‘It’s not good enough.’ Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins are floundering at midseason

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sitting in a quiet dressing room on Tuesday night after another blown lead turned into another crippling loss in a season increasingly filled with them, Evgeni Malkin spoke quietly. The Pittsburgh Penguins star has long served as the franchise's emotional core, the Russian's passion serving as the yin to longtime captain Sidney Crosby's more reserved yang. Malkin is well aware his historic partnership with Crosby and Kris Letang is nearing an end. The final chapter is not going the way the longest-tenured trio of teammates in major North American sports planned, particularly for Malkin, whose three Stanley Cup rings were reportedly stolen during a home invasion over the weekend. So after two periods of dominance against Seattle morphed into a 4-2 defeat to cap a maddening homestand in which the Penguins won just once in five tries — the lone victory against Connor McDavid and Edmonton — Malkin shook his head and gave a frank assessment of what is threatening to become another lost season. “It’s not good enough,” he said. "I hope we look in the mirror, tonight and tomorrow and start playing better.” The All-Star break is a few weeks away, but time already feels like it's starting to run out. The Penguins begin a seven-game, 12-day road trip on Friday in Buffalo on the fringe of the playoff chase in the underwhelming Eastern Conference, the prospect of missing out on the postseason for a third straight year becoming all the more real with every defensive breakdown, every soft goal, every missed opportunity. “We see standings,” said Malkin, who had an assist in his return from a four-game absence due to an upper-body injury. “I think we understand we miss playoffs and it’s half-season gone. We understand everything. (If) we want to play playoffs, we need to play so much better, every zone, every moment.” Yet that kind of consistency has been elusive for most of the season save for a promising stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas in which Pittsburgh clawed back into contention following a nightmarish opening six weeks. The optimism, however, has dimmed since the holiday break. Pittsburgh is just 2-5-3 over its last 10 to fall back under .500 after letting Seattle's Jamie Oleksiak and Eeli Tolvanen score 49 seconds apart in the third period to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Both goals highlighted the Penguins' erratic play in the defensive end. Oleksiak came onto the ice on a line change, took the puck at the top of the Pittsburgh zone and skated unchallenged down the slot before beating Tristan Jarry. Moments later, Tolvanen stood alone in front of the net to tap in a centering pass from Shane White to put the Kraken in front. “It’s really frustrating,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. "We’re giving away points. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.” It's not that the Penguins can't defend. They held Tampa Bay to two shots in the first period on Sunday. They did the same to the Kraken just over 48 hours later. Both times, the opponents skated off with the win after breakdowns at critical times. “If I had the answer I’d fix it,” said Mike Sullivan, the NHL's second-longest tenured coach. "We simply have to do a better job (in our end) and that falls on me.” Malkin isn't sure he agrees. The Penguins were a playoff fixture during his first 16 seasons in the league and he has raised the Stanley Cup three times. During that era, a certain standard was set. Pittsburgh hasn't lived up to it for quite a while. “I think everybody understands what’s going on,” he said. “We have nice organization. We have great history.” All NHL dynasties end, though general manager Kyle Dubas said before the season began that he didn't think the Penguins needed to strip the franchise down “to the studs” to rebuild. He has injected some much-needed youth onto the roster, including trading for Philip Tomasino, who scored his fifth goal on Tuesday. Yet every step forward has been met with a step back. Goaltenders Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic have shown a propensity to give up early goals. They've allowed opponents to score on their first shot nine times in 46 games, forcing Pittsburgh to play catchup too frequently. While Crosby in particular remains a marvel — he's on pace to average a point a game for what would be a record 20th straight season — the Penguins don't have the firepower that once came so easily. Their margin for error is smaller and they remain one of the league's oldest teams. Spending the next two weeks crisscrossing North America could give them a chance to steal away and hit the reset button. Or it could drop them into a hole so deep they could be essentially out of it by Groundhog Day. It could go either way. No one knows that more than Malkin. “We need to play so much harder,” Malkin said. And do it quickly. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl