Experienced Penguins Feeling Confident Ahead of Game 4

While facing elimination after just three games in a playoff series is a different situation than what the Penguins are used to, the mindset remains the same.

"I think it's pretty clear-cut when you're in that situation," Sidney Crosby said after the Montreal Canadiens took a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-five Qualifying Round with a 4-3 win in Game 3 on Wednesday. "You've got to go out there and find a way to win a hockey game."

And with their experienced, veteran group, the Penguins are confident that they will be able to do so in Game 4 on Friday.

"I thought we had good energy in practice today. The guys were upbeat," Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. "As I said to them, we've got to make sure we stay in the moment. Let's win the one game right in front of us. And that's what we're going to try to do.

"We understand where we're at. We understand what's at stake here. We had a pretty energetic practice today. I think our guys are excited to play tomorrow."

Evgeni Malkin agreed with that assessment when he spoke to the media after that practice on Thursday.

"We try to stay positive right now, for sure," Malkin said. "Try to support each other. We have great experience, we've played so many games in playoffs. Our confidence is fine. We understand we play against a good team. We just did not play right last game. If we play right, we'll have a good chance to win."

Malkin should know, as he and the rest of the core of the Penguins leadership group - along with Crosby and Kris Letang - have literally been through it all together, from winning Stanley Cups and losing some heartbreakers to injuries and illnesses and everything in-between. Because of that, they have the benefit of perspective, and it should help them in a time like this.

Malkin in particular wants to elevate his play, as he has yet to find the back of the net in this series despite having 17 shots through the first three games.

"We've played so many games before like this," Malkin said. "We try to be leaders. I'm not happy with my game. Huge game for me tomorrow, for sure. All three guys, me, Tanger and Sid, need to take a huge step forward and (have) everyone follow us. If we play and do the right things, we have a great chance to win."

Sullivan has talked a lot about how motivated the Penguins' leadership group is. They know how hard it is to win, and that they have a great opportunity ahead of them to capture another Stanley Cup. They don't take it for granted, and aren't ready to let it slip away.

"It should not be the last game for us," Malkin said. "We don't want that. We rested the four months beforehand; we want to play more. We have a great team, a great organization. We don't want to finish tomorrow, for sure. It's not over."

Now that they've had time to digest what happened in Game 3, the word used by all three players who spoke to reporters on Thursday - Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Marcus Pettersson - was "details."

For Malkin, those details include winning faceoffs and blocking shots. For Hornqvist, those details include turning pucks over in the neutral zone. For Pettersson, those details include not being hard enough on pucks; not holding onto pucks; and losing players in the battles.

They felt that they didn't pay enough attention to those details, and as a result, they let Montreal back into the game and score three unanswered goals to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.

"Just do the small things right," Hornqvist said. "If we do that, we'll be fine. We know what kind of situation we're in. A lot of guys have been there before. No one said it's going to be easy to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs, so we know what we're up against. We just have to get those details together, and we're all looking forward to 4 o' clock tomorrow to get going."

PRACTICE UPDATE: Sullivan said that there were no absences from practice. When asked about any lineup changes for Game 4, he said if he were to make personnel changes, he probably wouldn't share them with the media.

"Any time you make changes, there's always an element of risk associated with it," he said. "But one could argue that there's an element of risk associated with not making changes, too. That's just the world that we live in as coaches. We're going to try to make the best decisions that we can, that give our team the best chance to win. That's the question that we try to answer each and every game."