The New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins each lug a three-game losing

The New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins each lug a three-game losing streak into their Metropolitan Division matchup Monday at PPG Paints Arena Authentic Teuvo Teravainen Jersey , but the demeanor of each club is vastly different.The Devils (5-5-1) felt as if they turned a corner in a good way Saturday despite a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders, while Pittsburgh (6-3-3) was left reeling after a 5-0 loss the same night against Toronto.New Jersey coach John Hynes talked about there being steps to getting out of a funk, and he thinks his team has taken a big one.Article continues below ...“Lots of times when you come out of it your play has to be better first,” he said. “Lots of times you don’t come out of these with a win; you come out of it by playing better and playing better and playing better.“If we can build on our work ethic and how we played (Saturday), then we’re going to put ourselves in situations to win games.”Before the Islanders game, the Devils lost two games by a combined 12-6. New Jersey goaltender Keith Kinkaid noticed a difference Saturday, describing that game as “a little setback” when the team “ran into a hot goalie.”“There’s plenty of season left,” Kinkaid said. “We’re just going through a little spell. Everything’s a learning curve. We have a young team. We’ve just got to keep sticking with it.”Winger Taylor Hall, the defending Hart Trophy winner, thought the Devils were more competitive and better defensively.“It seems like for the most part we have a grasp for how we need to play in our own end right now,” Hall said. “Comparing our game (Saturday) to the last couple Womens Victor Rask Jersey , there was a lot of improvement in a lot of areas. It’s a good building-block game for how we need to play going forward.”The Penguins, meanwhile, spent Sunday trying to simply remind themselves of what those building blocks are.“We’ve got to try to reinforce the details and the work ethic associated with winning, and that was part of the practice (Sunday), was trying to make sure that we get back to basics and that we focus on the process and the details associated with winning — and with our team it starts with skating,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.The Penguins were riding high after a 4-0 road trip through Canada, but the three-game losing streak (0-2-1) has immediately followed.“Right now we’re down, and we have to … find ourselves a little bit,” winger Patric Hornqvist said.After being outskated and outworked Saturday by the Maple Leafs, there was plenty of soul-searching.Defenseman Kris Letang said the Penguins were “flat” and that “there was no emotion.”Sullivan, rarely critical of his club Alex DeBrincat Jersey , said the past week has taken a toll.“This league has a funny way of humbling you. Right now I think we’ve been humbled,” he said.Pittsburgh winger Matt Cullen, the oldest player in the NHL, has been around plenty long enough to know that even just a month into the season, a lull without a correction can lead to things going sideways.“We have to dig down and find a way to turn things around,” he said. “I don’t have any question that we will, but we don’t have any time to waste.” TAMPA, Fla. (AP) Alex Ovechkin is thrilled, though hardly satisfied.The Washington Capitals star is headed to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in his 13-year career, eager to put more distance between the Eastern Conference champions and a lingering perception of Ovechkin and the Caps as playoff underachievers.”Finally we get what we want, be in the Stanley Cup Final Minnesota Wild Hats Womens ,” the 32-year-old Russian star said. ”There’s still a lot of hockey to play.”Ovechkin scored just over a minute into Washington’s 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final Wednesday night.Braden Holtby stopped 29 shots to notch his second straight shutout. Andre Burakovsky scored two goals, and Nicklas Backstrom added an empty-netter to help the Capitals close it out.Now, they’ve got to do it again against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who are Western Conference champions in their inaugural season.”I feel very happy, but we’re not finished yet,” Ovechkin said. ”We’ve been waiting for this moment a long time.”The Golden Knights breezed through the Western Conference, scoring 43 goals and allowing 27 while going 12-3 to eliminate the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets during an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final.Vegas went 2-0 against the Capitals in the regular season, winning 3-0 at home on Dec. 23 and 4-3 at Washington on Feb. 4.”It’s a great story. They’re a good hockey team, they have a lot of good players, players from other teams – I know a lot of people say we didn’t want those players http://www.blackhawksshoponline.com/authentic-artem-anisimov-jersey , but we all did,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said.”The rules were the rules. They did a great job, they’ve been galvanized as a group. There’s nothing tighter than that first-year group because there’s no pre-conceived notion. Leadership’s not in place, nobody knows where to live, all those things are galvanizing.”The Golden Knights’ top scorer during the playoffs has been former Lightning forward Jonathan Marchessault with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists). Alex Tuch is second among league rookies with nine points (six goals, three assists).Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who’s in the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season and fifth time overall, has been a huge part of the team’s success, too, with a 1.68 goals-against-average and .947 save percentage.Fleury and teammate James Neal return to the Cup Final after facing each other in the championship round last year – Fleury with the Pittsburgh Penguins Brandon Saad Jersey , Neal with the Nashville Predators.”They’re deep. They’re probably the most veteran team still playing in the playoffs. But they’ve done a fabulous job,” Trotz said. ”They’re a fabulous story. … It’s a great story, not only for our game, but for everybody.”To reach the Cup Final for the first time since 1998, the Caps beat Tampa Bay three times on the road to run their record to 8-2 away from home this postseason.The Lightning, the NHL’s highest-scoring team during the regular season, didn’t have a goal over the final 159 minutes, 27 seconds of the series.Ryan Callahan had Tampa Bay’s last goal at 33 seconds of the second period in Game 5.”It’s fun. I’m more happy for that group than I am personally,” Trotz said. ”They did it together. Everybody has been in all year. We kept growing on and off the ice.”And shoving aside a decade of playoff frustration.”The playoffs are fun,” Trotz added. ”They got to the next level and realized they’re not going to be defined by anything they’ve done or not done in the past.”—AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this story.—