Penguins seek 6th straight win vs. Devils as Evgeni Malkin nears return

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The Pittsburgh Penguins enter Thursday night's game against the New Jersey Devils on a season-best five-game winning streak, and may see a key player return when they welcome their guests for a Metropolitan Division matchup.

Evgeni Malkin returned to practice with the team on Tuesday after missing more than a month with an upper-body injury. The 39-year-old, a two-time league scoring champion, last played on Dec. 4, and the team has experienced its share of ups and downs without one of its cornerstone players.

Actually, it has been down and then up. The Penguins went 0-4-4 in their first eight games without Malkin, but they have won six of their last seven since.

Coach Dan Muse told reporters after Wednesday's practice that the current streak is the result of improved consistency coming out of the holiday break.

"I think we've done a better job of controlling a little bit (more of) the feel of the game, flow of the game, momentum of the game," he said.

Despite missing 15 of the team's 41 games, Malkin remains a top-five scorer for the Penguins. He is tied with Anthony Mantha for fourth with 29 points, and Malkin's 21 assists are third on the team.

Sidney Crosby, Malkin's longtime teammate, leads the team with 24 goals and 47 points. Crosby is currently on a season-high seven-game points streak, during which he has scored five goals and seven assists. Three goals and four assists have come in his last three games, including the game-winning goal in Sunday's 5-4 overtime victory at Columbus.

The Penguins are not the only team that may welcome a key player back on Thursday. New Jersey saw Simon Nemec return to practice on Wednesday. The defenseman, 21, last played on Dec. 11 and has been out because of a lower-body injury.

Devils coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters Wednesday that as long as Nemec does not suffer a setback when he wakes up Thursday morning, then he'll suit up against the Penguins.

The Devils will be glad Nemec is back, especially on offense, as the team has lost six of its last eight games. New Jersey has scored a total of six goals in the losses and has been shut out twice. That includes Tuesday's 9-0 loss to the New York Islanders, the Devils' worst defeat in nearly 40 years.

Keefe called the loss, where the Devils outshot the Islanders 44-24, "embarrassing and unacceptable," but he liked the way the team responded on the ice Wednesday.

"We've been in these situations before, maybe not as bad as last night, but it shouldn't take a wake-up call like this. We've had too many of them, but this is where we're at," Keefe said.

Jesper Bratt leads the team with 24 assists and 33 points, but the forward, 27, has just four points (three goals, one assist) in his last eight games. Nico Hischier is tied for the team lead in goals with 12 and trails only Bratt with 32 points. However, the center also has just four points (two goals, two assists) over the eight games.

Center Jack Hughes, who has played in just 25 games due to a hand injury, has 11 goals and 24 points, but since returning to action on Dec. 21, he's only scored a goal and assisted on three others.

--Field Level Media