Langenbrunner...Pens lose

At this point in the season, scoring three goals against a tight defensive team like the New Jersey Devils should be enough. Having a 3-1 lead with 11 minutes left in the game should definitely be enough. Even being up 3-2 when the other team pulls their goalie in the dying seconds is usually a recipe for 2 points.

But not tonight, courtesy of Jamie Langenbrunner, who got a fortunate bounce of Ryan Whitney's skates with 31 seconds left in regulation to earn the Devils a point. Then collecting a fancy pass by Travis Zajac and depositing the one-timer by Marc-Andre Fleury to steal the second point. Winners of now eight straight, the Devils are hot. They worked for their bounces and got them.

• Total shots on the game were 43-16 in favor of New Jersey. Even worse, if you count shots that missed the net plus shots that were blocked, the Devils outfired the Pens 65-22. Pretty indictive of the difference in puck possession and where the game was played for the most part. Marc-Andre Fleury was solid, but when the other team throws 65 shots at you, it's not unreasonable to think that at least four will end up in the net for some reason or another.
• Further on that point: the Penguins dressed 18 skaters, the standard in the NHL. 14 of them registered either 0 or 1 shot on goal. The only exceptions were Pascal Dupuis (4 shots), Evgeni Malkin (4 shots, 1 goal), Max Talbot (2 shots, one which was a deflection goal) and Chris Minard (2 shots). That's just not going to cut it.
• Malkin and Sidney Crosby each registered a goal and an assist and were dangerous with their scoring chances. But both suffered painful moments that could have been injuries--Crosby blocked a shot that appeared to hit his hand/arm and Geno impaled his torso with his own stick (which any hockey player will tell you how much that sucks). Both got over it, but still some scary moments.
• Petr Sykora, rightly lauded as a leader and a rare forward not named Crosby or Malkin that will contribute on the score board really hurt his team tonight. He took a hooking call in the neutral zone with 8:05 left. Bad enough, but then Sykie--a veteran who should know better--mouthed off to the official who felt it was egregious enough to tack on 2 more minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct. Sure Brendan Shanahan scored four seconds after the penalties were called, but the Pens still had to kill two more minutes while the momentum had clearly shifted to the Devils. Not a good play by Sykora...Bite your tongue and skate to the box.
• Almost all of the Penguins defensemen had a bad moment, none worse than usually reliable Rob Scuderi....When Bill Thomas won a huge faceoff cleanly in the defensive zone in the final minute; Scuds flubbed the puck, the Devils applied pressure and Whitney had to scramble to the front of the net. The puck bounces off of him and in for the tying goal.
• The USS Hal Gill and rookie Alex Goligoski were healthy scratches but Mark Eaton and Phillipe Boucher played. Just pointing that out.
• Overall just not enough puck possession. The Devils outworked the Penguins all night, and especially after Sid and Geno gave the Pens a two goal lead it looked like the boys just sat back on it too much and relied a little too much on their ability to block shots and Fleury's ability to bail them out.

And, well that's that. It's not a night to be proud of, but the Penguins did play the current #2 team in the conference (and a division opponent at that) on the road and took a point away from the game. Since the AS break they have 3 out of a possible 4 points and both games were against teams ahead of them in the standings. If you look at it that way, doesn't seem so bad, now does it?

But it sure would be a lot better if the boys can go to Toronto and make it 5 out of 6 points tomorrow. If they put this behind them and go at it, should be alright. It'll be a Hockey Night in Canada, Matt Cooke's suspension is over and Mathieu Garon (who won 24 games last year for a weak Edmonton team) ought to be in the net for the first time. There's a lot of angles for the Pens to have a shot in the arm. Let's see if they get it.

Pens lose to Caps

At the end of the day the Penguins let too many early chances go…Sidney Crosby had a breakaway but couldn’t score. Jordan Staal came down on a 2 on 1 and was rebuffed. On and on, so it goes.

--Rob Scuderi caught a shot in the face and was obviously out for the game. Dropping to five defensemen for the rest of the night on back to back games may not be an excuse they’ll use, but it looked like it took it’s toll.

