Pens lose 3-0

Not sure what that what was, but the Pens get blanked on home ice this afternoon. They did not seem ready to play. The Habs MAY have broken a sweat, but I doubt it. Penguins need to take two points tomorrow against a weak Edmonton team. The Oilers have the worst record in the NHL, and are coming off of three straight losses. They are on the back end of a coast to coast road trip, and the Pens need to jump on them EARLY and make sure they get what SHOULD be two easy points. The Eastern Conference race is getting tighter, with the Penguins holding a one point lead over Tampa Bay for 4th place and home ice advantatge. What is disturbing to me about the Penguins no-show yesterday, is the fact that the Montreal win puts the Habs only 3 points behind Pittsburgh for 4th spot in the East. You would have thought that this would have created a sense of urgency, but it did not appear to do so.

The Penguins have some key players who NEED to step up for this team to do anything more than hang on to a bottom 3 seed, and a one and done trip to the post season. First, and foremost they need Jordan Staal to step up. He is a favorite of mine, and I thought that this chance to play in the absence of Crosby and Malkin would show him to be a capable second line center, and worthy of the second choice overall in 2006. Many local fans complain that the Penguins could have taken Toews, Backstrom, or Kessel with that pick. The Stanley Cup victory and Staal's role in it debunks those thoughts in my opinion, but that fact, along with Staal's experience and past performance made Shero comfortable to pass on the Arnott deal to roll with the centers we had. That makes Staal's role a key role in the outcome of this season. In Staal's past 5 games, he is a -4, and is getting outplayed by the opponents' top centers. He will never deliver the offensive numbers some would like, BUT he needs to shut down the top centers of the other teams and contribute some offense for the Penguins to have a chance at all to win a round or two in the playoffs. He looked horrendous yesterday, the worst I can recall in fact. Time for a rebound game Staalsy!

Another player who seems to be wilting under the new found responsibility is Kris Letang. Another favorite of mine, Letang was in serious consideration for the Norris Trophy for the first half of the season, and deservedly so. He was a league leader in plus/minus, and amongst the top three defensemen in scoring for the first half of the season. However, in the 28 games he has played since Crosby has left the lineup, Letang is -14 and has tallied only 11 points. Yesterday, he was actually pathetic, creating bad turnover after bad turnover. Hey, with finisher like Crosby and Malkin on the shelf, as well as Kunitz during a lot of that span it is no wonder that Tanger's point production has fallen, but not to THIS level. To go from a plus/minus of +21 to -14 (past 28 games), is inexcusable, and the turnovers are mind boggling. Time for Letang to simplify his game, and get back to what put him in the Norris conversation, and that has to start today. The coaching staff needs to make this a focus.

Alexei Kovalev only has only one goal in his 9 games as a Penguin. That statistic is a bit misleading though. He has seemed to be a dangerous player offensively at times, setting his linemates up for scoring chances with some regularity, but they have not been able to finish for him. He also scored in a shootout getting Pittsburgh a valuable extra point that they likely would not have gotten. That said, Kovalev needs to focus more on getting his own chances, and burying some of them with that nasty wrister he has. That is the singular reason he was brought to Pittsburgh.

Finally, I am not down on James Neal, and know that with a center the quality of Crosby or Malkin NEXT year he will be a beast. Neal has also contributed with his physical play all over the ice. He has had a great number of offensive chances during his 9 games here, and at times simply seems snakebit. That said, 1 goal and 1 assist in 9 games is not what the Penguins need from Neal. He has to find a way to finish some of the chances he is getting if the Penguins don't want to limp to the finish line at the end of the season. James Neal needs to be on the scoresheet for the Penguins to have success the rest of this year. Let's get the ball rolling today guys, if you can pick up the four points available in the Edmonton and Ottawa games this week, it should set up nicely for a big tilt against the Rangers on Sunday, a 4 point swing game in the Eastern Conference. After the Ottawa game, the Penguins play 11 games in 21 days to close the season, with many against the Eastern Conference playoff contenders including 2 against the Flyers and Devils, one against Tampa Bay as key playoff seeding matchups. Even the April 8th game against the Islanders could have an impact on the Eastern playoff seedings. In short, the key players on this team need to step up now to give the Pens their best chance of making some playoff noise. It starts TODAY!