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Pens 'unacceptable' in loss to Blues
Christian Backman and Ryan Johnson tie up Sidney Crosby
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
Colby Armstrong is checked into the boards by Jamie Rivers
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
Nils Ekman is stopped by the Blues Manny Legace
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
Karen Price can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7980.
In front of a sell-out crowd of 17,017 at Mellon Arena, the Penguins (15-13-5) lost to the 30th-place Blues, who had lost 11 in a row going into the game. The final was 4-1, and the game looked much worse than the score suggests.
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury gave up two quick goals and was eventually pulled, the power play was 1 for 8, and there wasn't a player on the team who could say he had a good game.
"It was unacceptable," coach Michel Therrien said. "We have loyal fans, the building was full. ... Some guys had a decent game, but some guys had a bad game. I'm very disappointed in a lot of guys. (The Blues) played well, but in the meantime, it's tough to accept."
Evgeni Malkin scored the Penguins' only goal, assisted by Sidney Crosby, who extended his point streak to nine games, the second-longest active streak in the league behind the Red Wings' Mathieu Schneider, at 10 games.
But with a chance to win their fifth game out of the last six, the Penguins have now lost two in a row going into Thursday's game at Atlanta.
"We just didn't have a good game as a team," said Crosby, who was an uncharacteristic minus-2. "Sometimes you don't have good games, but guys step up and are able to make big plays. Personally, I made two big mistakes that cost goals. It's bad enough if I'm not creating anything offensively. I can't dig us in a hole like that."
The Blues, who underwent a coaching change a week earlier and were looking for their first win since Nov. 24, got a quick lead when Doug Weight scored 44 seconds into the game and Dan Hinote made it 2-0 at 5:38.
The Penguins didn't get a shot on goal until almost the halfway mark of the period, and they couldn't do anything with a four-minute power play resulting from a high-stick to the face of defenseman Alain Nasreddine. Nasreddine did not return to the game because of swelling above his eye.
The Blues replaced goaltender Manny Legace with Jason Bacashihua to start the second period because Legace, who made nine saves in the first, was suffering from flu symptoms.
Not long after, the Penguins replaced Fleury with Jocelyn Thibault after Fleury gave up a shorthanded goal to give the Blues a 3-0 lead.
Blues forward Ryan Johnson bumped Crosby off the puck in the neutral zone, skated in and beat Fleury in the top corner for his third goal of the year, and Fleury left the ice at 6:01, allowing three goals on 12 shots.
The Penguins avoided being shut out for just the second time this year when Malkin scored on the power play at 4:06 of the third period, but a minute later, the Penguins couldn't get the puck out of their own end and Bill Guerin scored to make it 4-1 and essentially end the game.
"That team's a lot better than their record shows," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "Coach told us before this isn't a team that's a last-place team. We just came out flat. I don't think it was because they were in last place, I don't know what it was. We just weren't ready to play."