--Hold your breath on the Crosby injury front, looked like Sid was in a lot of pain. Hopefully we’ll hear something today and it will be good news…Remember with the All-Star break the Penguins only play three games in the next 13 days.

--For the chances the Penguins failed on, the Caps seemed to put them in. There were certainly no shortage of weak calls (for both teams) to give each other’s power-plays chances to separate. Credit the Caps on this night for doing that.

--The Malkin/Ovechkin angle is fascinating. We can’t remember two players so good just going after each other so personally. It elevates both of their games too, with three combined goals on 22 shots. This could be the angle of the Olympics, how the two countrymen interact and coexist.

--You still get the feeling this team is missing that certain something, but what is it? Sergei Gonchar can do a lot of things, but playing the wing is not one of them. Ray Shero’s inactivity is starting to hurt the team. No one wants him to make a move just to make a move, but at some point he’s gotta step up to the plate and make something happen. Is it fire the coach? Is it shaking the team up with a trade? Hey we don’t have the answers, but “do nothing” seems to be the wrong one. The season is slipping away.

--Finally, eye rolls on Ted Leonsis taking swipes at the Pensblog and then follow up by tooting his own team's blogosphere for being "sophisticated". (Side note: we still can't find the page in the sophistication manual where it says you can call someone a clown?) It's doubtful he'd be crowing like this if the Penguins had won yesterday. But the Caps carried the play so give the man his day.

Still, it's the Pensblog, what do you expect? They "job" everyone all the time, themselves included. The Pensblog is like a juvenile George Carlin--it's profane, it's shocking, it's loud. Japers Rink is like a hip network news show that's always a good read. Both are excellent in their own regards, but they have different ways and different methods. There's no shortage of analytical, even-handed Penguins blogs that offered accounts of the game that Ted would have found a little more mature, but it seemed like he wanted to target the Pensblog and get off a shot while he could at an entire fanbase while he was at it. Classy indeed.

Stuck in a rut

The Penguins finally got some puck luck involved in a couple goals in order to jump up to a 3-0 lead, but it wasn’t to be as Nashville battled back.

Could a coaching change be on the horizon? For whatever reason the Pens are stuck in a rut. No matter who Michel Therrien plays (or sits), no matter what combination he uses (and he’s about tried them all) nothing is clicking, nothing is working. Among the worst of his ideas:

--Sitting Hal Gill out again and playing Alex Goligoski as a 3rd line forward. The now official whipping boy of TST, Phillipe Boucher, is playing terrible. When Ryan Whitney coughed up the puck to give up a 2 on 1 (gah) Boucher fell back. As a defensemen there is one important thing to accomplish on a 2 on 1, and even the most basic players know it. DO NOT ALLOW THE PASS, let the goalie play the guy with the puck, you take out the other player. So what does Boucher do? He lets a pass go through. Sure, it was a nice saucer pass by Martin Erat and David Legwand made a great hustle just to get in the play, but that’s what happens at the NHL level when you don’t do your job.

--Alex Goligoski is not a forward. He’s never played forward. He’s not going to look good jumping straight into NHL action as a forward. The third and tying Nashville goal was a real back-breaker, with :55 seconds left in the period. Mark Eaton and who else, Boucher, couldn’t get the puck out and Goligoski—not a forward, didn’t play his new position well either. Shocker.

--Constant line switching. We don’t mind a change now and then, but seemingly every period all the combinations were switched. Jordan Staal played with Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy. Then he’s playing with Matt Cooke and Max Talbot; Miroslav Satan is with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora, then he’s down with Dustin Jeffrey and Tim Wallace. Malkin is bouncing around from center to wing. With all this changing, it’s no wonder the Penguins effort and results are mixed and uneven. There’s no chance to settle in with chemistry—or for those moving from wing to center or defense to wing back to defense when the team needs a goal, even to get comfortable in a position.

Nashville had some interesting ideas too, they pulled goalie Dan Ellis after the second goal (a fluky bad clearing attempt that ended up in the net). Both coaches and Nashville broadcasters said it wasn’t Ellis’ fault, but to kick start the team. Well the team was already outshooting and outhustling the Penguins—not that that says too much these days—and new goalie Pekka Rinne saw a pinball Matt Cooke pass end up on Max Talbot’s stick and in the back of the net. From their on though Rinne was solid, especially during the Penguins last flurry.

