Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said he's not treating their one-sided losses simply as bad games to forget.
"There are going to be nights over the course of an 82-game schedule where it doesn't go your way, but I think this early in the season at this point, our team has had a few too many of them," Sullivan said. "We give our opponents credit; we're playing against good teams. But it's not so much what our opponents are doing to us, it's more what we're doing to ourselves.
"That's unacceptable. If we're going to get where we want to go, we're going to have to become a team that doesn't beat itself."
The self-inflicted pain has come early in those games, something Crosby said has made matters doubly difficult.
"We've put ourselves behind early by a bunch," he said. "It's not a great position to be in on back-to-back nights. Those games, you have to manage them a little better and give yourself a better chance. When you're starting off and it's 3-0 in the first five-to-seven minutes, it's pretty hard to climb out of that."
It's fair to wonder if the Penguins have suffered from fatigue early this season. In winning the Stanley Cup in 2016 and 2017, they played 213 games the previous two seasons.
"I don't believe in the hangover," Sullivan said. "For me, that's all just nonsense. It's a hockey game. We've got to be ready to play."
Defenseman Olli Maatta also dismissed that thought.