CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Hockey, like every other pro sport, is a bottom-line business, so it's not hard to guess what Mike Sullivan has liked most about the Penguins' last two games.
The four points they earned by winning them.
But even though their 7-3 victory against Ottawa Tuesday and their 4-2 win in Buffalo two nights later aren't a threat to crack the short list of the Penguins' most impressive performances this season, Sullivan said Friday that he saw some other encouraging signs in those games, especially since they came in the wake of a six-game losing streak.
"Our whole overall game has gotten better," he said. "We've scored some goals. That helps our confidence. I think we're defending harder, more consistently. We're creating some offense off of our defense. I just think we're gaining traction, we're improving as a team in all the areas. That's going to be real important moving forward."
Particularly since the Penguins are moving forward into the most critical stretch of their 2019-20 schedule: Their next 10 games, and 14 of the next 15, will be against Metropolitan Division opponents, beginning with one against the Capitals Saturday at 1:08 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena.
Only two of their final 16 games -- March 25 in Chicago and the regular-season finale April 4 in Ottawa -- will be outside the division, so the Penguins' landing spot in the playoff race will be determined, in large part, by how they fare against the clubs they are battling for postseason berths and seeds.
"To have that opportunity to gain points on your own division in every game is really important," Conor Sheary said. "Starting with tomorrow, it's important to get as many points as you can."
The Penguins enter Saturday's game in third place in the Metropolitan, three points behind the Capitals and Philadelphia, who are tied for first. They have a game in hand on each of those clubs, in addition to that schedule laden with games inside the division.
"It puts that onus on you as a team, that you control your own destiny," Jason Zucker said. "You control where you're at in the standings and where you're at at playoff time. All those things."
The Penguins are 7-4-3 against Metropolitan opponents, including a split of two games at Washington. Their games with the Capitals generally don't lack for passion, but at this time of year, there's not much that doesn't get ratcheted-up on a nightly basis.
"Everything gets more and more intense," Bryan Rust said. "It's tighter-checking, harder-working, playoff-type hockey."
The Penguins' overall game is not at that level at the moment, so getting it there figures to be a primary focus as the regular season winds down.
"We want to try to get back to playing to our identity for a full 60 minutes," Rust said. "Bringing that consistency, night-in and night-out. Shift-to-shift, period-to-period. That's our goal."
If the Penguins are able to achieve their performance objectives during the next month, a division title or high seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs might well result. Those are not, however, goals they have specifically targeted as they enter this gauntlet of games against Metropolitan opponents.
In times like these, it's helpful to remember this hint for anyone decorating an arena: When hanging a division title banner in the rafters, it looks best if accompanied by one commemorating a Stanley Cup. Otherwise, it's mostly just a piece of cloth that collects dust.
"We haven't given (a Metropolitan championship) much thought," Sullivan said. "We're just trying to win games, and we'll see where that takes us."
• When Nick Bjugstad, who had missed the previous 46 games while recovering from core-muscle surgery, fell to the ice and reached for his midsection as the Penguins were scoring their first goal in Buffalo, the immediate suspicion was that he had aggravated his original injury. Not so, although Bjugstad was lucky to avoid another serious problem. "I got cut by the goalie's skate," he said. "It had nothing to do with my (previous) injury. ... I had a little slash. I've gotten cut by skates a few times, and you just feel the cut. You don't know how deep it is." In this instance, Bjugstad said, the cut was not deep enough to require stitches.
• Alex Ovechkin has scored 35 of his 705 career goals against the Penguins, and enters the final four weeks of the regular season with a good shot at winning the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal-scorer for the ninth time:
• Sullivan confirmed that he has decided whether Matt Murray or Tristan Jarry will be in goal against the Capitals, but will not publicly announce his choice until he meets with reporters Saturday morning. Murray has started the past two games.
• Here are the personnel combinations the Penguins used at practice Friday:
Zucker-Crosby-Sheary
Marleau-Malkin-Rust
McCann-Bjugstad-Hornqvist
Tanev-Blueger-Rodrigues
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Johnson-Schultz
Riikola-Ruhwedel
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