In that last, desperate exchange; new contract boy Jordan Staal got the puck on his stick with an empty net but Radek Bonk made a fabulous defensive play to poke it away. If Staal can put that in we go to OT at 4-4 and anything could happen. But, these days, that’s just not how things are going for the Penguins. The only question is how big of a whole is Ray Shero going to let the team dig themselves before he takes action. Whether that is relieving Therrien, making a trade, signing Brendan Shanahan, any number of possibilities could be the answer. The option of sitting back and letting the boys get over this themselves just doesn’t look realistic now.

Personal homecoming ends disappointingly

Our first game back at the Grand Old Lady didn't go so well, one of the Penguins worst games of the year...Some thoughts:

--We've been at probably 30 games at Verizon Center since back in Pittsburgh...Mellon seemed much brighter for some reason, but one thing we've been spoiled on was the HD jumbotron. Surely the CTC (the under construction Consol Energy Center) must have one...It's hard to go back.

--Speaking of, a big hole in the ground has never looked more promising.

--The Pens, as everyone knows, stunk it up. For some reason or another they didn't show up. One thing we found interesting on the drive home listening to post-game radio were the callers in; one in particular cited Evgeni Malkin for showing up and said something along the lines of "where was Sidney Crosby". Crosby, to be sure, didn't have an impact, but despite getting a goal and an assist, Malkin coughed up two bad giveaways that ended up in the net. So really his contributions just broke even as well.

--Marc-Andre Fleury didn't stop some pucks, but to be fair the guys in front of him allowed the Leafs way too much puck possession in the Pens zone. It wouldn't have made much a difference if the Pens had Ken Dryden and Martin Brodeur in the net at the same time, they weren't going to win on that night with that effort.

--We noticed when things seemed over the Pens lined up Kris Letang as a winger for Crosby...Makes enough sense to see if it would work; Letang certainly can skate as well as anyone in the league and has good offensive instincts. But he's been a defensemen his whole life, and there's a reason for that. In short, don't expect that to be a long-term option. Still, we didn't see any harm to roll him out there while the game was out of reach to at least see if it could spark something.

--A side note: 3/4 of the stands we were near didn't take credit cards. That seemed weird considering it is the year 2008. Sure the facility was built in 1961 but they can't upgrade with some credit machines? It cost the Pens some revenue at least from this fan, a 24 year old that basically lives with a plastic bank card and doesn't carry more than $20 cash at any given time.

--If we were giving out Schrutebucks, -50 for Andre Deveaux. He didn't want to fight when Eric Godard asked him (though Godard really didn't give him much an option) but Deveaux was willing to drop the gloves with a guy in Ruslan Fedotenko, who hasn't fought since 2001 according to hockeyfights. Of course, tempers were flaring when he and Rusty got in each other's faces but still.

--A lot is now being made about Michel Therrien's "it's Crosby's team" comment, taken in the context that HCMT is resigned to that he doesn't have the power anymore and Crosby is the boss. We don't see it quite that way, Therrien is a master of motivating through the media and no doubt was frustrated like everyone else after the game. But this is a superstar driven league; no less than Scotty Bowman used to have his practice drills modified or totally ignored by Mario Lemieux who had other designs. In many regards, this IS Crosby's team. He's the #1 guy.

--OK, techinically it's probably Ron Burkle's team more than anyone else, but save Burkle, Lemieux and maybe general manager Ray Shero no one has more power and pull than Crosby. But that's how it goes when you have a generational talent.

--We thought Therrien proved his point though when the Pens got a powerplay in the dying moments and Petr Sykora was the only regular forward out there. If you're not going to work or show up, you're not gonna get the chance. We were fine with that.

All in all, let's see how they respond. A loss is a loss, but this isn't the game to determine the season. A new day is a new chance to make the difference. Pascal Dupuis might be back and Ryan Whitney is on the horizon. But those are just two guys and two guys can't win a hockey game if the other 16 aren't skating. Hopefully that's the lesson this team will learn for the last time tonight.

Out of Gas...Pens lose

Usually out-shooting a team 12-6 in the second period would be a good thing. Usually.

