3 takeaways: Penguins forward Sidney Crosby loses faceoff to Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns

A really unique moment took place at the start of the third period during the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2-1 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.

Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns won the opening faceoff of the period against Penguins forward Sidney Crosby.

With the Penguins starting the period on the remainder of a five-on-three power-play opportunity, Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho was chased out of the circle by referee Justin St. Pierre. Burns and defenseman Jaccob Slavin were the only other non-goaltenders on the ice for the Hurricanes so Burns, a former winger, opted to take the draw and won it fairly convincingly against Crosby, one of the better faceoff specialists in the NHL.

• Saturday’s result marked the second time the Penguins were swept by the Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers franchise in a regular-season series. During the 1986-87 campaign, the Whalers, led by future Penguins forward Ron Francis, won all three meetings against the Penguins, then paced by a 21-year-old forward named Mario Lemieux.

In their lone meeting of the 2019-20 campaign, the Penguins were defeated by the Hurricanes. The final three contests between the two teams scheduled for that season were canceled because of the pandemic.

• Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson was scratched for the second consecutive game due to an undisclosed illness.

Between with Pettersson ($4,025,175), Jeff Petry ($6.25 million) and Kris Letang ($6.1 million), the Penguins have been missing a combined $16,375,175 in terms of salary cap hits on their blue line over the past two contests.