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Pens unhappy with effort in Game 4
Penguins' Crosby
Mike Segar/Reuters
Rob Rossi is the Penguins beat writer. He can be reached via e-mail. Also check out Rossi's blog or follow him on Twitter.
"You're not going to win every game," Crosby said Thursday after the Penguins fell for the first time in the Stanley Cup playoffs, 3-0, in Game 4 at Madison Square Garden.
They had won seven in a row. They do lead a best-of-7 Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Rangers, 3-1, with Game 5 at Mellon Arena on Sunday.
But there are those suggestive words from playoff-tested New York right wing Brendan Shanahan -- "I don't think we have, or any opponent has put them in a position where they've dealt with any adversity." -- that raise a fair question:
How will the Penguins respond to a playoff loss?
If the post-game dressing-room scene from Game 4 is any indication, the Penguins will arrive at practice today in a particularly agitated mood.
Defenseman Sergei Gonchar refused to reveal what was said among players following Game 4.
"What's been said in the locker room stays in the locker room," Gonchar said.
Usually approachable goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, hardly blamable for the defeat after stopping 31 of 33 shots, could only apologize after declining to face a second wave of questions from reporters.
Crosby talked of his club needing a more hard-nosed approach around New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, and right wing Marian Hossa offered a statement that resonated among Penguins:
"Definitely not," Hossa said, speaking on the possibility of returning to New York for a Game 6 on Monday.
"We have to learn from this. We have to play 60 minutes."
To a man, the Penguins know their still cushy series lead is not the result of maximum effort.
Their inspiring 5-4 victory in Game 1 came after they trailed, 3-0, almost halfway through the contest.
Consistency was the rule in a 2-0 Game 2 victory, but the Penguins took most of the second period off during a 5-3 victory in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, and nearly paid for after blowing a 3-1 lead.
They were out-shot, 73 to 46, in two games at New York -- the only two playoff contests they have lost the shots battle.
"We need a better effort from top to bottom," defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "But even when you win, you want to take the same mindset. You learn from it and move on to the next day."
No club has done that better than the Penguins since Jan. 1. They have not lost consecutive games since dropping two in a row Feb. 28 and March 1, and they have done that only twice in 2008 -- despite playing 30 of those contests without Crosby due to his high right ankle sprain.
"We don't accept losing," coach Michel Therrien said. "Winners don't like to lose."
The Penguins plan on being the winners of this series, and the Rangers realize the task before them remains extremely difficult.
"We've made this predicament regardless of whether we should have a better fate or not," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "I don't think we've been real good to ourselves in this series. We could have put less of a burden on ourselves with the decisions we've made on the ice.
"The big thing here is that any doubt at all (for the Penguins) is better than none."