• Frustrating game, the Penguins really looked like they've played three games in about three and a half days. They looked like they were skating in oatmeal.
• Nice to see Yukon Cornelius (aka Scott Hartnell) show his face around the holiday season. It was especially nice to see him try to fight Eric Godard behind a visor. Really tough guy, good luck finding that gold.
• Sometimes when the Penguins get one goal, they usually can turn things around. But when Jordan Staal tipped in a goal, to make it 2-1 it seemed to awaken the Flyers more than the Pens.
• Godard scored an almost identical goal to Staal, taking advantage of a shift with Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora while Ruslan Fedotenko was smarting.
• Mike Richards acted especially like a douchebag in taking exception to Matt Cooke finishing a check on Kimmo Timonen. Nice to see the scrum ensue and then see Sidney Crosby tackle Timonen. When Richards and Cooke went to the box the astute lip reader could see Cooke say "I'll fight you when we get out" while pointing outside the penalty box...Guess Kramer didn't want to take him up on the offer.
• Another rough night for Brooks Orpik, a -2 effort. He did have four hits and two blocked shots, but Orpik doesn't look that effective with Rob Scuderi.
• One team goes 4-6 on the powerplay, another goes 1-4. The difference is your ballgame, among other things.

That's about it, a tough pill to swallow but at the end of the day there is a light at the end of the tunnel--and he was sitting at the end of the bench wearing #29. Next comes a needed four day break before a sprint of 18 games in the 34 days before the all-star break.

Recap: Spezza 3 Penguins 2

Not to much to make of yesterday's matinee loss to the Sens, they made more plays than the Pens and get the win. That's how it goes sometimes. Jason Spezza had a great game, and it was more than the Penguins could match....Dany Sabs has been good but now going on Week 4 without Marc-Andre Fleury it looks like it's starting to wear on the Penguins.

Biz Nasty wins the fight, the Caps win the battle

Credit to you Caps, coming back from being 3-1 after two and totally out of the game. The Caps won tonight and deserved to even though they only won 20 minutes. That's it and that's all. Carrying 40 minutes of play doesn't matter if you can't finish and that's what matters.

But still, watching Biz Nasty unequivocally jack up Matt Bradley is still awesome.....Hey, it's October, right? Plus Evgeni Malkin (3 points) and Sidney Crosby (2 points) sure did outscore that Alex Ovechkin (0 points)? Small consolation though. Both teams will live to see another day. It's only October, after all.

Game 2 Redux...Frustrating loss, strange trip

Game two is done and the Swedish experience is over. The Pens struggle again on the power play, Dany Heatley beasts two goals in and that’s basically your game. Is it just us or were these games pretty surreal? 11 out of the 25 players from the Penguins playoff squad were gone due to injury/changing teams and this incarnation of the Penguins just hasn’t look comfortable yet. In a way it’s still weird to see no Sergei Gonchar out there, no Ryan Whitney, no Petr Sykora and, yes, no Ryan Malone…And what’s Jarkko Ruutu doing pinning Sidney Crosby down, isn’t that supposed to be him doing that to Daniel Alfredsson? Strange times.

The Penguins will come back with 2 out of a possible 4 points, but perhaps the journey here of traveling together and the forced team bonding will be more important in the long run than pure results of the trip. After all, most teams had maybe a routine couple of pre-season games this week, not too many have started the season. On top of that, no one’s had the injury laden roster turnover to deal with. The Pens can use their experiences and build off of that.

The season has started, it just might not feel that way.

A chance to learn

Now that we're about to buckle down for a playoff run, a loss like tonight can go a long ways to putting things back in perspective.

