Kovacevic: Remember all that center depth?

Missing Sidney Crosby and Derick Brassard is one thing.

But missing two more centers?

Look, there was a lot to dislike, plus a little to actually like from the Penguins' latest loss, 4-3 to the Lightning, on this Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. The penalty-killing was putrid, the power play was on point, the five-on-five play was improved if not inspired, the goaltending was ... eh, let's swing back to that later.

It wasn't bad. It might even have been mild progress within the muddied context of a team that's now lost seven of eight.

As Kris Letang worded it ...

Still, this stuck out most prominently for me: Whatever happened to Riley Sheahan and Matt Cullen?

You know, all that expected center depth.

Because I'll be damned if there wasn't a more striking sight through all 60 minutes of this than Derek Grant being sent over the boards, shift after shift in the third period with a one-goal deficit -- skating as if stuck in cryogenic molasses -- and this after being promoted in-game to the second line between Phil Kessel and Jake Guentzel.

That, my friends, is scary stuff. Not for this one outcome, but for what it might mean moving forward even when Crosby, Brassard and Evgeni Malkin are all available.

Sheahan began this game on that second line, but that barely survived a period. Mike Sullivan took him off the PK after the Lightning scored, uh, three power-play goals in 91 seconds, all by Brayden Point., all with Sheahan on the rink. That was probably because Sheahan had been doing too much flamingo -- you know, one leg in the air -- rather than attempting to block shots, but also possibly because he'd done nothing to disrupt rushes up ice or zone entries, which usually are his strength.

In the third period, Sheahan took five shifts, skated harder and achieved nothing.

For the season, he's achieved next to nothing. A goal, an assist and a minus-9 rating in 17 games.

In Cullen's previous incarnation with the Penguins, he was the go-to substitute when Crosby and/or Malkin would go down. He's 42 now, so it's understandable he'd be out of that mix now.

But in the third period, while Grant was out there wasting everyone's time, Cullen took four shifts.

For the season, he, too, has achieved next to nothing. A goal, two assists and a minus-4 rating.

And most glaringly on this night, he took a terribly ill-advised slashing penalty in the first period, while the Penguins were already down two men, leading to that Lightning three-goal rally.

"We put ourselves in a tough spot, and obviously I'm as guilty as anyone here," Cullen said. "We just can't afford to go down five-on-three for an extended period of time."

Not going to mince words here: Both Sheahan and Cullen have been massive disappointments. And since the Penguins absolutely must depend on both not only for center depth but also for PK, now more than ever in Carl Hagelin's absence ... yeah, scary.

Remember Jim Rutherford telling me over the summer that Teddy Blueger was "capable of being a fourth-line center right now?"

Here's betting Blueger does. He's no overarching solution, obviously, but there might not be a better time than now -- with Crosby and Brassard both hurt and with the Penguins needing any kind of nudge -- to have a look. He's not exactly burning Wilkes-Barre to the ground, but he's got five goals and five assists in 15 AHL games, he kills penalties, his skating is miles better than it once was, and he's capable of creating offense in tight quarters, a commodity this team can use.

This was a goal two weeks ago in Hershey:

I'll repeat: This isn't to trumpet a 24-year-old minor-leaguer as some panacea. Rather, it's to point out that there's a very real chance he'd fare better than what's here. And the timing would be golden.

In the interim, it's imperative that management and the coaching staff think long and hard about what they've got in Sheahan, Cullen, among a litany of others in this ominously unproductive supporting cast of forwards. Because it isn't just those two. Bryan Rust's got one goal, none since the blowout in Calgary. Jake Guentzel's got six goals, but one in the past nine games. Zach Aston-Reese has zero points and two total shots in the four games since his recall.

To be clear, examining all of the above doesn't require the threatened major moves that Rutherford's been intimating, nor any further shakeup. As this game illustrated, the stars care. And as I wrote in the Thursday column, cooler heads will only help now, particularly in public.

But these moves would be ... man, more minor than anyone would have wanted.

• Daniel Sprong?

Hey, I know there's low-hanging fruit to be had with this subject, and I can advocate all day that Sprong should be playing over some of what's currently out there. That's easy.

But here's the underlying truth: Sullivan and this staff don't trust him, Rutherford's aggressively trying to trade him, and that's where the conversation begins and ends. Because no one risks injury to a player they're aggressively trying to trade. Not in any sport that's heavy on physical contact.

