Penguins, Capitals try to right ships Sunday in Washington

Toronto left Sullivan fuming because of their lack of a defensive conscience. The 5-2 loss to Buffalo didn’t help his mood much because the game was over practically before it started.

A giveaway by Malkin behind the Penguins’ net led to a Buffalo goal just 14 seconds in. A lazy pass by Kris Letang resulted in another turnover and a second Buffalo goal at 6:48 of the first period. An offensive-zone penalty by Malkin gave Buffalo a power play which Jack Eichel turned into a goal and a 3-0 lead at 10:51 of the first.

Sullivan had seen enough.

“I called a timeout because I thought we had a lot of the game left. My message was that we’re beating ourselves right now. We’ve got to grab a hold of it.

“I think our team played hard to try to get back in the game, but we didn’t play smart. So we got beat. It’s not good enough just to play hard. You have to play smart. It’s the combination that gives you a chance to win. We don’t have that combination right now.”

Malkin scored both Penguins goals, but that hardly made up for his early mistakes.

“We’re not ready,” Malkin said. “The last 10 games, we’ve not played great. The same mistakes. A couple of turnovers. A couple of penalties. We’re not playing hard defense. We try to play easy. It’s not the right way. It’s not right. We need to be focused.

“We understand we’re a better team, for sure. We should play better.”

Sunday in D.C. would be a nice time to start.

The game is for first place in the Metropolitan Division. The Penguins and Capitals are tied with 80 points, although the Penguins have a game in hand. The Penguins won in D.C., 4-3, on Super Bowl Sunday, one of their best wins of the season.

This next game will be an even bigger challenge. There will be plenty of emotion in Capital One Arena with the Capitals expected to honor Alex Ovechkin, who scored his 700th career goal in a 3-2 loss at New Jersey Saturday. The Capitals also will be looking to get back on track. They are on a 2-6-1 slide that started with that loss to the Penguins.

“Try to forget this game and try to get ready for a big fight tomorrow,” Malkin said.

“We hate each other. I can’t wait.”

It should be great fun if the teams are at their best. It still will be fun if they are at their worst.

Which, let’s face it, they are right now.