The effort looked there at times, but the Penguins could not win again tonight losing 3-2 in overtime to a better than their standings place shows Norfolk Admirals team. The Penguins are 2-7-1-1 in December. The Admrials are 7-3-1 in December. Like two ships passing in the night going the opposite direction.

I can’t explain it. I don’t think anyone can right now. It seems like the team is a ship without a rudder and just going wherever the current takes it.

No captain. No sense of urgency. No effort on most nights. No wins to show.

I don’t know. I am not in the room and around the team at all. The time for, “get it together” is over.

Jeff Zatkoff vs. Igor Bobkov

First Period: Brian Gibbons throws a puck at the net and it slips by Bobkov for a quick 1-0 Penguins lead. First fifteen minutes or so, all Penguins. Final five minutes were all Norfolk. Shots this period were 11-7 Penguins.

Second Period: Norfolk must have adjusted to something because they owned this period. Chris Wagner deflects a Gabe Guentzel shot six minutes in. They continue to sail around the ice, pun intended. Penguins then get some offensive zone time. They manage no shots on goal at Bobkov. Then, a puck hops a stick and Admirals leading scorer Peter Holland skates in and scores on Zatkoff to make it 2-1. Somehow, someway, the Penguins tie the game late off a Jayson Megna stuff after a Pens faceoff win.

Third Period: Uneventful, really. Both teams had a chance at the power play but nothing became of it.

Overtime: :27 in, Benn Ferriero gets called for hooking in the neutral zone. This is after referee Geno Binda calls just two penalties in the third period and many he either missed or let slide. :27 later, Peter Holland feeds Patrick Maroon in the slot and Maroon buries it for the game winner.

Three Stars: 3) Jayson Megna (goal, +2) 2) Peter Holland (goal, assist, even) and 1) Patrick Maroon (overtime game winner, even)

Around the Division: Syracuse coughs up a four goal lead to the worst offensive team in the AHL in the St. John’s IceCaps (2.34 goals a game) and lose 5-4 in overtime. Binghamton keeps rolling and win in Rochester 2-1. Hershey loses in regulation to the Albany Devils 3-2.

Standings: Syracuse 43 — Binghamton 39 — Hershey 34 — Penguins 31 — Norfolk 29

Conference: 1) SYR 43 — 2) SPR 37 — 3) POR 36 — 4) BNG 39 — 5) WOR 35 — 6) BRI 35 — 7) PRO 34 — 8) HER 34 — 10) WBS 31

Wheeling Update: The Nailers were shutout by Ryan Zapolski and the South Carolina Stingrays 3-0. Yes the same Ryan Zapolski who was in Wilkes-Barre on a PTO when Zatkoff went down with an injury.

SendToNewsHighlights: Aren’t up yet. Will be tomorrow morning most likely. Sunday Morning Edit: They are here. Went up 20 minutes after this published last night. Go figure.

Pens face off against the Syracuse Crunch at 5:05 Monday. Gameday for that will be up at 1 p.m. on New Years Eve.

Keep plugging. Go Penguins!

The slide continues.

The Penguins are now 1-8 in their last nine games. I can’t explain any one thing that could be the problem. Let’s walk through the basics:

1) Goaltending.  I don’t think there is an issue here. Jeff Zatkoff won goalie of the month in November. You don’t all of a sudden forget how to play goal. Brad Thiessen is a former AHL Goaltender of the Year as well.

2) Defense. An issue, but not a concern at this point. Okay, maybe a concern, because there have been more that a few times that a defensive gaffe has led to a turnover which in turn leads to a goal against. Still, a top unit in the AHL.

3) Forwards. John Hynes shook up the lines. It’s late, so I am not going to individually go through each players performance, but there really doesn’t seem to be an established fourth line. Second and Third lines rotate almost game to game, situation by situation, opponent to opponent.

4) Special teams. Big concern here. power play is running at a 1 for 41 clip at this time. Penalty kill is ranked third in the league, however.

5) Coaching. John Hynes is the all time winningest coach in Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins history. If you think he is the problem, please never read my blog again.

So in short, I don’t know.

The problem which scares me though is, I don’t think the Penguins do either.

They lost tonight and were swept in the mini-two game series against the Bears 4-1. Not a lot to get into here but I will do my best.

Lines were shook up. They were as follows:

Dupuis – Peters – Tangradi
Megna – Smith – Gibbons
Thompson – Ferriero – Holzapfel
Sill – Farnham – Uher

Dumoulin – Reese
Strait – Bortuzzo
Morrow – Despres

Zatkoff – Thiessen

First Period: Garrett Mitchell scores his 981st goal against the Penguins this season to make it 1-0 Bears early. Bobby Farnham and Kevin Marshall fought shortly thereafter. Farnham riled up his team and the crowd. It worked in part, as the Penguins would sustain offensive zone pressure throughout the remainder of the period but would be unable to crack netminder Dany Sabourin. Shots after one were 11-6 Penguins.

