The Pittsburgh Penguins have lost their third straight for the first time under first-year head coach Mike Johnston, as the visiting Washington Capitals shut out the Penguins 3-0 on Saturday night.
The Capitals also snapped the Penguins’ five-game home winning streak. Braden Holtby made 31 saves to blank the Pens. It was Holtby’s third shutout of the season and the third time that the Penguins have been shut out.
Eric Fehr did most of the damage offensively for the Capitals. His late first period tally, where he jabbed in the rebound of a Jay Beagle shot, held up as the game winner. He also added an insurance goal late in the third period.
Marcus Johansson scored the other goal for Washington, a wrist shot on a two-on-one that got through Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury made 31 saves but took his second consecutive loss for the first time this season.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and defenseman Scott Harrington were both on the ice for all three goals against. Crosby has only one goal in his last 12 games.
“You can’t allow yourself to get frustrated, you gotta go out there and work hard and compete and trust that the puck will go into the net,” Crosby said of his goalless stretch.
The Penguins lost yet another player to injury, as right-winger Patric Hornqvist didn’t return after taking a Harrington slap shot off his leg in the first period.
“Well a guy like that that plays with the energy and how hard he plays, that does has an effect on your group,” Johnston said of losing yet another winger.
“It’s challenging but it’s the same as we’ve faced over the last little while, and we’ve got to be able to handle that. That’s what teams go through, and there’s nothing we can do about that.”
The Penguins again failed to score on the man advantage, going 0-for-4. The power play, once tops in the league by a wide margin, has scored just once in their last ten chances and has fallen to sixth in the NHL.
Former Penguins blueliner Brooks Orpik made his first visit to Pittsburgh as a member of the opposition, recording an assist had a plus-3 rating. The Penguins aired a video package that honored Orpik and fellow former Penguins defenseman Matt Niskanen and assistant coach Todd Reirden.
Robert Bortuzzo and Brandon Sutter both returned to the Penguins lineup, from injury and illness respectively. Both players finished with even ratings.
“I though tonight everyone had a pretty good effort,” said Sutter. “A lot of changes, a lot of different lineups, a lot of different lines that we’re used to, but we just got to try to stay with it.”
