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PITTSBURGH — Sitting in a quiet dressing room on Tuesday night after another blown lead turned into another crippling loss in a season increasingly filled with them, Evgeni Malkin spoke quietly.

The Pittsburgh Penguins star has long served as the franchise’s emotional core, the Russian’s passion serving as the yin to longtime captain Sidney Crosby‘s more reserved yang.

Malkin is well aware his historic partnership with Crosby and Kris Letang is nearing an end. The final chapter is not going the way the longest-tenured trio of teammates in major North American sports planned.

So after two periods of dominance against Seattle morphed into a 4-2 defeat to cap a maddening homestand in which the Penguins won just once in five tries — the lone victory against Connor McDavid and Edmonton — Malkin shook his head and vented.

“It’s not good enough,” he said. “I hope we look in the mirror, tonight and tomorrow and start playing better.”

It’s been a difficult week, all around, for Malkin. Earlier in the day, news that his home had been burglarized was confirmed by the team. The Penguins added, in a statement to WPXI-TV on Tuesday night, that they’re working with local authorities and team security.

The All-Star break is a few weeks away, but time already feels like it’s starting to run out. The Penguins begin a seven-game, 12-day road trip on Friday in Buffalo on the fringe of the playoff chase in the underwhelming Eastern Conference, the prospect of missing out on the postseason for a third straight year becoming all the more real with every defensive breakdown, every soft goal, every missed opportunity.

“We see standings,” said Malkin, who had an assist in his return from a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury. “I think we understand we miss playoffs and it’s half-season gone. We understand everything. (If) we want to play playoffs, we need to play so much better, every zone, every moment.”

Yet that kind of consistency has been elusive for most of the season save for a promising stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas in which Pittsburgh clawed back into contention following a nightmarish opening six weeks.

The optimism, however, has dimmed since the holiday break. Pittsburgh is just 2-5-3 over its last 10 to fall back under .500 after letting Seattle’s Jamie Oleksiak and Eeli Tolvanen score 49 seconds apart in the third period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.

Both goals highlighted the Penguins’ erratic play in the defensive end. Oleksiak came onto the ice on a line change, took the puck at the top of the Pittsburgh zone and skated unchallenged down the slot before beating Tristan Jarry.

Moments later, Tolvanen stood all alone in front of the net to tap in a centering pass from Shane White to put the Kraken in front.

“It’s really frustrating,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “We’re giving away points. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.”

It’s not that the Penguins can’t defend. They held Tampa Bay to two shots in the first period on Sunday. They did the same to the Kraken just over 48 hours later. Both times, the opponents skated off with the win after breakdowns at critical times.

“If I had the answer, I’d fix it,” said Mike Sullivan, the NHL’s second-longest tenured coach. “We simply have to do a better job (in our end) and that falls on me.”

Malkin isn’t sure he agrees. The Penguins were a playoff fixture during his first 16 seasons in the league and he has raised the Stanley Cup three times. During that era, a certain standard was set. Pittsburgh hasn’t lived up to it for quite a while.

“I think everybody understands what’s going on,” he said. “We have nice organization. We have great history.”

All NHL dynasties end, though general manager Kyle Dubas said before the season began that he didn’t think the Penguins needed to strip the franchise down “to the studs” to rebuild. He has injected some much-needed youth onto the roster, including trading for Philip Tomasino, who scored his fifth goal on Tuesday.

Yet every step forward has been met with a step back. Goaltenders Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic have shown a propensity to give up early goals. They’ve allowed opponents to score on their first shot nine times in 46 games, forcing Pittsburgh to play catchup too frequently.

While Crosby in particular remains a marvel — he’s on pace to average a point a game for what would be a record 20th straight season — the Penguins don’t have the firepower that once came so easily. Their margin for error is smaller and they remain one of the league’s oldest teams.

Spending the next two weeks crisscrossing North America could give them a chance to steal away and hit the reset button. Or it could drop them into a hole so deep they could be essentially out of it by Groundhog Day. It could go either way. No one knows that more than Malkin.

“We need to play so much harder,” Malkin said.

