Despite receiving the good news that their leading goal scorer, James Neal, would not miss any games due to a misdiagnosed broken foot, and despite the emotional outburst from Brooks Orpik after their last game, the Pittsburgh Penguins continue to head into a downward spiral. All magic used by Dan Bylsma to bring this team to a fourth seed last year appears to be used up.
The Penguins started the game, as they seemingly have for the past four games, dominating play. When Brian Lee took a penalty 7:47 into the first period, the Penguins were out shooting the Senators 5-2. The powerplay, 0-18 in its previous 3 home games, failed to score again which appeared to give Ottawa all the momentum.
If there was a single turning point in this game, it was the first powerplay for Pittsburgh.
The Senators came back to take the lead with a goal by Chris Neil four minutes later. Neil found a rebound in front of Brent Johnson and scored on a second chance opportunity to give Ottawa the 1-0 lead. Less than two minutes later, Bobby Butler scored and the Senators were off and running.
After Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik blasted the team, saying he and his teammates hung their heads after allowing a goal and taking stupid penalties.
Tonight was no different.
The Penguins gave up four straight goals on just eight shots through the first 30 minutes of play. Jason Spezza scored his 16th goal of the season with a beautiful backhand around Johnson who was out of position thanks in large part to Spezza’s speed. With the score already 3-0, Dan Bylsma decided to pull Brent Johnson in favor of Marc-Andre Fleury who promptly gave up a goal on the next shot.
Milan Michalek, brother of Pens defenseman Zybnek, deflected the puck in off his skate to extend the lead to four. The replay showed that Michalek may have kicked the puck in, but officials in Toronto deemed the play a good goal.
The Penguins appeared to regain life when Evgeni Malkin took advantage of a Sergei Gonchar turnover and wristed a nice goal on the stick side of goaltender Craig Anderson. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, that was all they could muster. Milan Michalek added another goal in the third period to finish off Pittsburgh, 5-1. The Penguins finished their fourth straight game with one goal but still remain in the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference after Winnipeg’s loss to Boston. Regardless, if the Penguins continue on this downward streak, they’ll find themselves out of a playoff spot as early as tomorrow after they play the Washington Capitals.
While the Penguins have struggled mightily over the past month, the Senators continue to soar. On December 15th, the Penguins were in 5th place while the Senators were 11th in the conference. Since then, Ottawa is 9-1-2 and has climbed into fifth place, just three points back from the Boston Bruins. Meanwhile, the Penguins are 4-6 in their last ten games including an active five game losing streak.
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