Penguins trying to boost a struggling power play

The Penguins’ practice session on Sunday in Cranberry was different.

Then again, these are different times for a franchise embroiled in a seven-game losing streak for the first time since determining your top eight friends on MySpace was the world’s most distressing social media concern.

There wasn’t much in the way of five-on-five work and really no line rushes worth noting, aside from one rush that saw franchise center Sidney Crosby man the left wing flank of third-line center Jeff Carter.

Forwards amassed on the southwest end of the ice with assistant coach Mike Vellucci, and the defensemen gathered on the northeast section of the rink with associate coach Todd Reirden.

In the middle — literally at the center red line — was coach Mike Sullivan overseeing it all with a mostly quiet, pensive tone.

After each position group worked on various refinements, the special teams units were divvied up and fine-tuned some basics.

For the power-play groups, that meant arguably the most basic aspect of their existence.

Shooting.

With starting goaltender Tristan Jarry in net, the first power-play unit of Crosby, forwards Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust and defenseman Kris Letang shot at Jarry and a handful of stationary defenders.

To be clear, those defenders were very stationary considering they were tripod dummies.

The top unit did that for several minutes, while the second unit — Carter along with forwards Danton Heinen, Rickard Rakell, Jason Zucker and defenseman Jeff Petry — worked against carbon-based human penalty killers on the opposite end of the rink. Eventually, the first and second power-play units switched sides and opponents.

The nature of this practice happened for two reasons. First, the Penguins have three days between games, something of a rarity during the regular season.

Second, they have lost seven games in a row for the first time since February 2006, and special teams — the power play specifically — has been a major culprit.

Throughout this insidious stretch, the Penguins have scored only four power-play goals on 26 opportunities, equating to a conversion rate of only 15.3%.

After going 0 for 3 during Saturday’s 3-2 home loss to the Seattle Kraken, Letang shot to the heart of the matter.

Shooting.

“We have looks,” Letang said. “We don’t convert. Passing too much, maybe. We need to simplify things. Just a quick shot to try to get some rebounds. I think we’re trying to … pass to the net instead of just trying to grind it out.”

With the three chances they were afforded Saturday, the Penguins generated only five shots.

Rust suggested a lack of cohesion has led to that meager output.

“We’re not totally all on the same page,” Rust said. “We just need to talk some things out, see some video. And I think simplifying helps guys get on the same page a little.”

Aside from health-related absences, the quintet of Crosby, Guentzel, Letang, Malkin and Rust have composed the team’s top power-play unit for four seasons, including the current campaign.

How does a group with so much talent and so much experience with one another get on different pages?

“How does a team go from winning seven in a row to losing seven in a row?” Rust asked rhetorically. “Things kind of happen. There’s ebbs and flows. There’s changes. Confidence goes up and down. Things like that just causes guys to make different reads. And, obviously, there’s another team out there that causes us to make decisions, too. It’s something that just kind of happens.”

The Penguins will have a scheduled day off Monday and will resume practicing in Cranberry on Tuesday, presumably with a more typical practice as they prepare for a road game against the rival Washington Capitals on Wednesday.

But Sunday, they had a chance — and, probably more importantly, a need — to do things differently.

“This day provided us an opportunity to have a practice like we did,” Sullivan said. “I felt like we got better at some things. It gave us an opportunity to get some repetitions in kind of trying to train our guys a little bit more of just in the mindset of shooting the puck off the power play, things of that nature.”

Notes: Forward Ryan Poehling was not present at practice because of an undisclosed illness. … Forwards Josh Archibald and Teddy Blueger participated in practice in a full capacity. Blueger has yet to play this season because of an undisclosed injury he suffered during training camp, and Archibald missed his first game of the season Saturday because of an undisclosed injury. … Carter was also a full participant in practice. He has missed the past three games with an undisclosed injury.