It is funny to listen to some pundits who think they know so much. If I hear one more of these folks talking about how this team lacks “chemistry” and that is why they are not winning games right now I have a question. Where were you complaining about “chemistry” when the team was 5-4-2 in October or 9-2-1 in November with basically the same lineup minus their best face off man in Zigomanis and the spark plug that is Tyler Kennedy?

Lack of “chemistry”? Don’t make me laugh! That is a cop out excuse and everyone making it knows it. “Chemistry” is like that catch all category of everything you cannot explain but try to explain.

No, the problem with the Penguins is clear and has been clear all year – they lack the desire to play a team game for 60 full minutes every night. Last night against Boston was another prime example of this. You had players like Orpik, Dupuis, Jeffrey and Wallace grinding out every shift. You had people like Malkin also playing hard, but playing what amounted to a singular style without a focus on where his teammates are and what they could do for him. You had defensemen watch pucks dangle in front of them, just feet away, but that they would not dare do fight for because they knew there was no one rotating over to cover up for them.

I don’t think the problems could have been any more clear than they were last night or any other night during their December slump. The team doesn’t need a trade, it needs those players on the ice to play hockey and play it with a focus on playing as a team.

What Therrien needs to do, and I have already said this, is to sit some of the players who are not playing hard for 60 minutes. Satan comes to mind. So does Staal. Maybe it is wrong to say that players like Satan and Staal are not playing hard for 60 full minutes. Perhaps it is more correct to say that they are playing hard, but not playing smart enough to make that hard work pay off. They are not thinking five seconds ahead and finding that open ice where someone can feed them the puck. They are not making smart decisions with their passes.

Other players are dumping pucks without a purpose into the offensive zone. They are putting pucks where no one from the Penguins has a chance to get to them. Other players are not even trying to get into the corners and hunt for pucks and going back on their heals.

It’s not that hard. It’s just hockey. And it is something, I remind you all, that these guys are paid good money to do because they are some of the best in the world. It is high time they start acting like it.

The Penguins may indeed be getting a little tougher come Tuesday when the team host the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins. The Tribune-Review reports that Hal Gill is eying a chance to return to the lineup after missing several games and the Penguins sorely missing his physical presence:

With any luck — and the injury-plagued Penguins have experienced little of that this season — defenseman Hal Gill will play Tuesday against the Boston Bruins at Mellon Arena.

“I hope so,” Gill said Saturday prior to the Penguins home game against the Montreal Canadiens. “I don’t want to keep doing (hard) skates out there.”

Gill has missed 10 consecutive games since his left shoulder was injured Oct. 6 in a loss at Ottawa. He recently returned to practice and has participated in limited contact drills.

The return of Gill to the blue line would mean another defenseman would be getting sat to make room for his presence. My money would be on Mark Eaton being the odd man out. Goligoski has been strong as have Orpik and Scuderi for most of the month of December. Boucher has been reliable and Ryan Whitney has been hoping since his return a few games ago and helping to generate chances.

Kostitsyn’s hat trick sealed the Penguins fate as they fell 3-2 to the Canadiens Saturday night at the Igloo.  Despite achieving 34 shots against Carey Price and the Penguins only allowing 19 shots on Fleury, Pittsburgh could not find a way to put the puck into the net more than the visiting squad despite seven or eight times when they had the Canadien netminder dead to rights.

The game was everything the Penguins needed it to be – except a win.  For a team that has been struggling to find the cage however, the match proved one thing that the Penguins have seemed to forgotten; shooting the puck more leads to chances.

While they failed to capitalize against Montreal Pens fans can only hope that they tasted what can happen when they push pucks towards the net and generate chances.  The Pens did however suffer from a lack of physicality.  Even when they did hit Montreal players for the most part the hits were weak and unimpressive.  Such weak play lead to the Canadiens scoring with just 1.6 seconds remaining in the first to put the Penguins in a 2-1 hole.

Pittsburgh is off until December 30th when they host the Boston Bruins who are the best in the East at 26-5-4 (56 pts).  By the looks of things the Penguins will have their work cut out for them as they hope to finish a dismal December on a positive note.

