Friday's Headline

Sometimes, it's hard to watch good players answer questions after bad losses. One has to feel for these players as they sit in front of the media asking about another lacklustre effort on the ice when it was fairly clear that most of the guys speaking to the media had fairly decent games. Since the All-Star Break, Sidney Crosby has been answering the media's questions on why the Penguins simply can't find consistency on the ice, and he continually tells everyone they'll work harder next game than the one he just played. It's never been a question of effort from Crosby, so I went ahead and drafted Friday morning's headline for Pittsburgh scribes.

Technically, the Penguins still have a shot at making the playoffs as they trail the New York Islanders by one point in the standings, and both teams have one game remaining. Pittsburgh, however, had a glorious opportunity to put all the pressure on the Islanders as they faced the lowly Chicago Blackhawks tonight. Chicago, for what it's worth, has been embracing the role of spoiler for the last month, but the Penguins just needed sixty minutes of solid hockey to give them a better-than-good shot as a 17th-straight playoff appearance.

Chicago won the game 5-2 in a game that reflected the Penguins' season: inconsistent plus poor management and coaching decisions.

"It's tough. It's like, no words," Evgeni Malkin said after tonight's game. "We should win here at home. We understand how important this game was for us tonight… it's huge. But we did not play bad. They played smart. They waited for mistakes and scored like three goals off three mistakes. But it's all about us.

"We play at home, they play back-to-back. We should win. It's like, no words, for sure. Tough loss, but now we just hope. I hope tomorrow, something magic happens, and we have a chance to play against Columbus and make the playoffs."

Malkin, of course, was referring to the Islanders hosting the Montreal Canadiens in their final game of the season on Wednesday, and the Penguins need the Canadiens to win in regulation over the Islanders. If the Islanders pick up a single point, the Penguins' season is over.

One can point to the fact that the Penguins were simply mediocre away from PPG Paints Arena this season, going 17-18-5 on the road. This is a team that started the season 4-0-1 before going 0-6-1. This is a team that goes 8-1-1 in December prior to Christmas, but goes 0-4-1 in their first five games after the holiday break. This is a team that has six 20-goal scorers in its lineup, but four of them are minus-players. This is a team that had injury problems all season long, yet they refused to call up some of their better players from the AHL for long stretches.

This is a team that needed to get younger and faster both in their forward units and on their blue line, and GM Ron Hextall went out and acquired Mikael Granlund, Nick Bonino, and Dmitri Kulikov. This is a coach in Mike Sullivan who continued to dress what-have-you-done-this-season veterans like Jeff Carter, Josh Archibald, and the aforementioned Kulikov while players like Drew O'Connor, Alex Nylander, and Mark Friedman watched from the pressbox. It's hard to explain if this team was rebuilding, retooling, or simply reeling when the trade deadline was over.

Watching this team tonight struggle to defend, continually be frustrated by a Chicago defence that's aiming for a first-overall pick, and unable to score on a goaltender in Petr Mrazek who has struggled all season was a test of patience in this fan tonight. Personally, this team shouldn't go to the playoffs in their current iteration, and there's no reason to believe they'll be there following Thursday night's final game against Columbus.

"I think if you look at the first 40, we missed so many chances," Kris Letang offered to reporters about the team's inconsistent play. "We had the opportunity to get up in the scoring, we didn't. I think in the third we kind of got frustrated and kind of imploded giving up chances and stuff. So, it's a tough one to swallow."

How do you fix this mess? It starts with removing Ron Hextall from the GM's chair. His decisions all season long should have him removed from most fantasy leagues, but this is an NHL team that he continually has failed to improve. It's time to find someone who is willing to restock the AHL Penguins with solid players from the NCAA and overseas while developing draft picks, and it will require some patience for the NHL Penguins to either buy out or trade out some of the inexplicable contracts Hextall had players sign over the last couple of seasons.

Penguins fans can be unhappy with Mike Sullivan and the job the coaches did this season, but cap problems really hampered some of their decisions and underwhelming play from veterans compounded the salary cap problems because no one could be brought up to replace an underperforming player. Sullivan doesn't get a free pass here as there were still inexplicable roster decisions made, but getting a general manager in who can undo some of the bumbling performed by Hextall will benefit everyone. If the new GM still wants Sullivan gone, so be it.

Make no mistake that the one thing that will be gone come Friday morning are Stanley Cup hopes in the city of Pittsburgh. Unless the Canadiens decide to bring an actual NHL team to UBS Arena on Long Island, all the Penguins can do is watch and hope that one of this season's worst teams gives one of this season's most inconsistent teams one last chance to keep their playoff appearance streak alive.

"We just gotta worry about ourselves, and hopefully we get a chance," Sidney Crosby said to reporters. "That's out of our hands now."

As much as we're told that it's the hope that kills, we can squarely put this season's potential debacle for the Penguins on a defence that employed the "EVERYBODY PANIC!" system along with apatheic management when it came to actually trying to make this team better. Because of those two things that plagued this Penguins squad all season long, that playoff streak is in serious jeopardy.

Speaking of Jeopardy!, I'll take "Blow It Up And Start Over" for $500, Alex, because this team simply isn't good enough.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!