Penguins leave NYC bruised

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A ringing phone in a hallway at Madison Square Garden interrupted Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma’s news conference after the Penguins’ latest tough loss.

Bylsma made a fake move to answer it and chuckled when someone joked, “It’s Mario.”

“It could be,” Bylsma said, but he was hardly in a laughing mood after his team’s lost weekend in New York.

No, co-owner Mario Lemieux wasn’t calling. He did his talking earlier Sunday when he lashed out at the NHL for how it handled punishments following a night of brawling in Pittsburgh’s 9-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday.

In a powerful and hard-hitting statement, the Hockey Hall of Famer questioned whether he wanted to remain a part of the league in which he became famous with the Penguins.

The extracurricular activity was just the latest black eye for the usually high-flying Penguins. Stanley Cup titles or trips to the finals are generally the hockey topics when it comes to Pittsburgh.

That has changed dramatically in recent days. Things aren’t going well for the Penguins on or off the ice.

Even without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and a host of other injured and suspended players, the Penguins are in no danger of falling out of the playoff race. But they aren’t feeling good about their current plight that reached close to rock-bottom status during weekend visits to New York’s Islanders and Rangers.

When the dust settled, the Penguins were 0-2 on the trip, outscored 14-6 and left to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the fight-filled loss on Long Island. The team bus was even in a minor accident on the way to an informal practice Saturday in Central Park.

Crosby, the face of the NHL, is out indefinitely because of a concussion; Malkin is done for the season because of a knee injury; forwards Arron Asham, Mike Comrie, Chris Kunitz and Mark Letestu are also sidelined; and hard-hitters Matt Cooke and Eric Godard are missing because of suspensions.

Fisticuffs and penalties are nothing new to the Penguins, who lead the NHL in fighting majors and penalty minutes per game. They entered Sunday’s game against the Rangers with the league’s most-efficient penalty-killing unit, but that has taken a hit, too. The Rangers scored three power-play goals in six chances, using the advantage to wipe out an early two-goal deficit en route to a 5-3 win.

That gave Pittsburgh four losses in five games after a five-game winning streak.

A pair of hits against Crosby in consecutive games in early January caused the concussion that has derailed his season.