ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes that's all I want to do.

I can't tell you how angry I was -- and still am -- over the Penguins latest 4-3 come-from-ahead loss in overtime to the Atlantic Division leading New Jersey Devils last night.

The Penguins blew a 3-1 third period lead in the last 4 minutes of the game and then went out and promptly lost in overtime.

Of course, they've done that many times this season -- and that's part of the reason why they are in the playoff-spot-chasing predicament they are in -- but this one is more disturbing to me than the others because it's later in the season and, even though all points are created equal, the Penguins can little afford to allow themselves to lose games this way at this time of the year.

Max Talbot, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin scored to build the Penguins' lead. Malkin's goal was his 100th in the National Hockey League.

Then, with about 4 minutes to go, the Devils won a faceoff in Pittsburgh's zone and the puck went right to New Jersey winger Brendan Shanahan, who waited a few seconds from the point, took a few strides when nobody decided to cover him, and then rifled it past Marc-Andre Fleury from the top of the circle to bring the Devils within 1.

All the Penguins had to do was hold the lead and they would have notched back-to-back wins again -- and their 5th win in the last 7.

Jamie Langenbrunner squashed that hope by squeezing a puck by Fleury with 30 seconds left in regulation to tie the contest. Langenbrunner's goal was simliar to the Devils' first goal that Bobby Holik scored. Both players were in tight and somehow just pushed the puck past Fleury.

Fleury has to have those. I'm not blaming the loss on him because he played well overall. Heck, New Jersey outshot Pittsburgh by a ridiculous margin -- 43-16 -- so he deserves credit. But that's just the time of the game you have to go on lockdown. I don't care if you've faced 10 or 100 shots prior to that. Of course, Rob Scuderi had a chance to clear the puck on Langenbrunner's goal and failed to do it, too, so he's not without fault either.

Although the Penguins lost a chance to gain 2 points on New Jersey in the standings at that juncture, they still had a chance to gain one. Until Langenbrunner struck again in overtime, beating Fleury on a one-timer as the Penguins got caught standing around in their own zone.

It was the 2nd game in 2 nights for the Devils where they came back from a 3-1 deficit to win in overtime. Last night it was on the road against the Boston Bruins. Would you believe that Langenbrunner scored the tying and winning goals in that one as well?

Talk about a Devil.

It's good that the Penguins don't have a lot of time to wallow in the dissatisfaction of their loss last night. They travel to Toronto to play in a Hockey Night in Canada game against the Maple Leafs at 7 PM this evening.

Mathieu Garon is expected to start his first game for the Penguins in goal tonight. Let's hope the Penguins give him better support. Being outshot 43-16 is intolerable. I'm still not 100% sold on the mertis of the Penguins' new 1-2-2 system. Sometimes it works well. Other games the Penguins give up 40+ shots against. I'm not sure if that's because the system isn't working, or they just aren't used to playing it every second -- let alone well -- on a consistent basis.

I'll try to recap tomorrow, but it may be difficult. There's a little thing called the Super Bowl going on, and the Penguins' Pittsburgh bretheren, the Steelers, managed to find their way into the big game, so I may be a bit preoccupied with that. So let's hope the Penguins don't give me reason to want to scream here again so quickly.