Struggling Penguins Try To Right Their Ship Against Flames, Oilers

Losers of 7 of their last 9 and 8 of their last 11 games, the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins face two pivotal games in Western Canada the next two nights, first facing off against the Calgary Flames in Cowtown tonight (9:30 PM EST), and then matching up against the Edmonton Oilers in Edmonton tomorrow night (again, 9:30 PM EST).

The Pens will have their hands full tonight against a good Flames team tied for 4th in the Western Conference and one point ahead of the Penguins in the overall NHL standings with 58.

Calgary is 6-2-1 in their last 9 games and are led by Captain and RW Jarome Iginla -- likely Sidney Crosby's olympic linemate for Team Canada in Vancouver next month.

Iginla has been struggling lately, with only 3 points in his last 9 contests, but has 21 goals and 21 assists for 42 points in 46 games for the Flames this year.

The big surprise on Calgary's roster, though, is who is helping Iginla put up the points this sesason.

That would be LW Rene Bourque, who has 17 goals and 37 points in 40 games.

Guys that have struggled for Calgary this season so far include Center Olli Jokinen and Craig Conroy. Conroy, in particular, is having an awful season.

Conroy has the potential to be a near point-a-game guy, but has only 11 points in 39 games so far this year.

Besides Iginla's scoring, physicality and leadership up front, the Flames continue to be strong on defense and in goal.

On the blueline, they boast an impressive top 3 in physical stalwart Dion Phaneuf, steady defender Robyn Regher and all around offensive threat Jay Boumeester, former of a team the Penguins are more familiar with in the Eastern Conference, the Florida Panthers.

Some might say those three have struggled individually this season -- especially Phaneuf, who has been the subject of increasing trade rumors throughout the league -- but you wouldn't know it from looking at Calgary's goals against totals this year.

Only one other team in the West has allowed fewer goals than the Flames this season.

Of course, that might have less to do with the play of their name defenders and more to do with their goaltender, Mikka Kiprusoff, who is having another really strong season.

Kiprusoff is 23-11-6 with a 2.16 GAA and .927 sv % on the year.

Pittsburgh beat Calgary last season, 2-0 at Mellon Arena, and also prevailed the last time they faced the Flames in Calgary, but like I said, the Penguins clearly won't have it easy tonight -- not just because of the strength of their opponent, but because how they have been playing.

The script might be flipped at least a little bit the next night, though, as the Edmonton Oilers are having an awful season, and are currently in the Western Conference basement with 37 points, 8 points behind the next closest team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Oilers are 16-24-5 on the year so far, and have given up the most goals in the West.

Edmonton has been particularly terrible lately -- even more so than the Penguins. They've won only once in their last 13 games, including a stretch where they lost 7 straight.

RW Dustin Penner has clearly been their best player this season. He has stats that basically mirror Iginla's for Calgary, but the problem is, he has little help. Young forwards Sam Gagner, Andrew Coligliano, and Patrick O'Sullivan are not developing this season as many Edmonton fans and observers had hoped.

Worse, more notable forwards Alex Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff have struggled mightly, and the Oilers haven't gotten anything even resembling competitive goaltending this year from Nikolai Khabibulin and Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers.

Edmonton has a new boss behind the bench this year in veteran Pat Quinn, and Quinn just hasn't jelled with his group of players.

While the Oilers are struggling across the board and should give the Penguins an opportunity for a simple victory, Pittsburgh can't take anything for granted right now. They tend to play down to their competition anyway and they need to look no further than last night's 6-0 beating laid down by the New York Islanders over the Detroit Red Wings to realize that anything can happen on any given night.

It will be interesting to see what Blysma does with the Penguins' lineup in these games. Will he mix things up a little bit? Will he sit Fleury for a game? #29 should get one of these games off, but with backup goaltender Brent Johnson suffering from a slight groin injury and John Curry on the trip, will Disco Dan put Curry in the lineup? We'll see.

Recaps to follow tomorrow and Friday.

Let's Go Pens!


NOTES:

In an interesting note, FSN Pittsburgh, the group with the exclusive rights to Penguin hockey TV coverage, indefinitely suspended one of their video producers, Lowell McDonald, Jr. -- son of former Penguin player Lowell McDonald -- for failing to give NHL officials in Toronto a replay of a disputed play between the Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers in a game the Flyers won 7-4 on Thursday, January 7, 2010.

In that game, Simon Gagne thought he had stuffed a puck by Penguins' backup netminder Brent Johnson, but the officials on-ice ruled no-goal. Replays shown in Toronto were inconclusive, so the no-goal ruling was upheld.

However, after play resumed -- and when a no-goal ruling can therafter not be reversed -- FSN Pittsburgh quickly showed an overhead replay that appeared to indicate the puck had, indeed, crossed the goal line.