For the second night in a row, Pittsburgh played without their Canadian star Sidney Crosby, who is struggling with an upper body injury.
It was the last NHL game for Crosby's Pittsburgh before the break for the national team tournament Four Nations, which kicks off on Thursday night when Sweden meets Canada.
It is still unclear whether Crosby, who has already been appointed as Canada's team captain, will be fit to play the opening match.
The 37-year-old Crosby, however, participated in Saturday's ice training, just like on Friday.
We'll take it one day at a time. He skated for a long time this morning. He felt significantly better today than yesterday, and that's really encouraging, said Pittsburgh's coach Mike Sullivan to reporters on Saturday.
Philadelphia won the night's meeting 3–2. Philadelphia's goalkeeper Samuel Ersson, who plays for Tre Kronor in Four Nations, made 31 saves.
Pittsburgh's Erik Karlsson, also part of the Swedish squad, scored a goal.
I think we played well today, said Karlsson to reporters afterwards.
Even though the result wasn't what we wanted.
Crosby was also absent from the meeting against New York Rangers on Saturday night, which Pittsburgh won 3–2. Before that, Crosby had not missed a regular season game since April 7, 2022, when he was ill.
