Entering this weekend's games, the Penguins sat in a very comfortable position with a 10-2 record, having gotten to "their game" pretty quickly over the first near-month of hockey this year under head coach Dan Bylsma. But with the number of occupants in the Penguin infirmary growing by the day, it seems, it was apparent that Pittsburgh would face challenges to maintain their pace going forward.
Those challenges were on display throughout the weekend, as the Penguins rallied to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night in Ohio, but fell short of being able to crack Minnesota netminder Nicklas Backstrom in a loss to the Wild at Mellon Arena last night.
The Penguins played 50 or so minutes of mostly uninspiring hockey against the Blue Jackets two nights ago, despite the fact that Nationwide Arena in Columbus was packed with thousands and thousands of Penguin fans who traveled to see their favorite team wear their powder blue 3rd jerseys on the "road" for the first time since the 2008 Winter Classic played at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, NY.
Late in the 3rd period, the Penguins trailed 3-1. Star Rick Nash had 2 markers for Columbus, and the only goal scorer for the Penguins at that point was, of all people, Chris Kunitz, who -- after scoring his first of the season in the Pens' 6-1 victory over Montreal two days earlier -- notched his second in 2 games during the 2nd period.
Pittsburgh was obviously either feeling the effect of those injuries or just a letdown after their domination of the Canadiens on Wednesday, because they otherwise should have been rolling over a Columbus squad that was 1-4 in its last 5 games.
As it was, the Penguins had to settle for a near-reprise of last year's game in Columbus, where the Penguins were down 3-0, only to rally and force overtime with 3 quick-strike goals in the 3rd period.
This time, Ruslan Fedotenko scored to bring the Penguins within one with about 3 minutes to go by taking a rebound of a Brooks Orpik point shot off the back boards behind the net and depositing it into the empty cage.
Then, just 30+ seconds later, with the Pens' again buzzing in the Blue Jackets' zone, Sidney Crosby got the puck down low in the Columbus zone and found Alex Goligoski in the high slot 35/40 feet out. GoGo drilled a beautiful wrister top corner glove side over Columbus netminder Steve Mason to tie the score and give the suddenly energetic birds a lot of life.
After a scoreless overtime, the Penguins flipped the script from last year when they lost the game to the Blue Jackets in the shootout, despite their rally.
Crosby was the only person to score this time around, getting a goal on the Pens' second attempt with a shot that Mason stopped at first, but permitted to trickle just enough over the goal line.
Brent Johnson, the Pens' backup goaltender playing in his 3rd game this season, stoned all three Columbus shooters to wrap up the victory.
Johnson is now be a perfect 6-for-6 in shootout attempts against this year, by the way.
After walking out of that building with 2 points they probably didn't deserve, the Penguins' had a team meeting for 10 minutes to talk about their play.
The standard is high for the Stanley Cup champions, indeed.
The meeting must have sent a message to most of the team, because the Penguins' came out last night against the Wild and played much better hockey.
The problem was that Minnesota -- a team that had been winless in eight (8) road contests this year thusfar -- decided to start Backstrom in goal, and he swallowed up basically everything the Penguins threw at him like a $500 Dyson vacuum cleaner.
Pittsburgh outshot the Wild 35-15 on the night, but could only dent Backstrom in the 2nd period on a goal by Pascal Dupuis.
Dupuis' goal was the result of a nice set up off the face-off, when the Penguins' Craig Adams won the puck to the far wall, where defenseman Martin Skoula stepped up, retrieved the biscuit, then fed it to and open and waiting Dupuis, who had stepped a strike or so back from his spot on the right side of the face-off circle after the puck went the other direction. Dupuis one timed a laser low to the far side past Backstrom, who didn't even really move on the play because it happened so fast.
Pittsburgh brought a lot of ruckus against the Wild netminder in the game -- especially in the third period -- but just weren't able to crack him. They had some good chances throughout the entire contest, really. Staal had one uncontested at the lip of the crease that he just pushed wide. Guerin hit the post on one play. The Pens' just weren't able to finish and Backstrom made it look easy most of the rest of the time. He plays so in control and reads the play so well; it's hard to get pucks by him unless you beat him up high or generate traffic in front of him.
Not a complex formula -- and not one different than the way to beat most goaltenders, to be sure -- but one the Penguins' were nevertheless not able to do well enough last night.
Marc-Andre Fleury didn't play poorly on the other end, despite stopping only 13 shots. The Wild got a break on their first goal -- a rebound score by Klye Brodziak, who the puck just came to while he was standing to Fleury's right, wide-open, and then a pin-point laser by Eric Belanger past Fleury's blocker with .6 seconds left in the first period.
The loss left the Penguins at 11-3 -- still in first place in the Atlantic Division by 5 points, and still tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the top spot in the league with 22.
At this point, it should be plain to see that the Pens' are going to face increasing challenges going forward while they are shorthanded. Especially in light of the fact that the Pens' leave today for a 4-game road trip, including 3 night-owl games on the west coast this week against Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose. I mean, let's face it. The guys they currently are missing -- Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Tyler Kennedy and Max Talbot -- are key components of their group.
Having one or two out is something they can (and did) overcome. When you start to miss 4 key guys, it gets more difficult.
The good news is that Kennedy is close to returning. His undisclosed injury still hasn't been revealed, but he skated recently for 25 or so minutes and was said to feel good. He'll travel with the team this week and probably rejoin the lineup at some point.
Geno, Gonchar, and Talbot, of course, won't return on the trip.
There's no doubt the Penguins are going to have to reach deeper to get things done for the next several weeks, and not let the fruits of their good labor during the first month of the season start to unravel in the way things did for them in November that last year.
More this week.
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