NEWARK, N.J. -- The Penguins have lost eight of their past 10 games and have, much of the time, looked pretty bad doing it.
But while going through a skid like that has to put a few dents in the team's collective psyche, New Jersey coach Alain Nasreddine said Tuesday morning that he doesn't expect the Penguins to be mentally brittle when they face the Devils tonight at 7:08 at Prudential Center.
"I don't know if I'd ever think of Pittsburgh as being 'fragile,' '' he said. "I know they're having a tough stretch here, but these guys, they know how to get at it and they know what they need to do to win games. We're going to have to be ready. We know what's coming in. They're a good team. They're at the top of the standings for a reason. I understand their past struggles, but for us, I don't feel that it's going to carry over into tonight. It's a new game for both teams, so we expect their best."
Prudential Center is not a particularly hospitable venue for the Penguins in the best of times -- New Jersey is 4-3-1 in its past eight games against them there -- and these most certainly are not the best of times for the Penguins.
"When you look back, we definitely have had some tough ones," Sidney Crosby said. "But all that stuff doesn't really matter now. We need to come up with a win tonight."
That figures to be a significant challenge, for while the Devils' home record is a relatively lackluster 13-10-10, they are 6-2 in their past eight at Prudential Center.
"At home, you want to be a tough team to play against," Nasreddine said. "You don't want to make it easy on the other team. That's something we've addressed, that's something we take want to take pride in.
"The approach in every game, whether you're on the road or at home, should remain the same. But it's nice to get some wins at home, for sure. I think our fans deserve it. The effort has been there. Now, we've got to get results."
The Penguins know the feeling. And while this prolonged skid had to do some damage to their collective confidence, Brian Dumoulin said today that he believes the Penguins will survive their slump an emerge stronger because they went through it.
"We're still in a good spot, as a team, as we have to feel confidence in that," he said. "We know the games are going to be tough. In the end, once we come out of this, it will make us better as a team."
• Nick Bjugstad, who has played the past three games after missing about 3 1/2 months while recovering from core muscle surgery, is week-to-week with an unspecified lower-body injury, Sullivan said. He added that this injury is not related to Bjugstad's previous issue.
• Conor Sheary, on the Coronavirus issue that seems to be intruding on all aspects of life: "It's a little scary. It seems like it's inching closer to affecting more people around here. But I think people are taking the right steps, and you're getting the right information from the right people."
• Devils forward Jack Hughes, the first player selected in the 2019 draft, is a center by trade, but is playing on the wing these days, primarily to limit his responsibilities on defensive coverages and faceoffs. "I wouldn't say that it's set in stone that he's going to stay on the wing for the rest of the year," Nasreddine said. "I think at some point, we'll move him back to center. But for the time being right now, going into tonight, the short-term focus is that he'll be on the wing."
• Nasreddine is the latest in a long line of former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coaches to make it to the NHL, joining the likes of John Hynes, Dan Bylsma, Michel Therrien, Todd Richards, Todd Reirden and Sullivan. That steady stream of coaches from the Penguins' top farm team to the next level reflects how the operation there is run, he said. "I'd like to credit (team president) Jeff Barrett, but when he hears that, I'm never going to hear the end of it," Nasreddine said. "But Wilkes-Barre prides themselves on being, at the time, the 31st NHL team, now 32nd. They do everything NHL-like. All the resources are there. They treat their coaches and players very well. They always want to have a good product on the ice. They're always competitive. ... Everything there is top-notch."
• The Penguins used these personnel combinations at their game-day skate:
Zucker-Crosby-Sheary
Marleau-Malkin-Rust
Rodrigues-McCann-Hornqvist
Tanev-Blueger-Lafferty
Dumoulin-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Johnson-Schultz
Riikola-Ruhwedel
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