Penguins Compete Again; Still Lose To Ducks, 3-2

Well, it looked like the real Pittsburgh Penguins showed up on Friday night at the Honda Center against the Anaheim Ducks.

But whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains the question.

Now, compared to Wednesday night's abysmal 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, the Pens were a lot better.  That's positive.

They competed harder, skated better and hit more.

But it still added up to a 3-2 defeat to the last place team in the Pacific Division.

Anyone knows that when you play the Ducks, you have to corral their top line of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan.  Anaheim is basically a one-trick pony with that group of 3.

Maybe the Penguins missed that memo while they were just worried about bouncing back from Wednesday's loss.

(and that says something, doesn't it?)

Anyway, Ryan got the Ducks on the board first in the 2nd period beating Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury -- starting after Brent Johnson's defeat to the Stars' 2 days earlier -- easily from about 35 feet with a clear shot.

While not a soft goal, stopping shots he has a clear look at from that distance has been one of Fleury's several issues this season.

Getzlaf increased Anaheim's lead to 2-0 about 5 minutes later by crashing the net and getting the benefit of a bit of a bounce to slip the puck by Fleury.

Ducks' forward Saku Koivu made it 3-zip about 2 minutes later when he went to the net and deposited a rebound into an empty cage after Fleury a bit carelessly took himself out of position making a save on a shot from Anaheim blueliner Lubomir Visnovsky.

Sidney Crosby helped make the score close by scoring twice -- the first time on the power play (YES .... ON THE POWER PLAY) before the second period ended when he tipped a shot past Ducks' goaltender Jonas Hiller, and the second time 3 minutes into the final frame when he beat Hiller five-hole -- but that's as close as they got.

Pittsburgh did outshoot Anaheim 32-19 in the game and 27-12 over the final two periods, but it wasn't enough.  They lost for the second straight game and 5 out of the last 6.

You simply can't put yourself in a 3-0 hole and expect to win.  Especially against a guy like Hiller, who is a lot like current St. Louis Blue and former Montreal Canadien Nemesis Jaroslav Halak.  He thrives on a lot of work and can frustrate a team.

And so, with Fleury now at 1-6 on the season and the Pens' now below .500, the Penguins will try to salvage that very record on their road trip tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes (9:00 PM EST).

Head Coach Disco Dan Bylsma needs to get the troops together before things start to get ugly with his team.

Maybe he can start by getting a search party together for Evgeni Malkin -- a guy who's world-class talent has allowed him to score only 9 points and a -5 rating in 13 games this year so far.

Wherever he's found, he's probably with Hilary Duff's husband (a.k.a, Mike Comrie) who continues to go dry after a blazing pre-season.  Comrie has yet to score this year in 13 games and is -3.

LW Chris Kunitz is probably there, too.  #14 was supposedly healthy and ready for a bit of a bounceback season this year, but has only 6 points in 14 games despite playing on the top line and getting 1st power play minutes.  He, too, is -3.

Even Pens' rookie Mark Letestu, who started the season on fire, has cooled noticeably of late.  He doesn't have a point in 5 or 6 games, still sitting at 7 for the season.

If Pittsburgh doesn't start getting contributions from those guys, they're going to continue to middle around winning and losing games with equal regularity.

Needless to say, that's below standard in Penguin nation.

Will the struggling group bounceback tonight?  We'll see.

More soon.

Let's Go Pens!