Dustin Penner doesn’t look happy these days and his game hasn’t given him anything to smile about. It’s something that didn’t go unnoticed by his head coach Pat Quinn after Edmonton’s 4-2 loss on Tuesday to Chicago.
“He just played with a listlessness. It’s how he’s played the last two weeks,” said Quinn after Penner’s one shot, no point performance.
“I think there’s some validity in that,” said Penner on Wednesday. “I just don’t have much and I don’t feel 100 percent.” The Oilers leading scorer (21-22-43) can be excused for his recent lack of production which has coincided with Edmonton’s losing. The Oilers have one win in their last 19 games, and in his last 15 contests Penner has two goals and three assists.
“It’s about the last 10 or so games I haven’t liked,” explained Penner. “It’s been that long that I haven’t been happy with what’s going on.”
Penner’s problem is one that he accidentally caused by having such a good start to the season. As a result, expectations of him went up just like his point totals. “He’s been one of our best players and he wants to be a good player but he’s just going through a dry spell right now,” said Quinn.
It doesn’t help that Penner lost his right wing man in Ales Hemsky. Since the loss in bodies and games, Penner just hasn’t found that magic which had him sitting with 38 points in the first 36 games of the season and had him catch the eye of those building Canada’s Men’s Olympic hockey team.
“It would be nice to keep up the pace I had earlier this season, but right now I have to get through this mentally and physically so I can try and get back to where I was,” said Penner. An Oiler coach criticizing Penner isn’t exactly something new after the lack of relationship he had with Craig MacTavish.
Only this time it’s different because Quinn doesn’t want to break him down before helping build him back up. “It’s up to us to help him through this. He looks a little tired right now but he cares a lot about this team. I might be critical of him but I don’t want to be negative.”
Despite his recent lack of production Penner still is only nine goals off of setting a career high in that department and five off a career high in points with 31 games to go.