ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Penguins are in the midst of a three-game trip through California.
A few days ago, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull out of a three-game losing streak, and to pick up five or six points against the three bottom-dwellers in the Western Conference standings.
Not anymore.
In the wake of their 3-2 loss to Anaheim at Honda Center Friday night, which came just 48 hours after a 2-1 defeat in Los Angeles, the Penguins' best-case scenario is to salvage a couple of points when they visit San Jose Saturday at 10:38 p.m.
Otherwise, they'll be flying back across the continent Sunday with nothing except dirty laundry to show for their visit to the Pacific time zone.
And while the Penguins recognize that there are no gimme putts in today's NHL, they also understand that they have absorbed a pair of losses from teams they should be defeating.
"Absolutely," Jason Zucker said. "We have high expectations for ourselves. We have to stop the bleeding here at some point."
The loss to the Ducks stretched the Penguins' season-worst losing streak to five games and dropped them into third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind Philadelphia.
After overcoming so much adversity, most of it injury-based, this season, the Penguins slipped into a rut from which they have not been able to escape.
"We're hitting a little bump in the road, like all teams do," Matt Murray said. "It's going to make us stronger in the long run."
Murray, who made 18 saves, was victimized by a couple of unfortunate bounces, as Anaheim's first and third goals caromed off Penguins defenseman Zach Trotman en route to the net.
"That happens sometimes," Murray said.
Perhaps, but those goals put a spotlight on the decision to have Trotman in the lineup.
Trotman, who is a right-handed shot, was dressed over Juuso Riikola and paired with Chad Ruhwedel, even though that meant again going against the coaching staff's oft-stated preference to have a lefty and a righty on each pairing.
Sullivan had a simple, terse explanation when asked about the rationale behind using Trotman.
"It's the same criteria we use every time we make a lineup," he said. "We're going to put the best guys on the ice that we think give us the best chance to win."
Although Sullivan has made countless decisions that worked out well this season, using Trotman against Anaheim isn't on that list.
The Ducks got their first goal after Trotman threw a pass to no one in his own zone, triggering a sequence that culminated when Anaheim's Danton Heinen took a shot that initially was stopped by Murray, but then caromed off Trotman before dropping over the goal line:
"I got a lucky bounce," Heinen said.
So did Ducks defenseman Brendan Guhle, when his shot at 17:20 of the second period struck Trotman in the left leg and eluded Murray to give Anaheim its final goal:
Guhle's goal became the game-winner with 81 seconds to go in regulation, when Zucker scored his second of the game by beating Ducks goalie John Gibson from the top of the left circle after Murray had been replaced with an extra attacker:
That rekindled their hopes of forcing overtime, but they could not get another puck past Gibson, who finished with 28 saves.
"He definitely played well," Sidney Crosby said.
That seems to happen a lot when goalies face the Penguins lately, as they have scored just eight times during their five-game skid.
"Obviously, it’s hard to win when you don’t put the puck in the net," Sullivan said.
It's not that they aren't generating chances; the Penguins have averaged 33.6 shots during this losing streak.
"I don’t think it’s been from a lack of opportunities," Sullivan said. "The last couple of games we’ve had a significant amount of scoring chances, the puck hasn’t gone in the net."
That's even when some of their most accomplished scorers are the ones doing the shooting, like when Gibson denied Bryan Rust in the second period, shortly before Guhle got his goal.
Zucker has five goals in nine games since being acquired from Minnesota, but acknowledged that even he has been pressing a bit in recent games.
"I've gripped my stick a little bit tight a couple of times," he said.
That condition likely is contagious in their locker room, considering how things have unraveled over the past week or so, and how desperately they need a victory in San Jose to regain their equilibrium.
"We'll see what we're made of here (Saturday)," Patric Hornqvist said.
The Sharks would seem to be an ideal opponent, under the circumstances, but the same was true of the Kings and Ducks.
"No team is easy in this league, but these are big games for us," Justin Schultz said. "Every game is big now."
Especially when the Penguins realize that they have to look up in the standings to see the Flyers, and that the New York Islanders are a scant two points behind them.
Their season might well be nearing a crossroads, a point at which they can either pull out of their nosedive or continue hurtling down through the standings.
"Our message is that we have to stay together and find solutions together," Sullivan said. "And that’s what we’ll do. We've got to pick ourselves up and get back in the fight. We’ve got another opportunity in front of us (Saturday) night. We've got to try to make the best of it."
• Crosby failed to record an assist for the fifth consecutive game and remains two shy of 800 in his career.
• Schultz got the second assist on Zucker's first goal, his first point in 22 games:
• Jared McCann returned to the Penguins' lineup after sitting out their 2-1 loss in Los Angeles Wednesday because of an unspecified "upper-body" injury. He logged 11 minutes, 26 seconds of ice time and recorded two shots and four of the Penguins' 20 hits.
• With McCann back, Sam Lafferty's recall status has been changed from emergency to regular. He couldn't stay on emergency because the Penguins have 12 other healthy forwards.
• The Penguins tied a franchise record for the first period of a road game by allowing just two shots on goal during those 20 minutes.
• Ryan Miller served as Anaheim's backup goalie despite suffering from what the team described as "flu-like symptoms."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Zach Aston-Reese (unspecified lower body)
• Nick Bjugstad (core muscle surgery)
• Brian Dumoulin (ankle surgery)
• Jake Guentzel (shoulder surgery)
• John Marino (facial surgery)
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Zucker-Crosby-Sheary
Rust-Malkin-Hornqvist
Marleau-McCann-Simon
Tanev-Blueger-Rodrigues
Johnson-Letang
Pettersson-Schultz
Trotman-Ruhwedel
And for Dallas Eakin's Ducks:
Milano-Getzlaf-Rackell
Heinen-Henrique-Sherwood
Jones-Steel-Silfverberg
Deslauriers-Agozzino-Rowney
Guhle-Manson
Larsson-Del Zotto
Djoos-Irwin
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins were scheduled to fly to San Jose after the game. They will close out their four-game road trip by facing the Sharks Saturday at 10:38 p.m. at SAP Center.
THE COVERAGE
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PHOTO GALLERY
Penguins vs. Ducks, Feb. 28, 2020, Anaheim, Calif. - GETTY / AP