• If we had written a game preview, you can bet it would be mentioned the Rangers has lost their last two games and were sure to try and come out the gates as strong as possible. They did and took a 2-0 lead after the first period.
• Terrible rebound by Ty Conklin on that 2nd goal. For all Conkblock did for the Pens season, this might have been the death knell. Marc-Andre Fleury has been extremely solid since his return from injury and this game has opened the door for him to take the reigns and not look back.
• What a mistake by Ryan Whitney on what ended up being the game-winner for NYR. But, may we point out to the sizeable contingent of Penguin fan Whitney haters; if he doesn't make that pass to Jarkko Ruutu the first goal never happens. Gotta take the good with the bad.
• Pascal Dupuis is a solid player. He does all the little things right. For being an after-thought in the Marian Hossa trade, he's going to be an important player for the Penguins. We could see him scoring a goal of huge consquence come playoff time.
• How many goals has Jordan Staal scored against the Rangers? We'll have to try to do research on this later. It seems like J-Staal has feasted on NYR his whole career, particularly in Madison Square Garden.
• Again, this was just one game out of 82. Quick game against Tampa Bay and then the Pens start the division sprint which will settle everything. Two games against New Jersey in less than a week will be so crucial. That's why Sidney Crosby is out now. But if the Penguins play as sloppy and make as many team mistakes, it won't matter much.

Pens fall to Cats

!Ryan Whitney on the ice for a goal against? Why I never!

Bad loss, not much to say. At least the Penguins solved the puzzle that is Craig Anderson! Yeah, not much comfort either.

The Panthers came out strong; outshot the Pens and scored two goals within 39 seconds. Bad news. The Penguins did everything in their power to turn the momentum; Georges Laraque fought (!!!), Coach T pulled Marc-Andre Fleury in favor of the Conk-block after a bad rebound that allowed the third goal and even tried to unite Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. All for naught.

In the end, this is just one game out of 82. Surely fans will over-react and be upset, but it's a long season. If it's any consolation the Pens beat Florida 3 games to 1 in the season series, so even though a bitter loss tonight doesn't feel good, there's a sense that Pittsburgh already took the majority of the points from this opponent.

Now, thankfully, it's a time to take a breath. Pittsburgh just played 11 games in 19 games, several back-to-backs, in many different cities with many different conditions and storylines. It's over and what's done is done. The next two days offer a time to catch our collective breath, regroup a little and look forward to a surely exciting and explosive game against Washington. Who will start in goal? Who knows. Will Marian Hossa be back? Hopefully. There's a million different questions and storylines but all that matters is the team comes together, gets a good practice or two in and buckles down for the next stretch.

As we said, it is after all just 1 game out of 82.

Worst Case Scenario

Right from the beginning, not a good game tonight. The Bruins--who we've said always seem like a scrappy bunch that will find a way to make the playoffs--out hustled, out worked, out everything the Penguins.

To make matters that much worse, Marian Hossa left the game in the 2nd period with what initial reports are calling a MCL sprain after an accidental knee-to-knee collision with "Anyone But" Glen Murray.

Dealing with Rob Scuderi's finger "explosion", the Pens used two new defensive pairs; newcomer Hal Gill worked with Kris Letang and surprisingly our boy (but not the coaches') Brooks Orpik worked with the Sarge on the top unit. As you'd expect with three new faces in the lineup and new defensive units, the Pens weren't able to get in sync tonight.

If there is a positive (and there's not) it may be that the dynamic duo of Evgeni Malkin and Petr Sykora fired 9 shots on goals. Malkin, as usual, played well and had jump in his step, it just wasn't his night. Or anyone's. With Hossa's injury, those two should be reunited with winger Ryan Malone and hopefully be able to pick up where they left off.

A couple of role players in Jeff Taffe and fresh-faced Pascal Dupuis played well too and contributed a little, something that will need to happen in the future for valuable secondary scoring. It is hard to say at a time like this, but Taffe is playing excellent and if he and Dupuis can provide above average support roles that will go a long way towards long-term success.

This was probably the third appearance that Ty Conklin made where he wasn't sharp. The first two goals (both by Marco Sturm) would be hard to stop by anyone; a wacky deflection and a perfect shot. But Conklin was out of position on a Phil Kessel shot (that mercifully hit iron) and looked rattled. The mark of a good goalie is bouncing back, hopefully Conklin will be able to do so. As our buddy the Peerless noted, the Ty has been the MVP of the Penguins this year, but Conkblock's mindset can't be good after a night like this. Hopefully a short memory will enable him to bounce back.

Marc-Andre Fleury got in for the second half of the game, but it's hard to judge his performance since everyone bascially knew the result. Who knows which goalie Coach Therrien turns to next, but his decision--as well as that netminder's performance may well set the stage for the rest of the season, good or bad.

