Skidding Penguins Head West: Saturday in L.A. Is a Season Crossroads

The Pittsburgh Penguins are running out of soft landings. Thursday night's 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins at PPG Paints Arena was the Penguins' fourth straight defeat (0-3-1) — their second four-game skid of a season that is barely a month old. At 5-9-2 with 12 points, Pittsburgh sits seventh in the Metropolitan Division and 29th in the 32-team NHL. The good news, such as it is: the road trip ahead starts against a team in almost exactly the same hole. The Penguins fly west to face the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night (9 p.m. ET, Crypto.com Arena), the first stop on a three-game California swing that continues Sunday in Anaheim and Wednesday in San Jose. The Kings are 5-7-2 with 12 points of their own — 28th in the league, seventh in the Pacific — and are coming off a 7-2 rout of San Jose on Wednesday. Somebody's slump ends Saturday. Somebody else's deepens. Thursday night, in brief Pittsburgh actually scored first. Justin Brazeau, fresh off a conditioning stint in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, buried a snap shot from the right circle at 9:04 of the first period for a 1-0 lead on the Penguins' first shot of the night. Then Boston scored three goals in 6:50, and the game was effectively over before the first intermission. Pavel Zacha scored twice for the Bruins, Morgan Geekie added a goal and an assist, and David Pastrnak and JJ Peterka each recorded two assists as Boston (12-4-1) won its third straight. Nick Robertson pulled Pittsburgh within one at 7:57 of the second, but Zacha and Geekie answered less than three minutes apart, and Fraser Minten closed the scoring at 8:39 of the third. Kaedan Korczak assisted on both Pittsburgh goals. Arturs Silovs allowed six goals on 24 shots in the Penguins' net. The loss also carried a sour footnote: Bruins rookie James Hagens left in the third period after taking a cross-check to the back from Penguins defenseman Samuel Girard. Hagens did not return, and Boston coach Marco Sturm had no update after the game. The numbers behind the skid The losing streak is not a goaltending story alone, but the goaltending is part of it. Silovs owns a 2.98 goals-against average and an .888 save percentage, and backup Sergei Murashov is 0-4-1. During the four-game skid, Pittsburgh is averaging three goals a game and allowing four. Over the last 10 games, the Penguins are 2-7-1. The offense, meanwhile, is running on fumes at the top. Erik Karlsson leads the team with 16 points (3 goals, 13 assists) in 16 games, doing much of the creating from the blue line. Evgeni Malkin has six goals and 11 points, Sidney Crosby has four goals and six assists, and Tommy Novak has 10 points. Beyond that core, the scoring dries up fast — and the injury list keeps the depth chart thin. Injury updates Malkin returned against Boston after missing Tuesday's 3-2 loss to Vegas with a lower-body injury, logging 16:11 of ice time with one shot on goal. His return is the one piece of good news on the health front. Still out: winger Bryan Rust (lower body, injured reserve, expected back around Dec. 5), forward Elmer Soderblom (upper body, IR, expected back around Nov. 14), defenseman Ryan Graves (knee, IR, expected back around Nov. 28) and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk (lower body, IR, expected back around Nov. 8). Rust's absence in particular continues to gut the top six; the Penguins have scored three or fewer goals in three of their last four games. Saturday's matchup: two teams in the same ditch The Kings are no juggernaut — they are 2-4-0 at home, own the NHL's worst penalty kill at roughly 62.5 percent, and sit seven points out of a wild-card spot. But they are also rested, dangerous, and coming off their best night of the season. Adrian Kempe erupted for a hat trick and an assist in Wednesday's 7-2 win over San Jose, and Artemi Panarin leads Los Angeles with 17 points (8 goals, 9 assists) in 14 games. Kevin Fiala and Alex Turcotte remain on injured reserve, expected out until at least Saturday. For Pittsburgh, the matchup offers a genuine opening. The Kings' penalty kill is the worst in the league, and the Penguins' power play — fueled by Karlsson at the point and Malkin back in the fold — is the most obvious path to stealing two points on the road. But the Penguins have to stop handing opponents free goals first: turnovers and poor puck management were the story Thursday, with team leadership and coaching both pointing to discipline as the fix. Projection: what Saturday means Projection: If the Penguins lose in Los Angeles, the skid hits five games and the California swing starts to look like a season-defining disaster — with Anaheim on Sunday offering no rest on a back-to-back. A win, on the other hand, would be the Penguins' first since Oct. 31 and would pull them level with the Kings at 14 points, with two more winnable games on the trip. Projection: Expect Silovs to get the start again Saturday after Thursday's rough night, if only because the schedule gives the Penguins little choice — the back-to-back in Anaheim means both goaltenders will be needed this weekend, and the coaching staff has to decide which night is the better spot for Murashov. Projection: Malkin, a game back from injury and held to one shot against Boston, should be the player to watch. He has six goals in 13 games this season, and a multi-point night from him is the most reliable indicator of a Penguins win — when the big three produce, this team can outscore its problems. When they don't, it can't. The Penguins' season is not over in November. But at 5-9-2, with the Metropolitan already pulling away, it is close enough to the edge that a weekend in California will tell us a lot about whether this team has a climb in it — or whether the rebuild conversation starts before Thanksgiving.