3 Things: Ducks 3, Penguins 2

Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Friday.

1. Sullivan's message to the team
After tonight's game, which was the Penguins' fifth straight setback, head coach Mike Sullivan went in the locker room and addressed his team.
"Our message is we got 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 tomorrow night (in San Jose). We've got to try to make the best of it."
For the majority of the season up to this point, the adversity Pittsburgh faced had come in the form of injuries to key players - but they had managed to find ways to overcome that with their work ethic and resiliency.
This is a new kind of adversity that the Penguins are dealing with right now. And all they can do, as Sidney Crosby said, is go in with the mindset of winning the next game and trying to build some momentum off of that.
"I know the character we have in this room," goalie Matt Murray said. "I know we're just fine. We're hitting a little bump in the road here, like all teams do. It's going to make us stronger in the long run. It'll be tough to get through this one, for sure, but we've got the character to do it. It's just a bump in the road and we'll be better off for it in the long run.
2. Offense still struggling
When he looks at this five-game losing streak, what stands out the most to Sullivan is that his team is struggling to create offense. The positive is that the chances have been there; they just aren't falling and they're not getting the bounces like their opponents have been (two of Anaheim's goals tonight deflected off of Penguins players).
"It's hard to win when you don't put the puck in the net," Sullivan said. "Having said that, I don't think it's been from a lack of opportunities the last couple of games. We've had a significant amount of scoring chances. The puck hasn't gone in the net."
It's telling that the one player who did find the back of the net tonight - Jason Zucker, who potted both of Pittsburgh's goals - wasn't happy with himself, feeling he could have done a better job of helping to convert more opportunities. That's pretty much the sentiment throughout the room right now as the Penguins look to break out of this funk.
"I got to make some plays," he said. "I was terrible out there tonight with my hands and making plays. That 2-on-1 with Sid, that's got to be a better pass. I've gripped my stick a little tight a couple times here too. I think we've just got to start playing again and just start making the simple plays and the easy plays that we know we can make. Put the puck in the net and just free our minds a little bit and play hockey."
3. Special teams again a factor
After the Penguins' 2-1 loss to Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sullivan called special teams the difference in the game. It was a big factor again on Friday.
The second period was spent almost exclusively on special teams, and because of it, the Ducks turned the 1-0 lead they took into the first intermission into a 3-1 lead heading into the second - a lead they would not relinquish.
Pittsburgh's power play only scored once despite having over seven minutes on the man-advantage, including four straight minutes after Ryan Getzlaf got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked onto his hooking call. They weren't able to convert a key opportunity seven minutes into the third period.
Conversely, the Penguins also asked too much of their penalty killers, as they spent almost 10 minutes of the game shorthanded after Justin Schultz received a double minor for hi-sticking and Evgeni Malkin also got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked onto his hooking call. The Ducks scored their second goal on the power play and their third goal right after a Penguins penalty expired.