kapanen
Hallander-Boyle-Angello
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ruhwedel
Pettersson-Friedman
And for Gallant's Rangers:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Vatrano
Panarin-Strome-Copp
Lafreniere-Chytil-Goodrow
Motte-Brodzinski-Hunt
Lindberg-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Nemeth-Schneider
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins had been scheduled to practice Friday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex before facing the Capitals Saturday at 3:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena, but the workout was canceled Thursday night because of an unspecified travel issue.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.