Pittsburgh Penguins rue late collapse in winnable games, in must-win scenario now-NHL News
Playing two games and losing both of them was not the start that the Pittsburgh Penguins were hoping to their 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) playoff campaign.
The losses turned out to be even more frustrating as the Penguins gave away a solid lead in both games.
Apparently, they do not have answer to their woes of the later part of the games. It is not clear if it is complacency or any other comfort that has made them lose those games even though they looked to be certain winners at certain stages.
The common factor of both games is that that they lost clearly winnable games and a number of commentators have suggested the team management to give a second thought to their strategy, and may adopt defensive approach in early part of their games.
They may be true to their suggestions as in both games the team remained unable to sustain the lead until the end of the game. Their 8-5 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers was particularly notable and rueing.
Flyers’ head coach, Dan Bylsma, conceded:
"They're difficult losses, no question about it. Both in the manner of how the games went and (that) it gives them a two-game advantage. Right now we'll have to put away this loss."
Yet the managers have tried not to worry too much about the performance that the team has given so far due to the fact that Penguins had been through such a dismal point of the league run before and were able to bounce back strongly.
In 1996, for example, they had been off to a similar start but were able to recover from earlier losses as the season progressed.
Their captain, Sidney Crosby, is apparently not happy over what they had done so far and irrespective to the hopes of a stronger comeback, he insists they need to win the next game at all costs.
Penguins are playing their next game against Flyers in Philadelphia and the captain has weighed themselves to be in a must-win situation.
Crosby said:
"I don't know. I don't think we're thinking about it and going to dwell on it. We've got to win the next game."
Their forward, James Neal, has admitted that it is not going to be an easy win for them if they do indeed come out as victorious.
He said:
"They've got a lot of great players, and they're going to score goals. We just need to find a way to win, close out games, and play a full 60 minutes. It's frustrating when we have such a good first period and we let it slip away."
In spite of the difficulty to speculate result of the game, Penguins are aware that one more loss will certainly add to their difficulties.
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