Why Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin Should Be Linemates (For Now)

As the national economy began to trend significantly downward in the fall, much was made about how many people would be reducing excessive spending and learning to live more frugally. Now that the recession has deepened, nearly everyone in the middle class and below is in coupon-cutting mode.

With the Pittsburgh Penguins experiencing lean times of their own, a conclusion must be made: playing centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on separate lines is a luxury that can no longer be afforded.

Since Petr Sykora (16 goals) is the only healthy Penguins forward who has shown a consistent ability to produce while playing with either of the Penguins' "Mega Powers," the only current viable option for head coach Michel Therrien is to play Malkin and Crosby together.

The maligned Therrien had previously in the past two-and-a-half seasons tried to keep Evgeni and Sidney apart unless the team either needed a spark or was trailing in the late stages of a given game. The oft-repeating reasoning behind the reluctance to join the two stars was the importance of depth; in other words, the Penguins preferred to try for a pair of No. 1 lines rather than one supercharged top trio.

Well, with Pittsburgh having fallen out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, there is no more time to wait for the likes of Tyler Kennedy, Pascal Dupuis and Miroslav Satan to start pounding in the goals. When a team has just one win in its past eight games and two in its past ten, proactive measures are required.

While Penguins fans—and perhaps some players—are expecting general manager Ray Shero to make a significant move, whether it be a coaching change or a trade, to disrupt the status quo, uniting "Geno" and Sid is the easiest and quickest way to get improved results.

Saturday afternoon in Denver, Therrien elected to go nuclear, sending Nos. 87 and 71 out together for the opening faceoff and routinely double-shifting them as the game's rhythms dictated. The revamped top line yielded immediate dividends as each set up a goal for the other in the Penguins' 5-3 loss to the Avalanche.

Unfortunately, as the final score indicates, there are other problems in Penguinland besides a recent scoring funk. Pittsburgh is one of only six teams in the NHL to be surrendering more than three goals per game, a lowly spot that owes itself somewhat to a .898 save percentage, good for 24th in the league. The Penguins are also dead last in shots per game with 27.3.

There is much to fix in Pittsburgh in the second half of the season, but while the club has a bit of an uphill grade to overcome on the way to a third-straight playoff berth, keeping Crosby and Malkin together is logically the first step to take.

With the contracturally-extended Jordan Staal scooted up into the second-line center slot, the Penguins are arguably still the envy of two-thirds of the league as far as the top-six forwards are concerned.

Even if it is only a matter of time until the guillotine drops on someone, the combined magic of two of the NHL's top three scorers can be enough to at least nudge the Penguins back into the bottom fringe of the East's playoff field. From there the margin of error will be reduced for whichever new coaches or players are brought in to boost the team's fortunes, if Shero chooses to travel that route.

Either way, the times are tight and sacrifices, like giving up on the idea of a pair of dominant lines, must be made.