Second Period: Shots quickly jumped to 10 for the Bears in the opening minutes of the second period. They adjusted and quickly extinguished any pressure Wilkes-Barre had hoped to carryover from the first period. On a rush, Jeff Taffe sets up Steve Oleksy on a drop pass he wristed home past Zatkoff to put the Bears up 2-0. Seemed at the time to stop all momentum Wilkes-Barre had mounted or hoped to mount. Later, the Bears miss an open net, maintain pressure and capitalize on another and make it 3-0 via Mathieu Beaudoin.

Third Period: Brad Thiessen came in for relief of Zatkoff, who allowed three goals on fifteen shots. Penguins finally break through on a power play goal by Paul Thompson. Going back on my tweets from that point, all it was after that was tweeting time and score. Literally nothing was going on for the Penguins offensively the last ten minutes of the game. Boyd Kane picks a corner on Thiessen late and put the game away at 4-1.

Going back the last couple of games, it really hasn’t been Penguin hockey. It really has been hard to watch at times because nothing is going the Penguins way.

Three Stars: 3) Boyd Kane (goal, assist, +1) 2) Jeff Taffe (two assists, +2) and 1) Garrett Mitchell (goal, assist, +2)

Around the Division: We were the only divisional action on the schedule.

Standings: Syracuse 40 — Binghamton 35 — Hershey 34 — Penguins 30 — Norfolk 27

Saturday’s game against the defending champion Norfolk Admirals is HUGE in the scope of things.

Conference: 1) SYR (40) 2) SPR (37) 3) POR (34) 4) BNG (35) 5) HER (34) 6) BRI (33) 7) PRO (32) 8) MCH (32) 10) WBS (30)

So not only do the Penguins have to worry about last place they also have to worry about losing touch with the 7 and 8 seeds in the Conference.

SendToNews Highlights: Not much to see here, and they aren’t up at 11:05 p.m. on Thursday yet. Morning after edit: The highlights are up. They include all five goals and two fights including Simon Despres and Bobby Farnham.

Wheeling Update: Nailers lose in a shootout to the Greenville Road Warriors 5-4 at the Bi-Lo Center in South Carolina. The Nailers were up 4-2 at one point but the Road Warriors were able to tie it late and win in the shootout. Chris Barton had a goal and two assists and was a +2 in the loss. The same two teams meet again tomorrow night in Greenville.

Hang in there. That’s all I can say.

Let’s Go Pens!

Pens lose this game 2-0 tonight in Hershey.

Thoughts:

1) The Penguins sorely miss Beau Bennett. It is apparent that the rookie runs the Penguins special teams unit. The Penguins were 0-for-6 tonight on the power play. Tom Grace said on radio pregame that he is day to day.

2) Braden Holtby is a very good goaltender. He has no business in the AHL. Due to the NHL lockout, he is here. He has six shutouts of the Penguins in his career. If fan bloggers like yours truly had all-star votes, he and Springfield’s Curtis McElhinney would be two of the three sent to Providence to represent the Eastern Conference next month.

3) Garrett Mitchell loves playing against the Penguins. He scored a goal in the first period after an uncharacteristic Brian Strait turnover early in the first period. He has three goals in the season series so far which is tops amongst head-to-head goal scorers.

4) I said at the beginning of the year that if the NHL lockout goes all season that either Hershey or Wilkes-Barre will not make playoffs. It certainly looks, with how bleak the NHL labor strife is at this time and how inert the Penguins have looked the last 10 games, that Wilkes-Barre will have a short Spring.

Penguins could not generate any offense despite only allowing the Bears 20 shots on goal. Yes, defense wins championships. But before you get to playoffs which allow you to win a championship, you have to win games. Offense wins games. The Penguins aren’t generating any offense right now which is a huge concern.

I said earlier today on Twitter that the results of the next four games the Penguins play will paint the picture of what the Penguins will look like overall for the remainder of the season. They played Hershey tonight, rematch against them tomorrow, have Norfolk and Syracuse Saturday and Monday. Win all four, back in the division hunt. Lose all four, the basement is calling. Play .500 hockey, you are right where we started, while the division lead gets larger and the margin of error gets smaller. That would be indefensible for even I to defend.

That’s about it. These two teams rematch again tomorrow night in Wilkes-Barre.

Three Stars were Ryan Potulny (assist, +2), Garrett Mitchell, game winning goal, +1 and Braden Holtby (33 save shutout) in that order.

Syracuse beat Binghamton 5-3. Norfolk was off.

Crunch lead the East Division with 40 points. B-Sens are in second with 35 points. Bears are in third with 32 points. Penguins are fourth with 30, Norfolk is in fifth with 27 points.

Conference is Syracuse, Springfield, Portland, Binghamton, Providence, Hershey, Manchester, Worcester in that order. Penguins sit tenth. Currently out of a playoff spot.

The Wheeling Nailers were off tonight.

Scott Stuccio hasn’t uploaded the SendToNews highlights yet, but he will and when he does I will link in. SendToNews.com is where you can see the highlights. Edit: Here they are.

Gameday for the rematch will be here tomorrow at 3 p.m.