from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

- NHL’s Most Disappointing Teams: 1. Lightning; 2. Ducks; 3. Penguins; 4. Rangers.

You must keep in mind Mike Sullivan was the worse cop to John Tortorella’s bad cop-act in New York, so it hardly was a shock to senses to catch that shot on TV the other night of the new Pittsburgh coach berating poor soul Ian Cole on the Penguins’ bench after a goof.

Coaches all preach about the importance of honest self-evaluation, so of course Sullivan, whose power play in New York was dysfunctional when he ran it while shutting out all input from players, immediately announced he would be responsible for the Penguins’ power play.

Of course.

Meanwhile, when is the last time a player of Sidney Crosby’s pedigree had an age 28 season as bad as this one?

- Players dropping/throwing their sticks to the ice (then raising their arms to the sky) the moment they feel a stick-on-stick check, is the new dive in the NHL, as practiced expertly Tuesday night at the Garden by Edmonton’s Anton Lander in drawing a slash on Marc Staal.

It is calls (and non-calls for embellishment) like this that explain why it would be an egregious mistake to allow power plays to run for the full 2:00 as a method to increase scoring, as some have suggested.

NHL officiating (which may not be worse than officiating in any other sport, but that’s not the point) is not good enough to increase its influence on the outcome of games.

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