Residential Coyotes fan OdinMercer provided a solid recap for last night's game directly below this post.  Check it out, and thank him in advance for being humble in our moment of disarray.  If you're looking for additional Coyotes coverage then shoot over to Coyotes Hip Check blog.

What a road trip this is turning out to be, huh?  Starting with the Rangers game on Saturday, the Penguins have now dropped three straight, salvaging only a single point from the shootout loss in New York.

But that's not the real issue here.  In fact, there are many.  For starters,  Sidney Crosby left last night's game against the Coyotes in the third period with what is being called *surprise* an undisclosed injury.  Phoenix reports say it's his ribs, Pittsburgh reports deny it.  Chances are it is and they're just looking to protect their star.  Can't blame them there.

Read on for more, plus [horrid] video highlights from last night.

I don't know how I feel about Jordan Staal's comments in today's Trib-Review:

"It seems like our guys aren't really buying into our system and working hard, basically.  It's really frustrating for everyone."

Jordan Staal
Trib-Review

It would seem he still has a while to go before he gets a genuine leadership role.  That to me sounds like the wrong thing to say, but I'm willing to dismiss it as the misrepresentation of his own frustration.

Let us not forget this whole shot thing.  How Nabokov on Tuesday and Bryzgalov last night didn't grab a shutout each is beyond me.  The Penguins weren't necessarily the purveyors of a swarming offense in the first.  In fact, they barely passed the grade with only two first period shots.  In the second they followed that up with 18, with Satan slipping one past Ilya Bryzgalov with the man advantage.  The fact it took nearly 20 shots to just score that first goal is somewhat disappointing.

From there the Penguins mustered up only eight scoreless shots in the third.

Is this how it's going to be all season?  Probably not.  They will click, they will jell and things will improve.  But "soon" cannot come soon enough.

Look for the Pens to potentially call up someone for the St. Louis game tomorrow night.  I don't think Crosby will have a spot in the lineup, although he is listed as day-to-day at the time of this post.  That more or less puts Hal Gill, Max Talbot, Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis on the injured-kinda-sorta list of guys out of the lineup.  Tag on Gonchar and Whitney and you have yourself one hell of an attack with the extra skater.