The story line out of the Friday’s game at New Jersey was all Marc-Andre Fleury as the struggling Penguins managed a pathetic 18 total shots on net for another poor offensive performance.  Fleury stopped all 37 shots he faced making the team’s lone marker by Fedotenko (9) at 12:51 in the second period hold up.

I guess I’ll risk repeating myself and say that the Penguins better find ways to get pucks on net because 18 shots will not cut it in the NHL night after night.  You cannot ride Fleury as hard as you rode him last night and expect to make the playoffs so it is high time someone on the team finds a way to generate some offense.

Sidney Crosby had no shots on net in the contest which seems to be a pattern of Sid not producing. Expect to hear lots of fans coaxing the team to, “SHOOOOOOOOOT!” a lot when they return home tonight to host the Montreal Candiens who are one spot ahead of them in the East.

How bad are the Penguins playing? Loosing 2-0 at home to the next to worst team in the League (Tampa Bay) gives you a pretty good indication. Adding in the fact that the managed and anemic 15 shots through 60 minutes gives further indication.

The Penguins are in need of a serious wake-up call following last season’s playoff run and this year’s early success. Performances like they have been putting up as of late including the loss to Tampa, the 7-3 slaughter last Saturday against Toronto and the pathetic 6-3 attempt against Philly the week before are all signs that the Penguins better realize that winning is not easy just because you have names like Crosby and Malkin in the line-up.

Last night I sat and watched this team play from my seats in section D-7 and what I saw was a team that, for the most part, did not come to play once again. Sure, there were individuals that gave good efforts, but too many players looked like they were just going through the motions and thinking that a win was inevitable. They struggled to find the puck and get through the neutral zone. They looked over the net without taking shots more than a child looks over that toy he really wants Santa to bring him on Christmas. And they let Tampa Bay out hustle them all night.

Sure the Penguins had chances. Sure, they had Tampa goal tender Mike Smith dead to rights about four or five times, but when you only have 15 total shots and the best ones are not going in, the answer is obvious – take more shots. Yeah, yeah I know, the players have all sorts of excuses as to why they don’t shoot more at times and think that fans who regularly yell, “SHOOOOOOOOOT!” when they are passing the puck around the perimeter are not educated enough about the intricacies of hockey to know what they are talking about. But the simple fact is that even the fans yelling from the stands understand that to score the puck must be moved to the net and done so on a regular basis. A bounce is all it takes. Just because there is traffic is no reason not to shoot – even beginners learn this tactic. But you have to get the puck up so that it does not hit all the skates and stick blades on the ice.

Last night the Penguins took too long to set up offensive chances and when they did have offensive chances, some players (like Crosby) were more interested in being fancy and showing the same expected, spin-o-rama move that opposing teams have come to expect as he is coming in down the wing. Shots that were taken were not up off the ice and were often defected by skates and stick blades.

These recent performances are unacceptable. I think that is obvious and I think that the team knows it. The problem is that people with the C’s and the A’s on their uniforms are not acting like leaders and getting things done. Perhaps it is time to humble some of them and remove those honors and give them instead to players that are out there playing sound hockey night after night. Perhaps it is also time for some of the untouchables to sit out a game or two and watch from the seats as Therrien gives those forwards that have been showing up like Staal, Dupuis and  Fedotenko much more ice time.

Just a thought.

Ryan Whitney will be in the lineup tonight when the Pittsburgh Penguins face off against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  Whitney returns from foot surgery that has kept him from playing this season and he returns to a defensive group that, when healthy, is probably the deepest and most skilled in the game boasting scoring threats like Gonchar (out), Whitney, Boucher, Goligoski and Letang along with grinders like Gill (out), Orpik, Eaton and Scuderi.

Where exactly Whitney will fit in is still a little bit of a mystery and who will sit to make room for his return is a question.  I would say Eaton would be the odd man out but that might give the Penguins a little too much offense on the blue line so it is possible Letang (who I think has been slumping a little as of late defensively) or Goligoski (how can you sit a man who scored two goals last night?) may be warming pine tonight.  Maybe Boucher?  It is a tough choice and one that Therrien is probably glad to have.