Status Stable: Penguins Come Back To Defeat Coyotes

You heard it here first, folks.

In my last post, following the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks last Friday night, I spoke of the difficulty the team has had recently because of a lack of production from several key components up front.

Those players who were on the "WANTED" poster were Evgeni Malkin, Chris Kunitz, Mark Letestu and Mike Comrie.

And for what it's worth, those sentiments were echoed by Pens' Radio host Bob Grove, who opened the broadcast of Saturday night's game against the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale, AZ by highlighting the struggles of those same 4 players.

In fact, the only thing Grover didn't say -- even though he should have -- was that he read by blog before the pre-game show.

Then it was obviously not a conicidence that after the Penguins got key contributions from 3 of those 4 players (Comrie was obviously still off somewhere taking care of Hilary's needs), Pittsburgh buckled down and showed the gumption that has been missing so often this year thusfar by overcoming an early 2-0 deficit and another terrible showing from goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to beat Phoenix 4-3 in a shootout.

To go with a goal by Sidney Crosby, Malkin and Kunitz both scored in regulation, while Letestu added a key assist on Kunitz' tying goal before being the only shooter to score in the shootout to give the Pens' the win and save them from an extremely disappointing 1-3 road trip.

Not to mention an ugly flight home.

Brent Johnson is another player that had a lot to do with this win, coming in after Fleury allowed 2 goals on the first 5 shots he faced, and looking strong and confident in stopping 22 of 23 shots the rest of the way, while his teammates ran up 36 on Coyotes' netminder Ilya Bryzgalov.

In fact, the only puck to get by Johnson pinballed by him on a play that started with a bad break when the puck bounced right over defenseman Alex Goligoski's stick just as he tried to clear the zone with it.  Otherwise, he was solid the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Fleury, who looked a little uncertain and tentative on the first Coyotes' goal, then let another biscuit squeeze between his legs for their second goal -- a play that was somewhat controversial and required video review.

Speaking of requiring further review, the current state of the Penguins' goaltending may soon be next on the menu.

Fleury was notably dejected after being pulled Saturday night.  After being designated as the surprise starter before the game by head coach Dan Bylsma, it was obvious that Disco Dan was trying jumpstart Fleury.  By giving him a chance to rebound after suffering defeat Friday night, the reasoning went, it would boost the Flower's confidence. 

And, if the Penguins stuck to their game plan and won, it would give him an even greater boost.

Well, so much for that plan.

After being yanked, Fleury sat on the bench for the remainder of the period with his mask and gloves still on, obviously discouraged and despondent over his continued inability to come up with anything resembling confident, consistent goaltending.

Then he watched Brent Johnson do it all again for the Penguins in relief, including slamming the door on all 3 Coyotes' shootout attempts.

Just when you think #29's confidence can't sink lower, it does. 

And each time it does, it looks like the hill to climb to get out of his malaise gets even bigger.

"Obviously not a good result or what you want from your starting goaltender," said Bylsma after the game.  "Marc has been a big time goaltender and has got to be a big time goaltender.  He's got to find that."

But will he?  And if so, how long is it really going to take?

One month into the season, there are more and more doubts about the former, and assuming you even get past that, there's nothing but wide guesswork at this point about the latter.

And in the meantime, the Penguins are meandering along at .500 with inconsistent play from other parts of their lineup and a power play that other teams want to send on the ice.

In short, Pittsburgh isn't playing well enough to just allow Fleury to work out his struggles.  And becuase of that, it will shock nobody if Bylsma continues to give Johnson a bulk of the work in the near future, starting with the Pens' next game on Wednesday at home against red-hot goaltender Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins.

I certainly can't sanction anything less.  Fleury is just awful right now, and shows no signs of getting over his funk.

I'm not going to pass any long-term judgments right now, but if this pattern continues through year-end, it's only going to be fair to start to wonder ......

For now, at least the Pens' cardiac condition is stable.

More later this week.