In conclusion, a terrible loss; probably the worst of the season considering not only how the result, but also that Hossa went down. If ever this team needed Sidney Crosby, it's now. Who knows how his ankle is feeling but the Pens were flat and one gets the feeling his mere presence in the lineup will provide a huge boost. He shouldn't come back before he's ready, but the team would benefit so much if he was ready soon.

Next up after a day off, a four game stretch in 6 days begins, in four different cities on top of that.

The 2007-08 Penguins have been marked by much more adversity than last year's suprise upstart team that only lost 7 games in regulation over the second half of the season. We've seem this team respond before, but at this hour that doesn't mean much. It's time to lick the wounds and regroup a little in order to come out strong for the next hectic stretch.

A No Point Night

Well, that sucked. On to the game comments:

--Watching the TSN feed, they point out Evgeni Malkin has 16 goals in the past 17 games. Quality stat from a quality channel.
--The sure to be Jarrko Ruutu fiasco....If you look closely, Ruutu comes into finish his check with his shoulder. Ilya Kovalchuk pulls away with his upper body and the only thing Ruutu connects with is Kovalchuk's legs, in an awkward position. 5 minutes for kneeing? More like 5 minutes for a bad reputation. Also, how did they tack on a fighting major? ATL's Steve McCarthy stood up for his teammates and immediately dropped the gloves and tried punching Ruutu, but Ruutu turned and was pinned against the bench and McCArthy only connected with the back of his helmet. Ruutu never threw a punch, never dropped the gloves, never made any action remotely resembling a fight but is still handed out a fighting major which ended up giving the Tbombs a PP. Ridiculous!
--We'd have to agree with what TST favorite Matthew Barnaby said during the intermission on TSN (paraphrased): Yeah they shouldn't have counted the apparant Nathan Smith goal since it was technically a kicking motion, but since he didn't even lift his skate to re-direct it perhaps it shouldn't have mattered since he demonstrated that much skill in deflecting the puck while seemingly stopping without really kicking it home.
--Right off the bat in the 3rd period Erik Christensen goes real hard to the net but can't pull th move he loves on shootouts but does pull the penalty. But on that PP;
--Sergei Gonchar misplays the puck, makes a diving effort in vein; Eric Perrin uses his speed to catch up with it and snaps a good shot and that's basically the game.
--It was nice to see the Pens avoid the shutout with a goal by Ryan Whitney after a terrific shift of cycling and puck domination by Christensen, Jordan Staal and especially Maxime Talbot did their thing.
--Georges Laraque was a -2 in 6:02 TOI. He did have a golden chance but failed to convert. Not a very good game for BGL. As a veteran and experienced player you'd expect/hope him to have a bigger impact.

--How many times did Malkin fall tonight for no reason? Too many for no reason at all. Credit the coaching staff for a cool new breakout though: Malkin carries the mail through the neutral zone like he loves to do, then when the opponents swarm on him, he drops the puck to Gonchar who's two steps behind and Gonchar quickly rifles a pass to a winger who gains entry to the zone and Malkin or the other winger isn't offsides, even at full stride. A nice adjustment from the coaches, keying in to the other team swarming on Malkin.
--As great and confident as Kris Letang played last night....Well he just didn't show any of it tonight.

Still a night that very much looked like a tired team. We predicted here that perhaps ATL would be a little slow in the start but that didn't come true. From open to start and top to bottom they were the better team and carried the play.

The Pens have about 72 hours off now; you'd imagine that they'll get at least 1 NHL caliber player back (Colby Armstrong) and maybe a fringe skill player in Kris Beech. Jeff Taffe (who took a double minor high stick and hardly played afterwards) and Alain Nasreddine should sit. Shift Brooks Orpik back to the blueline, for the love of all that's good and holy.

A missed opportunity to be sure, but it's hard to be that upset considering the team just won a highly contested and emotional battle AT a divisional rival less than 24 hours earlier.....All the Pens can do is try to regroup and come out strong for Carolina on Saturday night.

