from Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

There are nights when the puck doesn't go in the net. Nights when the neutral zone is clogged. Nights when passes hit skates rather than tapes.

Sidney Crosby can live with those. That's a matter of execution.

He can't live with games like Saturday night's, though, a decisive 4-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils. This one, Crosby, said, was a matter of effort.

“We didn't compete,” Crosby said, exasperated, searching for words. “We didn't deserve to win.”

His teammate, Evgeni Malkin, shared Crosby's sentiments.

“We're not playing right,” Malkin said. “We're not working hard. I know it's tough right now. We're mad at each other. We need to stop, look in the mirror and start working. We're not working.”...

As a result, they held a players-only meeting after the game.

Coach Mike Johnston understood why the meeting was called.

“Everybody that's at this level, they're pro athletes. They recognize when their effort wasn't there, their execution wasn't there,” Johnston said. “Usually they respond. I expect we'll respond to it.”

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