BOSTON -- Could there be a team more glad to go home?

The Penguins left town Nov. 1 for a four-game, cross-country trip with an 11-3 record. They flew home late last night with a trail of miscues and maladies in their jet stream.

The latest double dose of doom was a 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins -- which pushed their losing streak to three games and ended their trip at 1-3 -- and the loss of a third regular defenseman to injury.

Brooks Orpik left the game after he was hit behind his net by Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart at 7:31 of the first period. The Penguins did not disclose the nature of Orpik's injury, saying he would be evaluated today in Pittsburgh.

Orpik appeared to smash into the boards with his left side, and his hip seemed to take the brunt of it.

The Penguins already were playing without top defenseman Sergei Gonchar (wrist) and Kris Letang (shoulder), meaning they are missing half of their regular defensive corps. That's in addition to three forwards -- All-Star center Evgeni Malkin (shoulder), winger Tyler Kennedy (groin) and center/winger Max Talbot (shoulder).

"That's the way it's been going the last week or two," said Penguins center and captain Sidney Crosby. "And, with [Orpik] going out early, too -- it's not like he went out in the second or third period -- that put a lot of pressure on our [defensemen], and [the Bruins] took full advantage of it, getting as many pucks behind us as they could.

"But I thought our [defense] did a good job of doing the right things, keeping it simple. Unfortunately, we couldn't give them much support offensively."

Crosby's career-long point drought has reached five games in a row, and the Penguins have given up 12 unanswered goals since they took a 2-1 lead into the third period Thursday at Los Angeles, a team scoreless stretch of 149:09 since a Chris Kunitz goal.

The Kings came back to win that game, 5-2, and the Penguins lost, 5-0, Saturday at San Jose. In their only win of the trip, they won last Tuesday at Anaheim, 4-3, in a game the Penguins said was not particularly well played.

Last night, Tim Thomas made 27 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and 14th of his career, but the Penguins got the kind of offensive zone time and pressure that had been missing lately.

"The result's the same, and that's really all the matters, but we tried to learn from our last two losses in California, probably our two worst played games of the year," defenseman Mark Eaton said. "We talked about some things we did and didn't do and tried to bring that tonight. We just didn't bring enough of it."

Boston took a 1-0 lead at 1:36 of the second period when Matt Hunwick lofted the puck past Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The play initially was ruled no goal, but a review at the next stoppage, 1:20 later, revealed that Hunwick scored, and the clock was reset.

"We did a lot of good things," coach Dan Bylsma said. "We battled hard. Some of the things we knew we needed to improve on, we did tonight. We played a pretty strong second and third period when we needed to make a push. We know we played a better game than we had been playing."

It just wasn't enough.

Left winger Daniel Paille scored to give the Bruins a 2-0 lead when he had a breakaway down the slot and beat Fleury with a wrist shot to the stick side at 3:34 of the third period. Former Penguins winger Mark Recchi picked up his 900th career assist on the play to go along with 548 goals in 1,507 games.

Patrice Bergeron added an empty-net goal in the waning seconds.

The Penguins scrambled their line combinations, and it seemed to produce a more inspired offensive attack.

"We generated some chances, and they did, too. They capitalized," Crosby said.

"We've still got to find a way to score goals, but, at the same time, I think we were happy with our game compared to the last game."

So, after four games, 10 days, two coasts, mounting injuries and way too many goals against and too few goals scored for their comfort, the Penguins are coming home for three games, starting tomorrow against New Jersey.

"It's been a long trip. A little bit longer when you lose a few," Crosby said.

"But I think this is a step in the right direction after the last couple games we played. We've still got to be better and find ways to win."

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