Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan took ownership of his team's inconsistent stretches throughout the campaign following yet another frustrating loss on Saturday.

"It's on all of us, it always is. It starts with me," he said following Pittsburgh's 6-4 defeat at the hands of the San Jose Sharks. "I've gotta do a better job coaching these guys and getting it out of them and making sure that the message is being heard.

"I think there’s been volatility in our game, and we've got to bring a consistent game every night ... and that's what we talk about with our guys a lot. We try to show them examples of what that looks like, when we're at our best. We've got to bring it more consistently, and when we do that, we're gonna give ourselves a chance to win on most nights."

The Penguins have stumbled into the break: They've only won consecutive games once since Christmas, and they'll have to try and shake off back-to-back losses when they return to action against the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 7.

On top of that, the Penguins are in a dogfight of a playoff race, currently holding the second wild-card spot with a 24-16-9 record. But they only have a one-point advantage over the Buffalo Sabres, while the New York Islanders and Florida Panthers are two and three points behind, respectively.

There isn't much room for error if Pittsburgh wants to make the postseason for the 17th straight year, and Sullivan knows his squad has to be a tougher matchup for opposing teams down the stretch.

"We've got to do a better job, in my mind, at being harder to play against," he said. "We generate offense consistently, we score goals consistently. We've gotta do a better job keeping it out of our net ... and I think it starts with managing the puck.

"That goes through all four lines and our defense as well. We've gotta do a better job taking care of the puck, and I don't think we did a good job tonight. That was, I think, a direct result of some of the goals that were scored."

Sharks forward Mikey Eyssimont opened the scoring just 1:25 into Saturday's contest as the Penguins once again found themselves mired in a slow start, this time against a basement-dwelling team. Defenseman Erik Karlsson added insult to injury with a goal in the dying seconds of the opening frame.

Evgeni Malkin joined the fight with two goals and an assist, but Logan Couture ultimately dominated Pittsburgh with a five-point outing during the back-and-forth affair.

The Penguins now sit fifth in the Metropolitan Division, and veteran defenseman Kris Letang commented postgame on how difficult it is not to keep an eye on the standings with 33 games remaining in his team's campaign.

"When you're in that division, I think you're watching every day," he said. "One day you’re in the playoffs, and the other day you're not. It's a strong division. We have to make sure that we have a strong end of the season."

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Winnipeg Jets head coach Rick Bowness was his team's harshest critic after a humbling 4-0 loss on home ice to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.

"The difference makers, you couldn't even find them out there," Bowness said, per The Athletic's Murat Ates. "Until we make the commitment again that we want to play as a team, this is what you get."

Winnipeg's loss was its third in a row and fifth in 10 games. Philadelphia opened the scoring in the first period and finished the game with an advantage in scoring chances and expected goals at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Bowness said the Jets are reverting into last year's habits of late. Winnipeg missed the playoffs for the first time in four seasons in 2021-22, and longtime head coach Paul Maurice surprisingly stepped down from his post before the midway point of the campaign.

"Right now we’re going through a spell that as soon as the adversity kicks in, we’re going on our own program," Bowness said. "Which was the problem all of last year. We thought we had corrected it, now we have to correct it again, and we will."

He added: "This group knows how to win. There is a price to pay in this league: You have to work, you have to compete, and you have to do it every night. As the season progresses, it gets harder."

Despite a recent skid, the Jets are in prime position to qualify for the postseason with a 31-19-1 record. Winnipeg will take on the St. Louis Blues on Monday night for a final tuneup before the All-Star break.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets claimed forward Lane Pederson off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, the team announced.

Pederson recorded a goal and two assists in 11 games with the Canucks this season while averaging 12:50 per contest. The 25-year-old winger has tallied two goals and six helpers in 55 career NHL games between the Canucks, San Jose Sharks, and Arizona Coyotes.

The Canucks acquired Pederson and defenseman Ethan Bear from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a fifth-round pick in October.

The Blue Jackets placed forward Gustav Nyquist on injured reserve in a corresponding move. The veteran winger is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.

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Vancouver Canucks forward Ilya Mikheyev needs ACL surgery and has been shut down for the remainder of the season, general manager Patrik Allvin announced Friday, according to Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre

Mikheyev, 28, sustained the injury in the preseason and missed the Canucks' first three games of the year.

