from Jonathan Bombulie of Chipped Ice at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,

Some notes after Montreal beat the Penguins 3-2 tonight:

— The Penguins are 0-3 for the fifth time in franchise history. They missed the playoffs three of the four previous 0-3 years. They’re winless after three games for the 11th time in team history. They missed the playoffs in seven of those previous 10 seasons.

— To me, those stats answer the question about whether it’s too early to start wondering what’s going on here. It’s not too early. You get to 0-5 or so, and then the things that happen to 0-5 hockey teams start happening.

— A Mike Johnston quote: “Overall, there were some big improvements. Certainly some big improvements from Arizona. It was close to the Dallas game, maybe even a little bit ahead of that, but we have to be better. We have to be better individually and then there are some areas of our game offensively. I thought we still passed up shots. We passed up some very good shots. Did we have enough net screens? I’m going to look at that. That’s the way it is nowadays. It’s so hard to score. You’ve got to be around that net area.”

I didn’t think passing up shots was a serious problem for the Penguins tonight. I thought a lack of a consistent net-front presence was a little bit of a problem. To me, the big problem remains at both blue lines. They’re fighting like hell just to gain the zone while at the other end of the ice, the opponent is breezing into the zone without many problems. How to fix that? I don’t know. If I did, I would hire myself out as a consultant to 0-3 NHL teams.

— A Sidney Crosby quote: “You’ve got to find ways if you’re 0-3. If your desperation and urgency is not there, then there’s a problem.”

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