Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It would have been funny if it weren't so darned sad. First, Sergei Gonchar's skates went out from under him and he went tumbling to the Mellon Arena ice. Then, Mark Eaton went down after Gonchar knocked him over. And they're the Penguins' top defensive pairing! The next thing you knew, the Ottawa Senators' Joe Corvo was skating in alone on Marc-Andre Fleury last night. The Penguins' goaltender bailed out his defense that time by robbing Corvo, but he couldn't cover for all of the Penguins' many defensive liabilities. Ken Dryden probably wasn't that good. Those defensive shortcomings were the biggest reason the Penguins were 4-2 losers in pivotal Game 3 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.
Ottawa's Dean McAmmond and the Penguins' Maxime Talbot fight last night in the second period.
It wasn't just the uncontested shots such as Corvo's or the one the Senators' Daniel Alfredsson scored on in the second period when Gonchar lost track of him. It was the Penguins' inability to get the puck out of their end. Their defensemen couldn't handle the Senators' relentless forecheck. They couldn't handle their speed. It frequently was as if the ice was tilted toward Fleury's end of the rink.
That has been a problem for three games.
Fleury was able to steal Game 2 for the Penguins in Ottawa Saturday afternoon with a terrific performance.
If he isn't able to steal at least a couple more, it's hard to like the Penguins' chances of climbing out of that 2-1 hole.
We probably shouldn't be surprised for multiple reasons.
Everyone has made a big deal about how the Penguins' young offensive stars -- Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal -- are breaking their NHL playoff maiden in this series. But it's also the first NHL postseason experience for most of the team's defensemen. This is all new to Ryan Whitney, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Josef Melichar.
"That's the biggest thing," Penguins veteran winger Mark Recchi said. "It's a whole new pressure they're facing. That's a very fast team and they're on our defense quick. There's always that constant pressure."
But this goes beyond just experience.
Talent is a factor.
The Penguins' defense isn't as bad as it was last season when coach Michel Therrien, in his infamous rant not long after he took over the team, publicly suggested it was trying to be the worst defense in the league.
But it's not Stanley Cup-worthy, either.
Whitney and Orpik get passing grades. Each is a young player who will continue to get better. Gonchar has fabulous offensive ability, but he tends to be nonchalant at times on defense, as he was when Alfredsson got away from him. Eaton is a solid NHL defenseman, but he's not what he was early in the season because of serious wrist and knee injuries. Scuderi and Melichar are barely marginal, if that.
That's going to be a tough nut for the Penguins to crack before the end of this series.
It's one that general manager Ray Shero must address after the season.
"The transition from the defensemen to the forwards was not there," a clearly distressed Therrien acknowledged. "You can't shoot the puck around the wall all the time. That should be the last option."
The numbers are telling:
The Penguins had totals of 12, 10 and 12 shots after the first two periods of the three games. It's no coincidence that they trailed at that point in each game.
What good is all of that offensive talent if the defensemen can't get them the puck?
It's a shame because Senators goaltender Ray Emery looks eminently beatable. But the only way the Penguins are going to beat him is by testing him. They've done little of that in the three games, at least until the third periods when they have played desperation hockey and the Senators have sat on their leads. They have scored six of their nine goals in the series in the third period.
This is not a new problem. The Penguins were able to overcome it much of the season because of their marvelous top-end talent, their youth, their exuberance, their hard work and the system Therrien coaches.
But it's different in the playoffs. A good opponent is going to find a team's weakness. The Senators certainly have found the Penguins.' They've done a nice job of exposing it.
To steal from Therrien, it's a "recipe" for disaster for the Penguins.
(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)
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