Penguins Call Players-Only Meeting After 5-2 Loss to Bruins

Welcome to unchartered territory for the Penguins.

And I say that not just because the Penguins broke their "win-one, lose-one" streak of the past 3 or so weeks, unfortunately by losing (not winning) 2 in a row after falling, 5-2, to the Boston Bruins at Mellon Arena last night.

I say it because of what happened after the game, when the Penguins called a "players-only" meeting for the first time I can remember in years. I'm told that Sidney Crosby, Matt Cooke, Jordan Staal, and Brooks Orpik spoke at the meeting, with Orpik being the most vocal.

When asked about the meeting, Penguins coach Michel Therrein said: "It's about time they called (it)".

There apparently continue to be concerns about the attitude of the players and the chemistry of the team, both on the ice and on the bench. Therein spoke last night of players' personal agendas being put before the team. I have a hard time seeing that out there. I don't see anyone making selfish plays, like carrying the puck too much or trying to do everything, but I am just an observer. Staal, for one, said that everyone was not supporting one another on the ice.

Of course, I don't have any problem with the players calling the meeting and airing things out. I'm behind anything they can do to get out of the funk that they're in. But even if the team is still struggling with togetherness, work-ethic, competitiveness, selfishness, attitude, etc., I don't think those factors played a big role in last night's loss.

In fact, I think the game played out last night true to what you might expect. The Penguins hung in there with the Bruins for 2/3 of the game, but the better team proved to be too much for them in the end. That can't be unexpected when you're playing a team 18 points better than you in the standings. The Bruins are on top of their game right now. They have won 9 in a row, 13 in a row at home, and 23 of their last 26. The Penguins are not. What result do you get? A 5-2 win by the better team. Nothing unusual about that.

The Penguins started off well-enough last night, taking a 1-0 lead on Petr Sykora's 13th goal in the first period -- a 2nd rebound after a bad angle shot by center Dustin Jeffrey and a rebound attempt by Ruslan Fedotenko.

The lead didn't last long, however, as Boston defenseman Zedno Chara snuck in the back door on a power play to score, and Bruins center Marc Savard buried one top shelf on Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to give Boston a 2-1 lead before the first intermission.

Despite being down 2-1 at the end of one, the Penguins were in the game still. Boston had the better of the play, throwing 14 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, but Fleury was fantastic. He made at least 4-5 real good saves in that period to keep the Penguins in the mix.

In the 2nd period, the Penguins managed to tie the game when Boston turned the puck over after failing to clear the puck out of their own zone. Penguins center Sidney Crosby backhanded the puck out of the air with his hand, put it down, passed it across the zone inside the blueline to a rushing Pascal Dupuis who unleashed his trademark slapper to the glove side, which beat Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas to tie the game at 2.

A little over a minute later, however, Penguins center Evgeni Malkin gave the puck away and the Bruins were able to capitalize when Savard fed winger Phil Kessel for his 23rd goal into what ended up being an open net on a quick passing play in front of Fleury, who had no chance. Savard's first attempt to get the puck to Kessel was even blocked by Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney, but Savard did a good job staying with it.

That's the way the score stayed at the end of 2, and with the Bruins only up 1 goal at that point, the Penguins were still in things. In fact, I was hopeful they could turn it around. I felt Thomas was susceptible. He's an athletic guy with good anticipation, but isn't technically sound with rebound control. He will leave pucks out there, so if you can get a lot of rubber on him and crash the net, you can cause him problems.

Unfortunately, that was not the way the 3rd period played out. The real turning point of the game indeed came with the Penguins at the helm, when they went on the power play about 8 minutes into the period with a chance to tie the game. Instead of the Penguins capitalizing and beating Thomas, however, the Bruins were able to spring forward Martin St. Pierre on a breakaway, who beat Fleury low on the stick side to give Boston a 4-2 lead and really shift the momentum.

Bruins defenseman Dennis Wideman scored later in the period to make it 5-2.

Overall, the Penguins were outshot, 40-32.

Make no mistake. The Bruins are a good club, and they showed it last night. As I said in my series preview, they play a great system and they can score. Everything they left on the ice last evening justified their lofty perch atop the NHL standings.

All that said, the Penguins weren't blown out of the building. They made a few important mistakes, and that was easily the difference. I tend to think the "players-only" meeting that was called was more a result of the continuing way things have been going, rather than the result of the game last night specifically.

The Penguins need to get certain things going on offense. They were again 0-for on the power play last night, coming up empty in 3 chances. Crosby hasn't scored a power play goal in 29 games. That's right -- TWENTY NINE games. Malkin, one of the Penguins' real triggermen out there, hasn't gotten one in 20.

That can't happen if the Penguins are going to be competitive. Those guys have to find ways to score. To start with, they have to find more ways to draw penalties. They aren't working hard enough to do that.

Miroslav Satan also has only 4 goals in his last 24 games. A guy who's supposed to be your top winger has to be more consistent than that. His overall total of 12 is average -- and you can't say the Penguins have gotten nothing out of him -- but they need more.

The Penguins definitely are missing someone on the power play who can be physical in front of the net and on the wall. Staal has shown he isn't going to be that guy. They may be missing a little bit of that presence elsewhere, too. Somewhere, some things are missing.

If the Penguins don't find it soon, or start to get their game in synch, they will be chasing a playoff berth this year rather than trying to hold team off for one.

We'll see what impact the "players-only" meeting has on Thursday night. The Penguins know they'll have to bring their best game to win in Boston.

Even though Fleury didn't play poorly last night, I can't help but wonder if we might see Dany Sabourin in goal on Thursday --- just to change things up. He played well in a game in Boston earlier this year.

As Brooks Orpik said, it's times like this when your character is tested. We'll see whether the current composition of the Penguins roster has that proper mix ....