The Penguins have lost three in a row and four of five. They have been shut out three times this season, including their last two games. Among the missing are defensemen Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang and forwards Evgeni Malkin, Max Talbot, and Tyler Kennedy.

Last night, they lost the services of defenseman Brooks Orpik, who went out with an undisclosed injury.

It has been a miserable struggle for star Sidney Crosby, who has been held without a point for five games - a career-high drought.

Coach Dan Bylsma changed his lines last night, moving Crosby away from usual wings Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin and putting him with Ruslan Fedotenko and Matt Cooke. The switch yielded some spark, particularly in the middle period, but the end result proved fruitless.

“It’s been a long trip, a little bit longer when you lose a few,’’ said Crosby. “We want to go home. I guess tonight was a step in the right direction after the last couple of games we’ve played, but we’ve still got to be better. We’ve got to find ways to win.

“You don’t like to lose three in a row, and I know we’ve lost some guys, so we’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to go home and find ways to win games. I think the big thing when you’re missing guys is to simplify things.’’

After a four-game road trip, the Penguins limp home, where they hope their fortunes change. Guerin said it’s more about grinding it out than trying to do anything fancy.

“There’s kind of nothing you can do about it,’’ said Guerin, referring to the long list of injured players. “It just happens, it’s unfortunate.

“You just have to adjust all over the place, but that’s what’s going on and we have to deal with it. You lose the type of players that we’ve lost and that definitely changes the dynamic of the team. Sometimes it’s a little tougher to admit that as players and figure that out takes a little while.

“You try to play the same way as when those guys are in the lineup and it just doesn’t work. Even tonight, I thought we did a better job of it in the first period. We were a little flat but we came out in the second and third period and we played much better, just kind of playing a simple game. I think we’re slowly figuring it out.’’

Guerin said he likes the changes Bylsma made and believes they were necessary to try to find some chemistry.

“Every line was different,’’ he said. “I thought guys played well on the new lines. Nobody put up a stink about it or anything like that. Guys have good attitudes about it. We all want success for each other. We needed a little something like that. It’s been a long road trip.’’

Nancy Marrapese-Burrell can be reached at marrapese@globe.com.