Evgeni Malkin Frustrated With Penguins Teammates

The Pittsburgh Penguins are struggling and more specifically on the man advantage. For a team littered with high-power offense, it just hasn't been the case this season as their power-play struggles have continued past the quarter mark of the season.

The Penguins lost on Wednesday night 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and once again went 0-4 on the man advantage. They also had a two-man advantage for some of their power-play time and yet couldn't sneak one in.

Frustration is boiling over and now Pens legend Evgeni Malkin has seen enough. He spoke with reporters after the game and was quite candid with his feelings:

You see Tampa score, like, every game, and they feel confidence. When you lead the game, when you control the game 2-0, 3-0, you feel so much better. Of course, if we score a couple power-play goals, everybody feels better. You have three, four, five power plays every night, and you see we try on the power play, and we don't feel good. We lost the puck on the blue line, they had a two-on-one, breakaway, because we don’t have confidence and we're nervous. It's how it affects us.

How bad is the Penguins power play? Surprisingly they rank 31st in the entire NHL, only converting on 9.9% of chances. Last season they finished middle of the pack, at 21.7% and have seen a huge dip in production, even with the additions of Erik Karlsson and Reilly Smith.

Pittsburgh has only won three of their past 10 games and sit seventh in the Metro Division with 25 points. They have to get on track here soon or else Kyle Dubas will need to decide which direction he'll lead his team into the trade deadline in March.

Photo credit:  James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports