Powerless Penguins Head Into All-Star Break With 2-1 Loss to Carolina

The table was set for the Penguins, as radio play-by-play man Mike Lange likes to say.

In more ways than one.

With a win last night, Pittsburgh had a chance to go into the All-Star break with 4 wins in their last 5 games. Potentially sitting in a playoff spot. Riding momentum into the stretch of the season.

Instead, they came up mostly empty in a 2-1 loss to a team they are currently fighting for a post-season berth, the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina got by on this one with a first period goal by Ray Whitney (no relation to Ryan) and a second period goal by Jordan Staal's big brother Eric. That's all they needed the rest of the way. The Penguins opened the scoring early in the first with a power play goal by Evgeni Malkin, but couldn't tickle the twine one more time.

What really hurt was the turkey they left sitting around when they had a 4 minute power play to basically close the game. Despite several chances, they couldn't get a puck by Hurricanes' netminder Cam Ward. Ward, in fact, stoned the Penguins all night with 32 saves on 33 shots in his 13th straight start.

Still, the failure of the power play to produce at the end is inexcusable. You have to find a way to score there.

Marc-Andre Fleury also was good at the other end and he needed to be because Carolina threw almost 40 pucks at him. Several of those were from the perimeter but again -- way too many. The Penguins were not as good defensively as they have been recently.

So, with a 23-21-4 record and only 34 games remaining, the Penguins will have a lot to think about during the All-Star break.

Do they have what it takes to go on a good winning run to help solidify their playoff position?

Will the injuries they've had this year continue to hold them back?

Can the Penguins dig deep enough and show the heart and desire necessary to battle for the Stanley Cup again?

It's been years since a Stanley Cup Final participant has even made it out of the first round of the playoffs the next year.

The Penguins are only hoping at this point to be able to test that theory.