One game after a controlling road performance against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Pittsburgh Penguins continued their road trip in Dallas against the Stars at American Airlines Arena last night.
Or, at least someone masquerading as the Penguins showed up.
Pittsburgh looked listless and was "outbattled and outplayed" according to Dan Bylsma in a miserable 5-2 defeat.
"They played with a purpose, and we didn't," said Pens' forward Mike Rupp of the loss.
Rupp and his teammates gave goaltender Brent Johnson little help and, for the first time this season, he suffered a regulation loss, stopping only 24 of 29 Stars' shots in defeat.
Dallas got up early on the Pens' 2-0 in the first period on the strength of goals by defenseman Stephane Robidas and center Brad Richards, but just as it looked like the Penguins were going to get back in the game in the 2nd period when Tyler Kennedy, the wheels came off for Pittsburgh when Steve Ott scored just past the 10-minute mark, and winger Loui Eriksson added a penalty shot goal just a minute later to effectively put the game away at 4-1.
That prompted an immediate series of fisticuffs between the teams -- and mostly initiated by the Penguins, but not by the likes of Eric Godard and Deryk Engelland, who were both in the lineup last night.
Instead, Kris Letang, Captain Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz all dropped the mitts in succession.
Letang was goaded into a boat with Stars' Captain Brendan Morrow, and agreed to go despite the fact that he's been suffering from a hand injury.
As a result, he didn't return for the rest of the 2nd period, but did play in the 3rd.
Because Crosby took offense to Morrow going after Letang, he went after Stars' blueliner Matt Niskanen and handled him pretty easily.
Kunitz and Stars' winger Jamie Benn followed that up with a spirited fight.
At least the Penguins showed some spirit that way, because it was pretty much missing in every other facet of their game last night, and late goals traded by LW Matt Cooke and a second one by Eriksson did little to change anything but the final score.
While so many things were disturbing about the loss, not the least of which is that it continued a trend where the Penguins haven't played anything other than average hockey (and their 6-6-1 record in the standings right now confirms that), perhaps the most troublesome thing to come out of last night's contest in this writer's opinion is that the team's power play again came up empty, this time in 4 chances (including a 5-on-3 in the first period) against the league's worst penalty kill
Pittsburgh has now failed to score a power play goal in 26 consecutive opportunities, and that doesn't begin to indicate how their failures on the man-advantage are getting to the point where they are a severe liability for the club.
And so, the Penguins continue on their road trip tomorrow night in Anaheim at the Honda Center against the Ducks, before heading over to Phoenix where they'll probably play in front of about 7,000 people against the Coyotes on Saturday night.
The Penguins can no longer rely on injuries as an excuse for their average record, since just about everyone -- including Evegni Malkin, who played last night -- is back in the lineup (except for Jordan Staal).
Instead, they're having major issues with focus, inconsistency and decision-making, to say nothing of the awful power-play.
And if they don't turn it around soon, the heat is only going to get hotter in their kitchen.
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