Sports

They went 1-for-5 on the penalty kill, but in the bigger picture that still means players are being used on the defensive rather than the offensive. "You use a lot of minutes, a lot of guys using a lot of energy killing penalties, Nick [Backstrom] and Troy [Brouwer], guys that we need at the other end, especially," coach Adam Oates said. "It makes it so difficult because the team has no rhythm, you've got some guys that don't kill penalties [who] don't get to play. As I said, you're using guys in other situations, you want to save that energy if possible."