Pittsburgh Penguins' Hopes Hinge on Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby

In the not too distant past, the NHL was dominated by three players.

Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, and Wayne Gretzky combined to win the scoring title an astounding 20 seasons in a row, from 1981 to 2001.

Stunning as that was, two of those players played for the same team—the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Fast forward to 2007. Once again, the league is dominated by three players.

This time, it's Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin. Once again, two of those players play for the same team. That team?

The Pittsburgh Penguins.

Astounding as all this is, if you took a look at the current point leaders, you'd see that Crosby is chasing teammate Malkin for the scoring lead, with a nine point lead over Ovechkin as of Dec. 16.

Yet, Washington as a team remains five points ahead of the Penguins in the standings. Why is this?

To be fair, Ovechkin can carry a team. He did it for most of last season, dragging his team into the playoffs on the last day of the season before the Caps bowed out in the seventh game to the Flyers. This Caps team, however, has outstanding secondary scoring, especially from Alex Semin and Nicklas Backstrom. 

The Penguins, meanwhile, have a pieced together array of underachieving forwards.

Petr Sykora's hat trick in the 9-2 drubbing of the Islanders last week is the first sign of him making any strides to be as explosive as he has been in the past. Miroslav Satan had the team lead in goals to start the season but was recently passed by (who else?) Crosby and Malkin.

The consistency has not been there this year for the Penguins. And this is definitely cause for concern.

Look at two of their recent games. In a matchup versus Ottawa on the Dec. 6, Crosby and Malkin both got points on a Staal goal, and Malkin added a shorthanded goal. But who else scored? No one. As a result, the Senators won, 3-2. In another game vs. Buffalo on the 8th, Malkin had two assists and Crosby another...equaling three goals.

Buffalo won 4-3.

The Penguins were expected to fall this year with the departure of Hossa, Malone, Ruutu and others, although the fall appeared destined to be steeper as Gonchar and Whitney were both sidelined. However, until recently, the Penguins have kept pace with the Rangers for the division lead. That is, until last Saturday's game against the Flyers.

When the Penguins leading scorers could only muster 1 point (Malkin's assist on an Eric Godard goal), Pittsburgh couldn't even compete with the Flyers and dropped to 3rd in the division. The injuries could be the reason behind this recent 4-5-1 stretch, with the bodies simply piling up all over the place.

But it seems as though it's something more than that.

If more players on the Penguins don't start chipping in more often, the Penguins may drop right out of the playoff picture. Granted, Whitney is on his way back.

However, imagine where this team would be without Crosby? Or Malkin?

Or both?