He put up 13 goals - including one tally during Friday's 5-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets - and 15 assists in 46 games while averaging almost 17 minutes of ice during his first campaign with the Canucks.

Allvin added that the surgery was always going to be necessary and that the winger was working closely with medical staff. The team is shelving him now with training camp eight months away.

He signed a four-year, $19-million deal with Vancouver as an unrestricted free agent in July.

Allvin also announced that goaltender Thatcher Demko's timeline is still foggy, but he might be able to return in three weeks, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. Demko hasn't played since Dec. 1 due to a lower-body injury.

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After reasserting his dominance as the projected 2023 first overall pick at the world juniors, Connor Bedard is well aware that the hype surrounding him is real.

But that doesn't mean he's completely on board with the lofty comparisons he's garnered throughout his career to generational talents like Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, and Connor McDavid.

"I think when people kind of put me against someone - McDavid, for example - I'm like, 'Well, that guy's got 700 points in 20 games in the NHL,'" he joked during an interview with Sportsnet's Sam Cosentino. "I think what I'm doing right now is obviously not to the impact of that, but obviously it's cool to see your name with those guys. I hope to play against them one day, that would be a dream come true.

"For me, I've got a lot of games left to still prove myself and I've gotta get out there and do that and try and get better every day."

The 2023 NHL Draft is just five months away and, assuming he makes his team's opening-night roster, Bedard won't have to wait very long to compete against the likes of McDavid (who has 786 points in 536 games).

Even though the next phase of his career is right around the corner, making the jump to the big leagues appears to be a surreal idea for Bedard.

"The NHL's still that thing that's the best of the best and it feels like you're still a fan of it and that these people aren't real people," he said. "Honestly, there's still a lot of work to do and I hope to be there one day."

This isn't the first time Bedard has reined in the buzz surrounding his own hype. After becoming the first 16-year-old since Gretzky to score a hat trick for Canada at the world juniors in December 2021, Bedard noted that he didn't think he'd be hitting the 2,800-point mark in the NHL like the Great One.

The British Columbia native continued to build up his resume during the 2023 World Junior Championship, where he was named MVP of the tournament after setting new Canadian records in all-time goals (17) and points (36).

Bedard is currently crushing it with the Regina Pats of the WHL. He leads the league with 39 goals and 81 points in 33 contests while riding a 32-game point streak.

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Despite suffering a season-ending shoulder injury, Cole Caufield said he would still be slotting into the Canadiens' lineup if Montreal had its eyes on a postseason run.

"For sure, if we were in a playoff spot, no doubt in my mind I'd still be playing," he told reporters during a press conference on Friday. "It really wasn't up to me to stop playing. But in the right circumstances, I feel like this is the best decision long-term."

The Canadiens are currently in last place of the Atlantic Division with a record of 20-25-4 and are 13 points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The 22-year-old winger was ruled out for the remainder of the 2022-23 campaign on Sunday after the team announced he'd been playing through a right shoulder injury that would require surgery.

Caufield said he initially sustained the ailment on Dec. 23 against the Dallas Stars after what he called an "awkward fall."

"I kind of put (my shoulder) back in myself a couple of seconds later and, you know, it wasn't too bad," he said.

Caufield ended up playing 16:33 and registering three shots on goal during the Canadiens' 4-2 defeat in Dallas. However, the issue reared its head again four games later against the Nashville Predators on Jan. 3.

"The same thing kind of happened and that time was a little more painful, but our medical staff has done a great job of doing some rehab work on it and making me feel 100%, in my opinion," Caufield said.

All in, Caufield suited up for 12 more games after initially suffering the injury, putting up seven goals and one assist in that span. In his final game of the season against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 19, he saw just under 18 minutes of ice time.

"For me, I didn't want to stop playing. I had a couple tests done to look at it more clearly, but in the end, it could have been one more fall and it could have been even worse," he said. "I guess the risk factor of that, it was hard to face. ... I didn't want to hurt it more."

The details of the surgery are still being finalized, but Caufield said he expects to undergo the procedure soon.

Caufield can become a restricted free agent this summer. One day before his season ended, he confirmed his representatives had started preliminary contract talks with the team.

The Wisconsin native added Friday that the decision to call off his campaign had nothing to do with the negotiations, noting that both he and the Canadiens are prioritizing his health.

Caufield leads the Habs with 26 goals in 46 games and ranks second on the team - behind captain Nick Suzuki - with 36 points this season.

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