And do it quickly.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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‘So that’s why they’re called the 0’s’: Twins troll Orioles after shutout win

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'So that's why they're called the 0's': Twins troll Orioles after shutout win

The Minnesota Twins are on a roll. They extended their winning streak to 11 games Thursday with a 4-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles that completed a series sweep. Their confidence carried over to social media, too, as they trolled the Orioles.

Minnesota used a three-run third inning to propel itself to victory, with home runs from DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Byron Buxton.

The Twins hold the longest win streak in MLB; its their their longest run of victories since winning 12 straight from April 22 to May 4 last season, according to ESPN Research. The franchise record is 15 set in 1991.

Minnesota poked fun at Baltimore’s namesake with a post after the game, referring to the Orioles also being known as the “O’s” — and swapping a zero in for the O.

The Twins have won each of their six matchups against the Orioles this season. All of them have come during Minnesota’s current win streak.

Minnesota (24-20) is fourth in the American League Central behind the Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers.

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Red Sox rookie Campbell working out at 1st base

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Red Sox rookie Campbell working out at 1st base

Star Boston Red Sox rookie Kristian Campbell has started working out at first base in the wake of Triston Casas‘ season-ending knee injury.

Campbell worked out at first before Friday night’s series opener against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora addressed the situation when he spoke to reporters before the game.

“Looking for options,” Cora told reporters. “Obviously, we’re getting Romy [Gonzalez] probably at the end of the week, early next week, but just introduce him to first base and see how he looks. That’s where we’re at.”

Casas ruptured the tendon in his left knee while running to first base during a game against the Minnesota Twins earlier this month. His replacement at first, Gonzalez, was placed on the 10-day injured list because of a left quad contusion last week.

One potential replacement, star slugger Rafael Devers, said after Casas went down that he would not be open to moving to first after he went from third base to designated hitter during spring training to make room for Alex Bregman.

Campbell, one of baseball’s top prospects, broke camp with the big league team and has been its primary second baseman through the start of the season. He has also played in the outfield and at shortstop and third base in his career, but never first.

Asked what he would need to see for Campbell to be a realistic option at first for his team, Cora added: “The process started, right? It can take 10 days, 15 days, a month, two months. But we started the process and introduced him to first.”

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McCullers on mound after threatening messages

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McCullers on mound after threatening messages

ARLINGTON, Texas — Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. gave up two unearned runs over four innings against the Texas Rangers on Friday, six nights after the right-hander failed to get out of the first inning in a game that he said was followed by online threats.

McCullers, who is making a comeback after sitting out two full seasons because of injuries, gave up seven runs while getting only one out in Houston’s 13-9 loss last Saturday, then said afterward that he had received online death threats directed at his children. The Astros said Houston police and Major League Baseball security were alerted to the threats.

The 31-year-old right-hander on Friday made only his third start for the Astros since the 2022 World Series. He earned a no-decision.

McCullers needed 83 pitches to get through his four innings and he threw 53 strikes. He struck out two, walked one and gave up four singles.

The only runs against McCullers came when Jonah Heim had a two-run single with two outs in the second inning. That was three batters after shortstop Jeremy Peña was charged with an error when he failed to catch a throw from McCullers, who was trying to get the lead runner at second base after fielding a comebacker.

Jake Burger, whose homer was the only run in the Rangers’ 1-0 win in the series opener Thursday night, then had an infield popout before Heim’s hit into the right-field corner.

Astros manager Joe Espada said before Friday’s game that McCullers mentally was “in a good spot. Physically, he’s fine. He just needs to go out there and just have some confidence and pitch, be aggressive in the zone and we have his back.”

McCullers had surgery in June 2023 to repair his right flexor tendon and remove a bone spur, and was rehabbing last June when he had a setback during a bullpen session that shut him down for the rest of the season. He made four starts in the minor leagues this year before rejoining the Astros rotation on May 4.

“We all have confidence he can do it. He just needs to go out there and do his thing,” Espada said. “It’s going to happen.”

McCullers is 49-33 and 3.53 ERA in 133 games (130 starts) for the Astros since his big league debut with them in 2015.

An All-Star in 2017, McCullers went 10-6 with a 3.86 ERA in 25 games in 2018 before Tommy John surgery. He was 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA in 28 starts in 2021, then signed an $85 million, five-year contract that goes through 2026.

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