ZAPPED: Penguins Struck By Lightning, Shutout By Bolts, 2-0

Here we go again.

With a chance to gain some steam down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins welcomed the Tampa Bay Lightning to Mellon Arena last night for the 3rd of a 6-game home stand.

Sure, they were missing key cogs Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar again, but facing a team who has only won 4 of its last 18 games, who needs a miracle -- at best -- to make the post-season, who was missing several key players due to injury, and who played (and lost) the night before to another club who will be golfing soon, the Columbus Blue Jackets, would have seemed to be a nice set of circumstances for the local hockey club. Especially coming off 2 days rest.

So what happens?

The Penguins come out and get whitewashed in their own building, 2-zip, then hold a 17-minute closed door meeting after the game.

After speaking out several times this season about the inconsistency of his club, defenseman Brooks Orpik was at it again last night, telling the media after the meeting that the Penguins had problems with "accountability".

Orpik went on:

"With all due respect, they had four guys in their lineup I've never even heard of. They've got nothing to play for and they come and outwork us in our building. That's a little concerning."

As if that wasn't enough, there was this from the Penguins' Captain, Sidney Crosby, speaking in the most constructively critical terms I've ever heard him use to describe the team:

"It was pretty bad. There's no real sugar-coating it or trying to make something positive out of it. We didn't do anything that was positive. That's about it. We weren't ready to play. That's what it comes down to. We thought we were going to play a team that (had) laid down and was out of the playoffs -- we were just going to show up, and it didn't happen. Clearly it didn't happen. We basically got what we deserved."

Obviously, the Penguins didn't play well last night. Despite their record, they've had inconsistency problems most of this year, so that's not a total surprise. But I'm not sure last night was the worst game of their season, as some observers believe:

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Tom-Mast/Worst-Game-of-the-Season-Bolts-Defeat-Pens/136/27356

For example, the Penguins had a pretty ugly came in Vancouver a few months ago, when the Canucks thrashed them, 6-2. And, even if you'd rather attribute that loss to John Curry's performance in goal, Pittsburgh doesn't have to stray far from that date on the calendar for a few other terrible outings --- including another 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, and a 7-4 defeat to the Philadelphia Flyers at home.

The Pens also had a rough west coast trip earlier this year.

In contrast, Pittsburgh outshot the Lightning 27-17 last night. Territorially, they had the better of the play. They also had some decent scoring chances -- including one where defenseman Jordan Leopold hit the post in the first period -- but weren't able to capitalize.

On the other hand, they lost a majority of the puck battles most of the night, didn't work as hard as Tampa Bay did, and lost the special teams battle.

Included in the latter was an inexcusable squandering of a 5-minute major penalty to Lightning defenseman Matt Lashoff -- just recalled from Norfolk of the American Hockey League that day -- for boarding Ruslan Fedotenko just a few minutes into the game. Fedotenko stayed on the ice after the grisly hit for several minutes before gingerly departing to the locker room, but he returned to play the rest of the contest after 10 minutes, so it appears he'll be okay going forward.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the power play.

Aside from failing to set the tone for the game by converting even ONCE on the major penalty to Lashoff, Pittsburgh missed on 3 other chances with the man advantage during the contest.

And speaking of missing, someone needs to make sure the Penguins don't leave their homes without their road maps to the net when they come to The Igloo because last night, they couldn't hit the broadside of the barn from 5 feet away.

Defenseman Kris Letang -- new contract extension in hand and all -- was the worst offender last night. Just off the top of my head, I remember 4 decent shot opportunties he had and he missed the net on every one.

Fellow blueliner Alex Goligoski also missed the net on several occasions.

Those guys are young, but they have to learn to get the rubber on the 4 X 6 more consistently.

HIT THE NET! PLEASE!

While the Penguins were failing to capitalize on their power plays, Steven Stamkos made sure you couldn't say the same for his team, giving the Lightning a 1-0 lead in the first with a man advantage goal on a nice shot from the near boards that he ripped off of Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury and in.

Pens' broadcaster Paul Steigerwald was gushing a cup full over Stamkos' shot on the broadcast, but I didn't quite see it that way. Now, make no mistake -- Stamkos has quickly emerged as one of the most dangerous goal scorers in the game in just his second year. He's the lastest in a accomplished line of young players excelling in the league immediately after being drafted and for proof, you needn't look further than the fact he has as many tallies on the year as Alexander Ovechkin (46) and is only one behind Crosby for the league lead.

But, I think his goal last night was as much a product of the subtle, look-off, cross-ice pass he got through the box from teammate Martin St. Louis than anything else. He fooled the Penguins and Fleury on the play, giving Stamkos a virtual gaping cage to look at, even from 40 feet. He ripped it -- sure -- but give his teammate some credit, too.

Once Tampa Bay forward Steve Downie capitalized on a rush the Penguins used to demonstrate how to backcheck like a lazy dog and put one off the post and behind Fleury to make the score 2-0, Pittsburgh was just never able to get in the game. Lightning goaltender Mike Smith -- starting only his 3rd game out of the last 14 -- made it tough for the Birds. And he's done that to the Pens' before.

Anyway, with the Penguins' defeat and the Buffalo Sabres' browbeating of the Panthers last night, 6-2, the Sabres have now moved 1 point ahead of the Pens into 2nd place in the Eastern Confernece, shoving Pittsburgh down to 3rd.

The Penguins remain only 1 point ahead of New Jersey, who claimed back their game in hand, but will use that up on Friday night against a good but currently struggling Chicago Blackhawks squad.

After that, the Devils and Penguins play on the same nights the rest of the year.

Forget the Sabres. While it would be nice to nab the second spot over them, the bigger key is to win the Atlantic Division and at least get the #3 seed.

We'll see what happens. The Pens' homestand continues Saturday afternoon against the Atlanta Thrashers. Let's hope the inconsistency takes a turn for the better after last night's defeat.

Maybe the practice Head Coach Dan Bylsma scheduled for 8:30 AM today will send the right message?

More tomorrow.