March to the Playoffs: Coaching Staff must find the right fit for Evgeni Malkin

The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to a 0-2 start on their five game road trip after losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils.

The Devils dominance against the Penguins continued Friday night as Martin Brodeur made 34 saves and Ilya Kovalchuk added a goal and two assists in New Jersey's 3-1 win.

The Devils improved to 5-0 against Pittsburgh this season and are now two points behind the Penguins in the Atlantic Division with two games in hand.

The Devils have dominated Pittsburgh in all areas. A few stats that jump out is that New Jersey has outscored Pittsburgh 17-3 and Pittsburgh is 0-for-18 on the power play in five games against the Devils. Pittsburgh was 0-for-5 on the power play Friday night.

Pittsburgh's top players have also not played well against New Jersey. Sergei Gonchar is a minus-6 in three games and Evgeni Malkin is pointless in four games.

With two straight losses, head coach Dan Bylsma will continue to look to find the right lineup to matchup against New Jersey in the wake of Pittsburgh's return to New Jersey next Wednesday.

The opportunity is now there for Tyler Kennedy to get back into the lineup. Bylsma made a line change on Sidney Crosby's line to open up the game against New Jersey, putting Bill Guerin on the third line and will likely eye more changes, possibly on the second line.

After a strong start following the Olympic break, Ruslan Fedotenko is pointless in his last four games along with a plus/minus rating of minus-4. Fedotenko who has a team worst minus-18 rating, continues to be plagued by inconsistent play.

In a battle for a division title, how much longer can the Penguins wait for Fedotenko to resemble the player he was last year in the playoffs?