The Montreal Canadiens were ahead 1-0 in the second period Monday night when Penguins forward Aleksey Morozov caught a pass from Konstantin Koltsov in front of the net.
The only thing between him and the tying goal was Jose Theodore. Morozov held onto the puck for a moment instead of shooting right away, Theodore went down and when Morozov did finally release the puck, it went wide of the net. After the whistle, Morozov stood for a moment with his head down in front of the Penguins' bench, then knocked his stick against the boards in frustration before sitting down.
The Canadiens scored next and went on to win, 4-1, while Morozov's goal-scoring drought reached 17 games.
"I don't want to talk about it. It was 100 percent scoring chance, and I didn't put it in again," a downcast Morozov said after the game. "It's good to have chances, but you have to use your chances and right now, whatever I do, the puck just doesn't go in. I don't know what to do to score a goal."
Morozov hasn't scored since netting the game winner in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 14. He has five goals and 11 assists in 31 games, tied for fifth on the team in goals, and he was scratched once, Nov. 29 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Two goals and five assists have come on the power play.
Suffice to say, this isn't the year the 26-year-old was hoping to have after missing two-thirds of last season with a broken wrist.
"I'm trying to play within the system, I do whatever the coaches say," he said. "I bring everything that I can do for the team, but I have to score some goals, and right now, I have a tough time to score."
Morozov has gone through some bad stretches before in his career, although he says never when he was averaging so much ice time, playing on scoring lines and seeing considerable time on the power play.
His role on the team has also become more important this year. After spending much of his first six seasons in the background, compared to players like Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka and Robert Lang, Morozov is a veteran on a team filled with so many younger players.
Rather than dwell on his offensive shortcomings, however, coach Eddie Olczyk praised Morozov's defensive play after Monday night's game.
"He needs to score, but you know what⢠He's been playing hard," Olczyk said. "He's getting his chances, so eventually (goals) are going to come and one day he's going to get two or three of them. That's what's going to happen. I believe that, and he needs to believe that, more than I do. He needs to believe it."
Olczyk said he thought Morozov still had confidence, "no question about it." But Morozov told a different side of the story.
"It's tough," he said. "When you have times like this, you just (have) no confidence."
The Penguins had Tuesday off, and will remain off until Friday, when they travel to Ottawa to take on the Senators. The timing suits Morozov just fine.
"I hope three days helps, take a rest," said Morozov, who is in the last year of his contract and making $1.5 million. "The next game we play, I'll try to forget all these games and concentrate on the new ones. Just try to forget this."
