Pens' Role Players Rolling Over

Without question, the Pittsburgh Penguins are led by their stars and superstars, but they wouldn't have finished fifth in the Eastern Conference without decent production and timely contributions up and down the roster. Now, through four games of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, standing on the brink of elimination, one wonders where that secondary scoring has been.

The Pens have had goals scored by only three different forwards -- Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal and Gary Roberts. Notably yet to light the lamp (or bulge the onion bag, as our British friends might say), are big guns Evgeni Malkin and Mark Recchi and role players Michel Ouellet, Erik Christensen, Ryan Malone and Colby Armstrong -- half a dozen players who combined to score 122 goals during the regular season.

The common thread here (with the exception of Recchi), of course, is youth. This is the first playoff experience for the other five skaters, and it shows. Malkin has four assists, but looked largely indifferent until late in Game Three. Armstrong has provided a bit of a physical presence, but no offense. Ouellet has had his moments skating mostly with Roberts and Staal, but has fired only seven shots on goal in the four games. Christensen is getting no ice time (and was scratched for Game Four), and Ryan Malone has a team-worst minus-4 rating. The list of goal-less Pens goes on and on, but you get the point.

By contrast, Ottawa has gotten goals from ten different players, including a pair each from Chris Kelly (15 regular season tallies) and Mike Comrie (20), and singles from Dean McAmmond (14), Chris Neil (12) and three different blueliners. In other words, the Sens' role players are playing their roles.

In order to win come playoff time, your stars have to play like stars (and, to be sure, at least one of Pittsburgh's bright lights isn't playing as such), but they can't do it alone, and the young Penguins are finding that out the hard way.