from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

There is only one way to describe the Penguins’ 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night at PPG Paints Arena:

It was the worst regular season loss of the Sidney Crosby era.

Go ahead, try to find a worse one.

Let me put it another way:

The defeat was so bad, the ticket holders who received the players’ jerseys on Shirt Off Their Backs/Fan Appreciation Night probably wanted to give ’em back.

“We just didn’t get it done,” a glum Mike Sullivan said.

In some ways, the loss was stunning. The Penguins had been given unexpected life in the playoff chase Monday night when the Washington Capitals surprised the New York Islanders. They could have taken a big step toward their 17th consecutive postseason trip by beating a Blackhawks team that had played Monday night in Chicago and had lost 11 of its 12 previous games, all of the defeats by at least two goals.

But in other ways, this defeat was all too predictable.

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