The Penguins who probably thought they would get 4 out of 4 points against the Islanders, have now lost 4 out of 4 points to the Islanders, along with any real shot at winning the Division/Conference. Their grip on 4th place is now a lot looser as well. They have given up 5 or more goals in three of their past 4 games. They are playing like they have have sucked a bag of dicks right now. After weeks of planning the parade, many Penguins fans are now looking to abandon ship, and predict an early exit from the post season. The sky is falling! Frankly, when you look at the above, and factor in the fact that their once potent power play has become impotent, and their PK which was once the number PK in the league, killing penalties at more than a 90% clip has now given up 8 goals out of the past 22 penalties, an alarmingly low kill rate of 63.6%. Listen, Stanley Cups are won with defense, goaltending and special teams, so a suddenly impotent PP, porous defense, and unreliable PK is not exactly the recipe that gets you to June in the NHL, but I still feel good about this team. Yeah, right now I want to kick someone in the face after watching the game, and frankly I am more than disappointed at the effort given after being embarrassed Tuesday night. However, I still look at the run the Penguins have gone on since early January, and believe that this team is more like the one that made that run, than the team that lost 6 in a row before it, and that has lost 3 of 4 in embarrassing fashion right now. They still have a top 9 upfront that should leave most teams unable to match up over the long run, a world class goaltender, a gritty fourth line, and an organization and team that knows what it takes to win the Cup. Their weak link(s) to me are the fact that despite the investment made in Paul Martin and Zybnek Michalek to give the Penguins two shutdown pairings on the blue line, they are major disappointments, especially Martin. Their power play concerns me as well, as I get the feeling that the Penguins are married to Crosby and Malkin being on the same PP, despite the lengthy track record of poor PP performance when they are together. I would split them, with the PP unit that was once 5th in the NHL being one unit, and giving Crosby his own unit, a 1b. You solve the fact that unit one gets 3/4 of a two minute shift by alternating which unit is the top unit penalty by penalty or you stick with a hot hand. With Neal, Malkin and Crosby out there together, the puck is passed too much, and prime scoring chances sacrificed in the name of the perfect play. Sometimes gathering the top talent is not as effective as having well defined roles for each member of the unit. At the end of the day, the Penguins have a tough path to follow, almost assuredly drawing the Flyers in round one, and maybe even losing home ice in the process. Here is my take on that issue. When the Penguins are not "getting to their game" as they are currently, it won't matter who they play other than maybe Florida, they are gone early. However, if they are "getting to their game" and playing "Pittsburgh Penguins Ice Hockey" as Dan Bylsma loves to say, they are more than capable of winning any series, with any team in the league, regardless of home ice advantage. To me, the last 5 games are more about getting healthy (Letang and Niskanen), and staying healthy(rest of the core) and getting back to getting the puck deep, cycling down low, taking the body, and generating offense of the transition game than it is about seeding. This is my take for what it is worth. As far as the game tonight, I am again going to be a punk and not bother to detail evey goal and every move in what was another ugly game for Pittsburgh. I will note that Pascal Dupuis remained hot, netting his 24th goal of the year, and running his point scoring streak to 12 games, which is the longest streak for the Penguins in 2 years other than the 25 goal streak by Crosby. Jordan Staal also netted his 24th goal of the season tonight. In other news, as the photo above suggests, Vladimir Malkin, like me, is an ASS MAN! Finally, Evgeni Malkin matched his career high with 47 goals and became the first player in the NHL this year to hit 100 points. The power play was 0 for 4 and gave up a short handed goal tonight. The penalty kill also gave up a goal on 4 chances. In an odd numbers game, Matt Cooke has 19 goals, 19 assists, and 19 penalties on the year. The Penguins face a red hot Buffalo team tomorrow on the road, the Flyers at home Saturday, then a road game with Boston, before two home games with the New York Rangers, then finally the Flyers to close out the regular season. Time for the Pens to right this ship! LETS GO PENS!
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