The Chicago Blackhawks had not won a game since a 5-4 overtime win in Florida on Nov. 24. That was a stretch of eight games coming into Wednesday night.

Chicago was, and is, also sitting near the bottom of the NHL overall standings with now 25 points. They also occupy the seventh spot in the Central division out of seven teams.

Since firing long time coach Joel Quenneville, Chicago went on a 3-12-2 stretch before last night’s game.

Bryan Rust hadn’t scored a goal since the proverbial eighth grade picnic.  On Wednesday night, he went off for the Penguins’ fifth hat-trick of the season and fourth in nine games.

Yet on Thursday night, both of those streaks ended in surprising fashion as the Blackhawks downed an uninspired group of Penguins, 6-3.

Chicago had just lost in Winnipeg the night before by the same score, yet it was the Penguins who played with no energy or jump. Pittsburgh’s best line was Riley Sheahan, Bryan Rust and Zach-Aston Reese.

Good for them, but that line won’t win you any games single-handedly.  

“We’re trying to build some traction here, they’ve played a lot of good hockey, we’ve played a lot of good hockey over the last three or four weeks and we’re trying to string some wins together and some points together and build some traction and momentum. When you have a night like tonight it sets you back. It’s a missed opportunity from our standpoint. We just didn’t play well enough to get the result.” — Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Players return, but results still stuck

Matt Cullen returned to the line up and played on the fourth line.

Matt Murray also returned but served as the night’s back-up goaltender.  With back to back games Friday and Saturday, look for Murray to ease back between the pipes sometime there.

Casey DeSmith was cooled off from his recent hot stretch, making 23 saves on 27 shots. The Blackhawks fifth and sixth goals occurred with the empty net variety.

For Chicago, Jonathan Toews had a goal and two assists to reach the 700-point milestone for his career. Pittsburgh native Brandon Saad also chipped in a goal on the evening.

Despite dominating play in Ottawa and New York on the first two games of the trip, this game leaves you scratching your head. Corey Crawford had to make 40 saves on 43 shots, sure, but only five of those shots came from the Penguins’ top line.

Meanwhile, Rust had eight, and could have had five goals, in the game.  If anyone on the club deserved a night like this, he’s the guy. For the better part of the year he has had chance after chance not go in. Yet, he continued to work hard and generate offense.  

You have to go back to the 9-1 rout over Calgary, on Oct. 25, to find Rust in the goal scoring column.

Evgeni Malkin is playing with zero care and even less results. He leads the Penguins with 38 penalty minutes (that’s also five more PIM’s than his point total). He also sits at a -11 for the season which includes a -6 for the month of December in six games.  

His penalty early in the third did not lead directly to the game winning goal by Marcus Kruger, but his half-hearted swipe at him coming out of the corner showed a lack of effort seen far-too-recently.

It’s at times like this that you wonder why head coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t want to send a message to Malkin — and the whole team — by having him sit for a shift or two and make him think about it.

With the Blackhawks jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first, it marked the first time they had scored the opening goal of the game since Nov. 17.

Patric Hornqvist was placed on injured reserve by the Penguins, but Sullivan noted that Horny had not suffered a set-back in his upper body injury, just that it was healing slower than expected.

The New York Islanders also lost on Wednesday, 3-2, to Las Vegas so the two teams stay tied in third in the Metropolitan Division.

What’s Next?

Pittsburgh will get to prove that this game was merely a blip in an otherwise big improvement in play.  They host the Boston Bruins on Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The next night, Carl Hagelin and the equally struggling Los Angeles Kings come to town. Four points here would put the Penguins back into solid footing in the Metro.

Stay tuned for more Penguins coverage at Pittsburgh Sports Castle. As always, thanks for reading!

PHOTO: Another trip to Chicago, another loss. Photo Credit: Bill Smith/Getty Images.

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