Pittsburgh media rips the team's top stars.

Pittsburgh media with some brutal criticism of the Pens top players.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 7 years ago
Pittsburgh media rips the team's top stars.
Keystone Press.

One member of the Pittsburgh Penguins media had some harsh words for the team's top stars after a tough loss in Game 5, a loss that leaves the Penguins on the brink of elimination.

Rob Rossi of the Pittsburgh Tribune review absolutely ripped into Sidney CrosbyMarc-Andre Fleury, and Kris Letang after what he called a disappointing performance both on and off the ice in Game 5.

It didn't look good inside the Penguins dressing room afterward, either.

As reporters flocked to the stall of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, his fellow members of the Penguins' so-called Big Four (Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang) were nowhere to be found.

Not for answers.

Not to protect their goalie.

Failing to show strength in a moment demonstrated their shameful lack of accountability and made it feel like a crisis.

While Rossi was critical of Malkin, he was more forgiving of his Game 5 performance than some of his previous work in the post-season, but he went in hard on both Crosby and Letang.

As for Game 5, a lot of Penguins spent too much of it looking lost. Atop that list are Crosby and Letang.

The Penguins' top line, anchored by Crosby, couldn't have come up smaller in a bigger moment. 

And what in the name of Bobby Orr was Letang doing most of Sunday night?

With fellow defenseman Trevor Daley out because of a broken ankle, Letang needed to match his MVP-level that he was providing most of these playoffs. He fell far below that high bar.

Much like in the case of Malkin, Rossi was willing to give Fleury some leeway for his performance in Game 5 considering his long layoff, but that leeway wasn't enough to spare Fleury from Rossi's criticism.

Fleury deserves to be cut some slack only because he hadn't played a full game since March 31. Still, the Penguins' franchise goalie needed to make a couple more saves than he did once Sullivan turned Fleury's team back over to him.

Rossi believes the Penguins are in the midst of another post-season collapse, one that will seem all too familiar to fans of the franchise who have seen the team fall short in the playoffs for 7 straight season. While as mentioned above he did give a nod to Malkin's performance in Game 5, he believes like the other team's top stars, he hung Fleury out to dry.

Malkin, who centered the Penguins' most effective line in Game 5, could have offered a few words for his guys.

But he, as did Crosby and Letang, fled the scene.

Maybe it looked too familiar.

It does from this view.

It's a brutal account of how many may be perceiving the franchise, and it's made even more damning when you consider the source is a Penguins beat writer.

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