Crosby Injured in Penguins 4-1 Loss to Phoenix

As if the Penguins weren't going through enough offensive woes.

Penguins center Sidney Crosby left what turned into a 4-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes last night early in the 3rd period with an undisclosed injury and did not return. After the game, he said he was unsure what caused the injury and declined to indentify it, but the speculation is that it may be a rib injury.

On the bright side, Crosby did describe whatever he's going through as something "day-to-day".

Let's hope so because the last thing the Penguins need right now is to lose him.

The Penguins simply can't score goals right now.

They started off last night's game as poorly, or worse, than they were in San Jose, putting only 2 shots on Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

They played much better in the second period, however, ringing up 18. Malkin had 9 of those and finished the game with a career high 10. Miroslav Satan scored for the Penguins on the power play in that frame, beautifully smacking a puck out of mid air off the back boards and behind Bryzgalov.

But there were 2 turning points in succession in the 3rd period in what was then a 2-1 Phoenix lead. Then, the Penguins' fate was sealed.

The Coyotes took 2 penalties, setting the Penguins up for a 5-3. The Penguins had great chances, but failed to score. 75 seconds into the penalty, Satan took a hooking minor and then got slapped for a 10 minute misconduct.

He shouldn't have been arguing. The call on him was the right one. But I can't blame him for being frustrated.

With him gone and Crosby already out of the game, the Penguins failed to capitalize the remainder of the game, while Phoenix added a goal with 5 minutes left and later an empty netter to seal it.

Here are what I see the Penguins ills right now:

1) They aren't skating and working hard enough for 60 minutes. Mainly, this is on the offensive end.

2) Their support players aren't scoring. Talbot, Kennedy (who took Dupuis' spot with Crosby for last night until #87 was injured), Staal and Sykora aren't getting on the board. In particular, Sykora only has 1 goal this season (although he missed the first 3 games), while Staal -- who I've been critical of several times here the first month -- continues to go scoreless after missing a golden scoring opporunity in front of the net on that 5-3 last night.

3) Their transition game isn't as good without injured defenseman Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.

There's one other thing, too, although this is less of a major problem and more just a little thing. I think they are running their power play around Malkin too much at the point. They also need to move him around some -- to the side boards, for example. The penalty killing units on opposing teams are overloading towards him to keep him from getting off his wicked shot.

There's no question that, unless the Penguins improve in at least some of these areas, they're going to struggle to score goals. It's a good thing they're playing well defensively and getting good goaltending or who knows where they'd be.

If they don't improve their play in St. Louis Saturday night, they're going to limp home next week winless on their road trip. I hope that doesn't happen.

I'm tired of staying up late to see losses.