The Pittsburgh Penguins begin a season-defining road trip without their best wingers.

The Pittsburgh Penguins matchup with the Vancouver Canucks will kick off their annual Pacific Northwest road trip. Defeating four teams in the mix for the playoffs in the Western Conference is daunting enough, but the Penguins begin that stretch without an integral piece of their team.

Bryan Rust did not travel with the Penguins to Vancouver and is likely to miss their next game with an upper-body injury. Mike Sullivan didn't rule out the possibility that Rust could join the team at some point during this trip. Any absence is a massive blow to the Penguins offense.

With Rust and Jake Guentzel on the shelf, 24% of the Penguins offense this season (40 of 166 goals) will be missing from their lineup.

This road trip comes at a pivotal time for the Penguins. The Penguins are nine points out of the final wild-card spot in the East and seven points back of third place in the Metropolitan Division. They are desperate for a long winning streak to close the gap in those races.

Entering Vancouver with a two-game win streak, the Penguins would match their second-longest win streak of this season with a victory. Their longest was a five-game stretch in early November that began with a trip to California, where the Penguins defeated the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, and Los Angeles Kings.

Perhaps the Pacific time zone will provide similar luck for the Penguins this time as they look to claw back into the playoff picture. However, a losing trip this close to the deadline could close the book on any hope the Penguins have of catching the rest of the pack in the Eastern Conference.

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