Pens lose 4 in a Row, 6 of 7

In what has become an all too fimiliar situation, the Penguins lost. A one goal game. After getting out to a slow start. And a rally started by Sidney Crosby (who's now tied with Henrik Zetterberg for the scoring race). While starting the backup goaltender. And having two promising young players (Tyler Kennedy and especially Colby Armstrong) victims to healthy scratches.

Something has got to give. The current situation is just not working. As the title reads, this is 4 losses in a row and 6 of the past 7. This losing streak has coincided with a crucial stretch of divisional games.

It's one thing to be losing, it's another to be losing in the manner that the Penguins are losing. Among the increasing embattled Michel Therrien's questionable coaching decisions are:

• Use of Marc-Andre Fleury. Dany Sabourin has been the go-to guy. Therrien has pubically cited Fleury's lack of confidence, but nothing the head coach has done has inspired any confidence in a still young goaltender.
• Icetime for veterans. Tonight only 3 forwards got more even strength icetime than Mark Recchi. Gary Roberts also plays more than he should, considering his limited production this year and penchant for taking damning penalties.
• Icetime for young players. Jordan Staal has 1 goal this year and got more icetime tonight than his season average. On the other hand, Erik Christensen averages 11:06 minutes a night.
• Constant line shuffling. We all know the outcry about this, so I'll spare readership rehashing how Therrien shuffles lines so quickly it makes his team's collective head spin. Which may lead into the next point...
• 5 bench minors in 17 games. There is no reason for a NHL caliber team to be as sloppy with line changes as the Pens have been under Therrien's stewardship. Surely some of this is on the players; as being at such a high level they should be a little more aware of what's going on. But after a while, it's become obvious the coaching staff is not instilling the discipline to correct the problem.
• Healthy scratches. Colby Armstrong has been a healthy scratch 4 times this year, all recently. Rob Rossi (a beat writer) said on Pittsburgh radio (sorry no link) that Colby has "no idea" why they're benching him and has absolutely no clue what to correct to get himself back in the regular lineup. That is very, very disturbing and madenning.
• While on that topic, the Pens have scratched guys like Armstrong, Christensen and Tyler Kennedy but been more liberal with guys like Staal, Jarrko Ruutu and Georges Laraque. Really the only consistent and solid forwards for the season have been Crosby, Malkin, Maxime Talbot and Adam Hall (and probably Ryan Malone), every other forward has been up and down and deserving of a shakeup. Why some players have landed in a doghouse and why some other (who's performances have been similiar) have continued to skate in their same roles is mind boggling to me.

The list is getting longer and longer all the time. Michel Therrien needs to start winning, even though Ray Shero publically dismissed all talk of making a mid-season change, something needs to change to get the Pens winning again.

I've never been much of a "fire the coach" supporter in any regards; I realize it's easier to be the monday morning QB than it is to actually make the thousands of quick decisions a coach has to make on the spot. But things are getting out of hand in Penguin land and there is (and should be) significant debate as to whether Michel Therrien is the man to take this team forward.

Pens Collapse

Not much to say, a poor effort from the Penguins who kinda looked like once Sidney Crosby punched in first goal of the game then that's all it would be.

Michel Therrien did go through with using his lines from practice in a game, which is spurring some angst among the fanbase. I still think it's too early in the process to even think of replacing Therrien (as the most extreme suggest) but some of his decisions are very questionable.

Still, a game at home against an opponent under .500? That's one you need to win.

Some general thoughts from around the NHL:
--2 nights and 2 fights for Vincent Lecavalier of the Lightning????? What has gotten into him? Last night he got slashed a couple of times by Scott Hartnell and he responded by turning around and dropping the gloves. The night before Lecavalier was incensed by what looked like a defensemen finishing a routine check. I think Vinny is trying to send a message to the league: no more playing nice, he is not something that will be f'ed with any longer.
--Zdeno Chara is back and swinging them hard. Former Baby Pen David Koci, who was already playing with a nose that got broken in a fight the other night, was bloodied up big time. But he had the heart to keep fighting even after Chara opened him up pretty bad, so good for him.
--And don't look now but the Bruins are 6-3-0. They might be a surprise team in the East. Claude Julien, rudely fired right before the playoffs by New Jersey, might have some vindication on his hands. Surely he's opening my eyes into being a pretty good coach.