little bit,” winger Patric Hornqvist said.After being outskated and outworked Saturday by the Maple Leafs, there was plenty of soul-searching.Defenseman Kris Letang said the Penguins

LAS VEGAS (AP) — This goal-mouth scramble might have had some real bite to it.Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban accused Vegas forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare of chomping on one of his fingers during a scuffle late in the second period of the Predators‘ 2-1 victory Wednesday night.Subban said he reached around Bellemare’s head to try to pull him away from Juuse Saros after the Nashville goalie covered the puck Custom Vegas Golden Knights Jerseys , but did not put his finger anywhere near Bellemare’s mouth.“All I tried to do was grab him,” Subban said. “I grabbed him by the head to pull him up and he bit me, so that’s it. I don’t know what to say.”Bellemare insisted Subban put his hand near his mouth and removed his mouth guard.“He tried to pull me up, so obviously he’s feeling teeth and he’s acting on it,” Bellemare said. “I don’t know what to tell you, really.”When asked about Subban’s claims that he bit a finger, Bellemare said: “I mean, if you put your hand all the way in the mouth … and you pull up, you’re going to feel the teeth.”Subban immediately grabbed his right hand John Moore Jersey Womens , shook it and then showed it to referee Jake Brenk. Subban appeared to have droplets of blood on his jersey.Bellemare also appeared to have cuts on his lip.“What do you want me to say?” Bellemare asked. “Like, I have a half glove in my throat and playing with the back of it and pulling me up. There was no mouth guard when he pulls up. Those are my teeth.”Bellemare wasn’t penalized — but Subban was after the defenseman got into it with Vegas forward Ryan Reaves a few moments after the initial skirmish. Subban was called for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct, while Reaves was also penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.“I don’t know how I walk out of there with four minutes in penalties,” Subban said. “They tried to apologize after the fact, but they already gave me four minutes in penalties. My finger is bleeding.“It just is what it is. It’s the last game before the break for us and I’m just focused on playing the game. The last thing you want to do is change the focus of our team there. We won the game, so I forgot about it after that.” The New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins each lug a three-game losing streak into their Metropolitan Division matchup Monday at PPG Paints Arena, but the demeanor of each club is vastly different.The Devils (5-5-1) felt as if they turned a corner in a good way Saturday despite a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders, while Pittsburgh (6-3-3) was left reeling after a 5-0 loss the same night against Toronto.New Jersey coach John Hynes talked about there being steps to getting out of a funk, and he thinks his team has taken a big one.Article continues below ...“Lots of times when you come out of it your play has to be better first Chris Wagner Jersey Womens ,” he said. “Lots of times you don’t come out of these with a win; you come out of it by playing better and playing better and playing better.“If we can build on our work ethic and how we played (Saturday), then we’re going to put ourselves in situations to win games.”Before the Islanders game, the Devils lost two games by a combined 12-6. New Jersey goaltender Keith Kinkaid noticed a difference Saturday, describing that game as “a little setback” when the team “ran into a hot goalie.”“There’s plenty of season left,” Kinkaid said. “We’re just going through a little spell. Everything’s a learning curve. We have a young team. We’ve just got to keep sticking with it.”Winger Taylor Hall, the defending Hart Trophy winner, thought the Devils were more competitive and better defensively.“It seems like for the most part we have a grasp for how we need to play in our own end right now,” Hall said. “Comparing our game (Saturday) to the last couple, there was a lot of improvement in a lot of areas. It’s a good building-block game for how we need to play going forward.”The Penguins Alex Galchenyuk Jersey Womens , meanwhile, spent Sunday trying to simply remind themselves of what those building blocks are.“We’ve got to try to reinforce the details and the work ethic associated with winning, and that was part of the practice (Sunday), was trying to make sure that we get back to basics and that we focus on the process and the details associated with winning — and with our team it starts with skating,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.The Penguins were riding high after a 4-0 road trip through Canada, but the three-game losing streak (0-2-1) has immediately followed.“Right now we’re down, and we have to … find ourselves a little bit,” winger Patric Hornqvist said.After being outskated and outworked Saturday by the Maple Leafs, there was plenty of soul-searching.Defenseman Kris Letang said the Penguins were “flat” and that “there was no emotion.”Sullivan Carter Rowney Jersey Womens , rarely critical of his club, said the past week has taken a toll.“This league has a funny way of humbling you. Right now I think we’ve been humbled,” he said.Pittsburgh winger Matt Cullen, the oldest player in the NHL, has been around plenty long enough to know that even just a month into the season, a lull without a correction can lead to things going sideways.“We have to dig down and find a way to turn things around,” he said. “I don’t have any question that we will, but we don’t have any time to waste.”