Including Thursday, Evgeni Malkin has been sidelined for seven consecutive games by an undisclosed injury.
And during that stretch, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been perfect in one sense.
That is to say they haven’t won a single game without the dazzling superstar inhabiting his typical station as center of the second line.
And for good measure, they have avoided any victories during the six contests sturdy fourth-line center Blake Lizotte has been absent because of an unspecified ailment as well.
The latest edition of each of those respective streaks unfolded Thursday as they were shut out by the Ottawa Senators, 4-0, at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario.
Rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs maintained his own dreary slump, as he lost his seventh consecutive start (0-3-4 ). Unofficially stopping 21 of 25 shots, Silovs saw his record for the season fall to 4-5-6.
Since a 4-3 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 4, the Penguins have gone 0-3-4.
They have not lost this many games consecutively since a seven-game streak between Oct. 24 and Nov. 5, 2022 (0-6-1).
“Obviously, right now, we’re in a bit of a difficult stretch,” coach Dan Muse said Wednesday in Cranberry. “It’s on everybody involved. It’s on all of us. We’ve got to make sure that we’re just digging in and making those contributions that are necessary there for the team to have success.”
Penguins forward Sidney Crosby remained at 1,722 career points, one short of Mario Lemieux’s franchise mark of 1,723.
It took the Senators little time to claim the opening lead. To be precise, it required forward Brady Tkachuk 136 seconds into the first period to score his third goal during a power-play sequence.
Off some perimeter movement around the offensive zone, Senators forward Tim Stutzle fed a pass from the left point low toward the near corner for Senators forward Drake Batherson. With his back to the cage, Batherson flicked a backhand pass past the stick of Penguins defenseman Kris Letang to the top of the blue paint, where a mostly unimpeded Tkachuk chopped a forehand shot that fluttered past Silovs’ glove. Penguins forward Bryan Rust was tardy in attempting to tie up Tkachuk.
The power-play opportunity was created after Silovs was called for tripping Stutzle. He became the first Penguins goaltender to record a penalty this season.
Former Penguins forward David Perron’s fifth goal came only 94 seconds into the second period.
Chasing down a puck dumped into the Penguins’ right corner, Senators defenseman Jordan Spence tossed it toward the cage. Establishing position on Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon to the right of the cage, Perron allowed the puck to hit off his left skate and trickle by Silovs’ left leg. The score was Perron’s 800th career point.
The hosts went up by a field goal at 4:50 of the second period via the sixth goal of forward Claude Giroux, a longtime nemesis of the Penguins.
Curling above the top of the left circle of the offensive zone, Senators forward Ridley Greig backhanded a pass low into the circle, where it struck linemate Michael Amadio’s left skate and slid below the lower-left hashmark. Giroux was in a convenient position to the left of the crease and swept in a forehand shot through Silovs’ five hole.
Letang appeared to score at 11:21 of the second frame, but officials immediately waved it off after determining Penguins forward Rickard Rakell interfered with goaltender Linus Ullmark. The Penguins issued a coach’s challenge that was unsuccessful, leading to a delay-of-game penalty.
Tkachuk tallied another goal at 13:55 of the final frame in a bizarre sequence.
Despite the Senators having possession of the puck, Silovs tried to vacate the cage to permit the Penguins an extra attacker. That questionable decision allowed Senators defenseman Nick Jensen to play the puck from his own zone up the right wing to the offensive blue line. As Silovs made a U-turn at the bench, Tkachuk had an open cage to fire a wrister from the right circle.
Ullmark recorded his first shutout this season by making 23 saves. He remained perfect in his career against the Penguins, improving his record against them to 8-0-0.
Notes: Penguins defensemen Connor Clifton and Ryan Graves, as well as rookie forward Ville Koivunen, were healthy scratches. … Ex-Penguins forward Lars Eller was scratched by the Senators for a third consecutive game due to a broken foot according to Canadian outlet TSN 1200. The injury is expected to sideline him for an additional three weeks. Stutzle appeared in his 400th career game.
