Penguins shake up lines to steady fall

Pittsburgh is one point from the league basement.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Mario Lemieux is one point shy of becoming the sixth player in NHL history to reach 1,700 points in his career. But who will be on the ice with him when he does?
With his team one point out of the National Hockey League basement and coming off a 7-2 loss to the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Eddie Olczyk decided to shake up his lines at practice on Monday.
"I think we're just trying to see what kind of combinations may have a little bit of chemistry," Olczyk said. "It gives some guys a chance to play with some different guys and making sure that we have responsibility at both ends of the rink on all the lines."
To that end, Lemieux and Martin Straka will be reunited with right wing Aleksey Morozov, who scored 25 points in 26 games last season playing on Lemieux's right wing. Morozov, who missed 55 games after breaking his wrist Dec. 10, is tied with Straka and former linemate Rico Fata for the team lead with three goals.
"All I know is when I came in, I had a white jersey," Morozov said Monday after practice at Mellon Arena. The team's top line wears white in practice. "It might just be for (practice), but we need to create more offense, score more goals."
Moves up to top line
Morozov's move to the top line breaks up the Penguins' best unit of Morozov, Fata and rookie Ryan Malone, who is third among rookies with three assists in seven games. Fata will now anchor a line with another rookie, Konstantin Koltsov, who had two assists playing with Lemieux and Straka, and left wing Ramzi Abid.
Malone, on the other hand, moves from a scoring line to a checking set with Mike Eastwood and Matt Bradley.
"I think you've got to shake things up for everybody," Malone said. "We're not producing a lot of goals five-on-five right now, it's early in the season, so you might as well mix things up to get the line combinations that you want."
Only the New York Rangers, with 11, have scored fewer goals than the Penguins' 12. Pittsburgh (1-4-2) has scored five of its goals on the power play and a pair short-handed, which means the team is averaging less than a goal a game at even strength.
Sends out message
Olczyk isn't just using this shake-up to put goals in the net, but to send a message: players can either perform, or take the next flight to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.
"There's some guys that are doing the job down below and they're looking for that call to come up," Olczyk said. "We're looking for guys to take advantage and do the things we want them to do and not stray from our concept. We feel our concept is right, but now it comes down to the execution."