Penguins vs. Bruins: Breaking Down Pittsburgh Stars' Disappearing Act

There's no payoff for close in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are learning this in a hard and unexpected manner after falling to the Boston Bruins for a third straight time in the series. The Penguins pushed much harder and took the game to double overtime, but they could not dent the net enough against their surprising rivals and lost 2-1.

There are many reasons for the Penguins' struggles, but the biggest reason is an offensive breakdown.

The Penguins' star power was luminous through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Pascal Dupuis, James Neal and Chris Kunitz appeared unstoppable. But that group has hit the wall hard.

Through three games, the Penguins have two goals. Crosby doesn't have a point, and neither does Malkin. That's why the Bruins have a shocking 3-0 series lead

After back-to-back disasters in the first two games at home, the Penguins showed a much more focused effort in Game 3. Defensively, they stopped the Bruins from marauding into the zone and getting open looks throughout the game.

That was huge for the Pittsburgh, but they were unable to cash in on their own opportunities.

A few minutes before Patrice Bergeron cashed the winner for the Bruins on an artful deflection through the legs of Brooks Orpik, Crosby came through with a burst of energy in the offensive zone.

That brought the Penguins several chances in succession. Crosby got his helmet knocked off, but continued to drive the net and create opportunities for himself and his teammates.

But other than Kunitz's quick snapper that found the back of the net in the second period, the Penguins could not solve Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask.

Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma said his team did exactly what it wanted to do in the third game, except score goals.

"That was a hard-fought game, it was hard-fought all over the ice," Bylsma told the media after the game.  "We threw a lot at them in regulation, we threw 50-plus shots. We played exactly how we wanted to play. We just couldn't find the second goal."

The Penguins fired 54 shots at Rask, who was up to the task yet again, using his 6'3" frame to take away much of the shooting area.

That's nothing new. He blanked the Pens in Game 1, held them to one harmless goal in Game 2 and stoned them again in Game 3.

"We had a lot of good looks, and definitely threw a lot of pucks there," Neal told Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "We just couldn't quite finish."

"We definitely had the in-zone pressure that we wanted, that we hadn't had in the last two games."

Many of those good looks came on the power play. Once again, the Penguins were unable to convert with the man advantage. They failed in all six power plays in Game 3 and are 0-for-12 in the series.

Going into this series, they were connecting on 28.2 percent of their man-advantage opportunities. That figure has slipped to 22.4 percent.

The failed power-play opportunities are a big part of the reason why their goal-scoring average is plummeting. They were averaging 4.27 goals per game at the start of the series; that figure is down to 3.50 after three games with the Bruins.

Malkin may have been the most frustrated shooter of all. He has fired 20 shots at the Bruins goal in three games, but cannot get past Rask.

His best opportunity came late in the second period when he took the puck away from Dennis Seidenberg and came in alone on Rask, but he could not give the Penguins the lead.

Crosby also had a chance in the third period when he appeared to have Rask beat, but the puck skittered off the outside of the post.

Playing harder and showing improvement is one thing, but it's the little things that often result in scoring goals.

Those little things have been easy for the Penguins all year long. That hasn't been the case in this series with the Bruins challenging every possession and making Pittsburgh pay the price with every trip to the net.

The Penguins' supreme confidence has never been an issue, but suddenly, it's a big problem in this series.

Zdeno Chara and Bergeron are making sure that Crosby is not having any easy moments. It's not the first time he has been targeted, but he is now being held in check by the Boston defense. 

Pittsburgh is a team that has depended on its league-best offense this season, but that unit has been contained by a big, mobile and smart defense.

The Bruins certainly can play the nasty game, but that hasn't been the key for them in this series. Instead, they have relied on strategy and a brilliant goalie to outsmart a superior skating team. The Penguins are a group of pinpoint passers under most circumstances, but Boston has wisely disrupted their passing lanes with some nice stick work, effectively neutralizing their offensive output. 

The Penguins' season is almost over. That's what happens when you score two goals in three games.