NHL Playoffs 2012: Pittsburgh Penguins' Lack of Effort Could Cost Them Series

When the Pittsburgh Penguins are engaged, they look like the best team in NHL history since the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s.

When they're not, they might as well not show up to the building.

It doesn't matter how much talent a team has, if they don't skate to pucks and work hard, it's all for naught. 

After blowing a 3-0 lead to the Philadelphia Flyers and losing Game 1 in overtime, the Penguins now find themselves losing home ice advantage.

Wednesday night was a tale of two different games for the Pens, who came out acting like they were shot out of a cannon. They were skating with unbelievable energy as the puck was continuously in the Flyers' zone. 

After going up 3-0 in the first period, the onslaught continued at the start of the second period. Somewhere after the first station break in the second, the momentum shifted towards the Flyers, and Danny Briere scored the first goal of the game for Philadelphia.

Throughout the rest of the hockey game, the ice surface tilted, and all of the energy shifted to the Flyers' side. The Penguins were no longer skating hard, the crowd was completely out of it and the Flyers were on a mission.

Ilya Bryzgalov made some timely saves to keep the Flyers within striking range, and the Flyers eventually tied up the game and won in overtime.

When fans look at the goals the Penguins allowed, they have to question the effort of the team in the second half of the game. 

It just wasn't there.

The name "Sidney Crosby" was barely mentioned after the first period as he was pretty much a non-factor after recording two points in the first period.

Other guys like Tyler Kennedy and Pascal Dupuis continued to skate hard, but costly turnovers in the neutral zone and an inability to get the puck out of the Penguins' zone resulted in fantastic Flyer opportunities. The team, as a whole, wasn't engaged at all.

When you give a team like the Flyers that many chances, they're going to cash in eventually. They have too much talent. Claude Giroux and Danny Briere should not be taken lightly.

That's what the Penguins did on Wednesday night. They got too comfortable and complacent after their 3-0 lead, and they sat back, relaxed and watched the Flyers pass them before their eyes.

This is absolutely unacceptable at this stage of the season. The only good thing about this for the Penguins is the timing of it. It's the first game of the playoffs, and there's plenty of time to reverse poor habits. 

It's also a great wake-up call for the team. If the 0-3 deficit sparked the Flyers to work hard, then this loss must jolt the Penguins and act like a flame near their rear end so that they can work even harder.

The Penguins showed in the first half of the game that if they play the way they do, no team in the NHL will even come close to stopping them. They were like a modern version of the 1980s Edmonton Oilers.

If they continue to skate at a 100-percent level at all times then, they'll actually be able to hold onto the lead, and there's no excuse why they shouldn't work hard.

This wasn't a type of game where a hot goalie stole the show. Bryzgalov made some nice saves, but the Penguins' effort Wednesday night was nowhere near what they were doing last year against Tampa Bay and in 2010 against Montreal when Dwayne Roloson and Jaroslav Halak stole the show for their teams, respectively. 

There's nothing the Penguins could have done in those situations. They were helpless.

There's a lot they can do here, though. 

Actually it's not too much.

Just skate. And skate hard.

The chances and goals will come.

If they don't and they get complacent, they'll continue to blow leads like they did Wednesday, and the Pens will be faced with yet another early exit. 

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