Penguins Limp Home After Road Trip With Another Loss And Another Injury

The winds of change can blow quickly in the NHL.

A few weeks ago, the Penguins were riding high as the top team in the NHL, healthy, undefeated on the road, and looking unlike the victim of any Stanley Cup Hangover.

After last night's second straight shutout loss -- this time 3-0 to the Boston Bruins -- the Penguins have now lost 4 of 5, dropped 3 straight on the road, and lost yet another key player to an injury.

This time it was defenseman Brooks Orpik, who left the game early in the first period after absorbing a hit behind the Penguins' net that knocked him hard into the boards.

It looked like #44 could have either injured his left shoulder or arm, or even potentially his hip. Orpik left the game and did not return. He will be re-evaluated in Pittsburgh today.

The Pens again struggled to generate offense. They had 27 shots, but never really tested Boston netminder Tim Thomas.

They have gone 7 periods without a goal -- a figure that isn't being aided by their power play, which is fast plummeting down the league rankings after another O-fer (0-for-2) performance last night.

Pittsburgh's power play is now scoreless (0-for-23) in the last 6 games overall.

Not helping the cause is the recent play of Penguins' Captain Sidney Crosby.

Crosby has gone pointless in five straight contests for the first time in his career.

Not coincidentally, the Penguins have lost 4 of those games, including the first 3 game losing streak under Dan Bylsma.

What's probably most concerning to me, however, is the lack of emotion the Penguins seem to have. It's almost as if they seem resigned to the fact that they aren't going to have a chance to win many games until they start getting players back off the injured list. I don't see any passion or emotion in their play. I don't even see a scrap to try and jump-start the bench.

Is Max Talbot the only person on the team capable of that?

The Penguins need to get it together again quickly. They have a New Jersey Devils team coming into Pittsburgh on Thursday that is 8-0 on the road themselves this year. Pittsburgh needs to stop the bleeding and stop it rapidly because good teams don't go into long funks. They stop them before they really get bad. Unlike the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 seasons when they rarely lost more than 3 straight, the Pens' didn't do a good job of that last fall and look where it put them in December, January and February. Teams aren't going to be able to rally to overcome that kind of consistent poor play all the time.

There's no doubt that the injuries are hurting the Penguins, but all the contributions they were getting from throughout their lineup -- from guys like Bill Guerin all the way down to Mike Rupp -- have been missing in the last week +. That needs to change.

Despite their recent slump, the Penguins still sit 3rd overall in the NHL standings, and first in the Atlantic Division, so it's certainly too soon for abject panic. But momentum is fickle, and it's important that the Penguins get it going in the right direction again.

Soon.

More later this week.