Plummeting Penguins No Match for Oilers

Look! Up in the sky! Is that flaming streak a meteor? Or maybe space junk falling to earth?

Nope. It’s just our Penguins crashing and burning.

Indeed, the gradual disintegration of what was once a proud Stanley Cup champion continued unabated last night in Edmonton. The Pens, losers of four straight, were no match for the Oilers in any way, shape or form.

At one point in the second period, Connor McDavid and crew had piled up a staggering 29-5 edge in shots on goal. That pretty much says it all.

I confess I only watched the first period, but 20 minutes was more than enough visual torture, thank you. We looked old, slow…and far worse in my book…disinterested.

It’s one thing to get your butt whupped. It’s another to benignly allow it to happen.

Heck, throw a big check. Start a fight. Do something to let the other team know you have a pulse.

Oh, that’s right. These are the Penguins. We don’t do that sort of thing here. Well, Marcus Pettersson tries. I give the Dragon an A+ for guts, but he’s almost always overmatched as he was last night against Darnell Nurse.

It amazes me that every other team in the league can identify guys who can play and fight, but we can’t. But I digress.

Among our myriad issues, we rely almost solely on scoring goals to get our competitive juices flowing. It’s been in our DNA for decades. No goals, as in last night’s 4-0 shutout loss?

No juice.

It’s only going to get worse. Especially since our best player, Sidney Crosby, seems to be drying up right before our eyes.

In some ways it reminds me of Crosby’s rookie season back in ’05-06. GM Craig Patrick surrounded Sid with a veteran bunch that included Mario Lemieux, Mark Recchi, John LeClair and Sergei Gonchar. Looking at that lineup, you would never have thought in a million years that team would be unspeakably bad but it was, losing nine games in a row to begin the season.

Unfortunately, this team has the same feel. Part of the problem inherent with building around a veteran core that’s pretty much accomplished everything there is to accomplish. Especially now that Sid and sure-fire Hall-of-Fame sidekick Evgeni Malkin have achieved career milestones. There’s literally nothing left for these guys to shoot for.

There is a single point of light piercing the gloom and it’s luminous. Rookie goalie Joel Blomqvist was absolutely sensational last night, stopping 46 of 50 shots. If not for him, goodness knows how many goals the Oilers would’ve scored. Perhaps a couple of touchdowns worth at the very least.

It reminded me of Marc-André Fleury’s debut back in 2003 when Flower snuffed out 46 of 48 shots against the Kings. Patrick sent Fleury to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton a short time later to protect him. As much as I hate to suggest this, Kyle Dubas may need to do the same with Blomqvist. You sure don’t want to ruin him.

A tip of the cap to my colleague, Other Rick. You were right, my friend. This kid’s the real deal.

Speaking of kids, I’m tempted to say tear this mess down and start promoting them, but it might do them more harm than good at this stage. Let the youngsters develop and hone their skills with the Baby Pens.

They’ll get their baptism by fire soon enough.