The Pittsburgh Penguins are on track to lose their first-round series against the New York Rangers. There’s still time to turn things around, but the Penguins’ loss in Game 3 is troubling because it throws the difficulties facing Pittsburgh into sharp relief.
The problem isn’t Sidney Crosby, and it isn’t Evgeni Malkin, though both star centers are likely to catch lots of fire if Pittsburgh bows out of the postseason early yet again.
Whether losses are actually their fault or not, the best players on a team always seem to take the blame due to the crackpot theory that the really great players can single-handedly drag 19 teammates past the opposition regardless of the quality of that opposition or of those teammates.
But blaming Crosby or Malkin is shortsighted because the real problem is on defence.
It seems counterintuitive to blame the blue line when a team loses by a 2-1 score, but it actually makes sense once you dig into it.
Monday’s game between the Rangers and Penguins was an ugly affair. When people talk about exciting 2-1 games, they don’t mea ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
Wretched Blue Line Leaving Penguins with Little Hope vs. Rangers in Round 1
April 20th, 2015 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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