Maybe They Missed The Memo: Pens Stay Winless At The Bird House

The Pittsburgh Penguins' new home -- the CONSOL Energy Center -- was supposed to be a place where the home team would be intimidating.

Where the home team would be tough to play against.

After 3 games this season and the latest defeat in their own barn, 4-3 to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, The Bird House is fast becoming a easy place to play for the opposition.

Maybe the players missed the memo that they should stop showing up at 66 Mario Lemieux place for work?

I'm not sure, because the guys who were in Penguins sweaters last night looked anything but desperate to get a win for their home faithful -- especially in the first 10 minutes when a search party could have easily been called to find a competent, interested hockey club out there.

Okay, it's hard to blame the Penguins for leaving thug Colton Orr alone in front for the opening goal of the game.  He scores about as often per season as Dan Blysma will from behind the Penguins' bench.

But giving up the 2-1 lead you claimed after that in a miserable 7 minute stretch of the second period to go down 4-2 was pretty deflating.

Especially when Clarke MacArthur scores two of the goals.

I didn't have as much of a problem with his first one, or the bullet by Leafs' defenseman Francois Beauchemin which followed it to put Toronto back up by a goal.  Sure, it would have been nice to see Fleury get one of those, but they can't be considered "bad" goals.

The last one MacArthur scored, however, was the killer. 

Again, it's hard to say it was Fleury's fault.  In fact, I'd pin more of the blame on typically-reliable defensive forward Craig Adams who got caught in no-man's-land watching the puck carrier behind the net and Fleury while not covering MacArthur -- who was wide open in the slot before he got the pass and buried it behind #29 -- but the bottom line is that the Penguins simply can't continue to have those letdowns and expect to win.

Sure, they got back in the game.  The Pens' Captain, Sidney Crosby, got his first goal of the season on a nice play later in the second period, taking a pass right on the net from defenseman Ben Lovejoy and fooling Leafs' netminder Jonas Gustavsson into going down before depositing a backhand behind him. 

But after that, it was nothing but failed opportunities, including a missed penalty shot by Evgeni Malkin -- who's now 0-for-4 in his career on those -- another failed power play in the third period when it mattered most, and several good scoring chances they just didn't finish before the horn sounded.

And so, the script played the same, with the Penguins losing on home ice by a single goal.  To a team that scored 4 times on only 14 shots, to boot.

Marc-Andre Fleury's save percentage certainly isn't looking better this morning.

And neither is the Penguins record, which now stands at a discouraging 1-3.

I'm trying to give the Boys time to get in synch.  They are getting used to new personnel on the blueline -- even though one of them, Zybnek Michalek missed the game last night while he's still being evaluated after suffering a shoulder injury in Monday's game against New Jersey -- and the power play is operating on a completely different platform.

But there's no excuse for the lack of scoring punch they are getting, the continued failure to capitalize on their opportunities, the still substandard overall defensive play, and the mediocre -- at best -- goaltending.

Even if they come together on defense and get the power play going, there's still much for them to work on, and they don't want to get too far behind this early in the season.

The games now are worth the same number of points they're worth in February and March, after all.

One thing is for sure -- the Penguins won't have long before getting back on the horse.  Starting Friday, they play 3 games in 4 days. 

Unfortunately, 2 of those 3 games are at home.

On the bright side, Pittsburgh has something to look forward to after that. 

They go on their first extended (3-game) road trip of the season.

Since that appears to be the only place they can win games right now, it can't come soon enough.