Penguins' tailspin hits overdrive in brutal loss against Senators

The Penguins were shut out after an early penalty against goaltender Arturs Silovs hampered momentum. Marc DesRosiers / Imagn Images

They didn't get any breaks on Thursday, but then, they didn't really deserve any. The Penguins never recovered from a lethargic start and found themselves in a hole throughout in a 4-0 shellacking at the hands of the Ottawa Senators.

This marks the Penguins' seventh straight loss with another tough test on the way Saturday night in Montreal.

Sidney Crosby remains one point behind Mario Lemieux on the Penguins' all-time scoring list. He'll have a chance to break the Penguins' scoring record in Lemieux's hometown on Saturday.

The Penguins could use anything positive right about now.

"It's on all of us," Dan Muse said. "It's not just the players. It's the coaches. It's everybody involved. We all have to dig in."

They have to do something. Ottawa's forecheck smothered them throughout the game, which made generating any kind of an offensive attack nearly impossible.

"They were rimming a lot of pucks," Ryan Shea said. "We knew that before the game. We just weren't clean on the breakouts."

* It's easy to nitpick a number of problems with the Penguins' performance.

There wasn't much in the way of thoughtfulness with the puck, there wasn't much in the way of strong defensive work, and they certainly didn't go out of their way to create much offense. The special teams weren't good, either, nor was the goaltending. So, yeah, that checks a lot of boxes.

What troubled me most about this performance was the lack of fight from the Penguins. Where was the passion? Where was the energy?

Someone could have thrown a hit. Or gone to the net with a purpose. Or picked a fight. Or something. Anything. Instead, the Penguins went through the motions most of the evening and didn't come across as a team that had dropped six straight games entering the night. It wasn't a very becoming look for a team that should have been feeling some serious desperation entering this game.

* When a team looks as lethargic as the Penguins did, it's hard to blame the goaltender, so I won't. That said -- and this is really concerning -- the Penguins have now lost 10 of the past 11 games in which Arturs Silovs has started.

Maybe it doesn't matter who the goaltender is these days. Maybe the Penguins are crashing down to earth following that magical first two months of the season. Time will tell.

But the goaltending from Silovs, while not the main culprit in this seven-game losing streak, is a legitimate problem. I'm not sure how many more times the Penguins can turn to him given his recent performance. He actually started the season well, but from the time of the Nashville Predators' game-tying goal late in the third period on Nov. 14 in Sweden, he's been something of a disaster.

* I'm well aware Sergei Murashov allowed five goals on Sunday against the Utah Mammoth. And I know that at 21, he's hardly a finished product and that they don't want to rush him to the NHL until he's ready.

Still, if the Penguins want to make the playoffs this season, he needs to be here soon. He's their most talented goaltender. He's shown flashes of brilliance. He's going to give you more of a chance than this version of Silovs. I wouldn't be shocked if we see Murashov sooner rather than later.

* Silovs, though, was the victim of truly one of the worst calls I've ever witnessed. And it may have completely altered the game only two minutes in.

Silovs made a save and was subsequently called for tripping. You see plays like this every night in the NHL. Never, in my recollection, has the goaltender ever received a tripping penalty.

The press box was buzzing about it following the first period. One Penguins employee after another was completely incensed about it, and I can see why.

"I was really surprised," Silovs said. "I don't know what they saw there. I think a soft call. I don't know where the call came from."

Muse also said that he's never seen a call of that nature and that it badly affected the game.

* In no way am I defending the Penguins; they were bad in this game and they've been bad going on two weeks now. But they appeared to get on the board in the second period before Rickard Rakell was called for goaltender interference. The referee, in fact, very aggressively ruled off the goal immediately. You'd have thought Rakell committed assault on the ice.

But after watching the replay a few times, I don't think he did much of anything other than having good body position.

"I'd have challenged it again," Muse said.

* The Penguins' top line is a real concern right now. It's not scoring. It's not defending well. It looks completely out of sorts.

Sidney Crosby has been in a real funk for the past few games and that continued in Ottawa. He always looks a little disengaged when he's off his game, and that's precisely how he's looked in recent games. He'll be fine. He's human.

But Bryan Rust doesn't look himself, either. Nor does Rakell.

I'm not sure splitting up that line is the best thing. Sure, that's the easy answer, but one must have proper replacements in mind. Maybe you try Tommy Novak there, as he looked good there recently.

Crosby, for his part, did not seem concerned when I asked him about it. Rakell has been back for about a week, but the goals aren't coming.

"It takes a few games sometimes," Crosby said. "No matter how long you've played together, you just have to build some of that chemistry again and finish."

* The Penguins have lost seven straight games. Evgeni Malkin has missed seven straight games with an injury.

This is not a coincidence.

* We're about to find out plenty about Muse. His team is in trouble. You don't just lose seven games, especially in the spectacular fashion in which they've lost some of these, and easily recover.

This is no easy chore for a first-year coach. But he needs to guide this team to a better place.

* Ottawa did play pretty close to a perfect game, for what it's worth. Pretty solid performance from the Senators, who always seem to have the Penguins' number in this building.

* Up next is a practice on Friday in Montreal, before the Penguins take on the Canadiens on Saturday.

The season very much feels on the line in the next few games. The Penguins are three games away from losing 10 in a row entering the Christmas break. It was a mere two weeks ago that the Penguins possessed one of the best records in the Eastern Conference. Life comes at you fast in the NHL.

They better turn things around quickly if they want the feel-good energy of October and November to be anything other than a memory.