NHL analyst breaks down the real reason behind Penguins three straight losses

The Pittsburgh Penguins have given up only four goals during the course of regulation and overtime play in their last three outings. This is not the problem. Scoring is.

The result of this has been that the Penguins are now 0-2-1 in this stretch of games, despite playing hockey in an organized fashion and having good goalie play.

NHL analyst Dave Molinari said that the main cause of this recent skid has been the lack of scoring in these three games, with the Penguins having only two goals.

Contrast this with the winning streak that kicked off the new year, where the Pens were scoring regularly and putting away opportunities. In the last three games, that has certainly not been happening.

The Penguins' latest setback came on Tuesday night as they lost a shootout by a 2-1 margin against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Arturs Silovs had a great night as he made 30 saves out of 31 shots on goal, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves out of 27 shots on net for the Lightning.

The Lightning broke the 0-0 tie with just minutes left in the third period as J.J. Moser scored from the crease. The Penguins tied the game with just 2:16 left as they pulled Silovs from the net with a goal by Evgeni Malkin

Overtime favored Pittsburgh, but there was no finish. In the shootout, Egor Chinakhov scored for Pittsburgh, while Gage Goncalves and Nikita Kucherov got the winning goals for Tampa.

The Penguins are just a point away from the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot following a Toronto Maple Leafs blowout loss.

With their best defenseman, Erik Karlsson, out for an extended period of time and an Olympic break looming, Pittsburgh needs to turn its play into points.

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