When Sullivan was asked after this game why he didn't put Sprong in his lineup, the reply was swift and pointed: "Because we felt the 12 forwards in the lineup tonight gave us the best chance to win."

That's how he feels, and that's done.

Debate the trade when it happens. Debate the scope of the chance Sprong was given. All that's fair. But debating this scratch is silly. They can't trade him if he's hurt.

• Young players, all except for the elite talents, start out with limited opportunities. They've got to make the most of those opportunities to earn more.

Aston-Reese deftly carved out his own breakaway in the third period, sized up Louis Domingue and ...

... and what exactly was that?

A shot into the right leg pad?

No elevation, no intent for the five-hole, no deke, no real purpose to any aspect of the shot. Even if a potential tie hadn't been on his blade there, that's not what anyone would hope to see from a kid whose future in the NHL will be built on scoring goals. Goaltenders will make saves, but they can't have saves handed to them on that caliber of a chance.

• While on the topic -- and just to further underscore I'm not picking on Sheahan/Cullen -- Guentzel's ongoing slump isn't confined to a lack of goals.

He also isn't getting his feet moving, as seen on this virtual-standstill breakout:

Nor is he battling for 50/50 pucks:

Both of those came in the critical third period. The latter really leaps out, as Guentzel allowed Tampa Bay defenseman Dan Girardi to gain body position on a puck coming behind the Lightning net, then didn't bother to shoulder him off, lift his stick ... or anything. Not a solitary bead of sweat was invested back there.

It's not good enough. Not for Guentzel, and not for way too many of his fellow forwards.

• Matt Murray wasn't good enough, either. The goaltender has to be a team's best penalty-killer, and the Penguins didn't kill one until Tampa Bay's fourth power play, and that one, not coincidentally, didn't concede a single shot by the Lightning.

All three of Point's goals were devastating. Precise, authoritative shots. But Yanni Gourde's unscreened goal from atop the right circle, the one that proved the winner, had no business beating him cleanly, if only because his heels stayed so deep in his crease:

"I think I slipped a little bit, and he put it in a pretty good spot, post and in," Murray explained. "Gotta have that."

That was the fourth goal on a dozen shots, and we've seen far too many of those fractions from him.

• "We were the better team five-on-five, and we've got to build off that," Murray would say later, and that was the prevailing sentiment in the room, expressed by so many players that I'm sure it originated with Sullivan.

"Five-on-five, we were the much better team," Patric Horqnvist said.

"Five-on-five, we got the result we wanted," Letang said. "We just gave them too many opportunities on the power play. That's it."

I'm inclined to agree. Shots at even-strength were 21-17, and the Penguins had 51.43 percent of the possession. But that and five cents will buy them a nickel in the standings.

• The officiating was awful. In both directions, too, as is almost always the case when officiating is awful.

Furman South's a fun story, hailing from Robert Morris and rising into the NHL ranks this winter. So's Garrett Rank, the ref who's such a good golfer that he qualified for the U.S. Open this past summer. But both of them were awful, raising their arms for events that weren't penalties, leaving them down for events that were.

The Penguins with whom I spoke were particularly livid about three in the first period.

Letang was crosschecked in the neck -- he's super-sensitive to that, given his surgery -- by Ryan Callahan during a power play, but it wasn't until Letang crashed into Callahan with his stick high that an arm went up for coincidentals.

"I can't explain that," Letang said. "I took a cross-check in the neck, and I end up in the box, too. It's tough to understand."

They also hated both calls at 19:37 of the first that put the Penguins down two men, the first a slash on Kessel, the other a trip on Malkin while the delayed penalty was in effect. "Phil didn't do anything to that guy," one veteran told me, and Malkin was, according to Letang, "playing the puck when his stick got caught in the skate blade." This is true. Malkin's stick was lodged into Steven Stamkos' skate, and Stamkos fell as he tried to move away.

There were more examples. You get it.

• If it felt like Hornqvist was by far the best player on his side, there's a reason for it beyond his two goals, his assist and all the other fire he brought: He also had a mindblowing Corsi For rating of 75 percent, meaning he was on the ice for 24 of the Penguins' shots, eight of the Lightning's shots.

Just in case anyone worried he might pout over the trading of his best friend.

"When things don't go your way," Hornqvist said, referring to the Penguins' recent struggles, "you just have to bear down and work harder."

No one works harder than this guy.

• Tanner Pearson was OK. It shows that he's still skilled, but it also shows that he's got some residual damage to do, most of it related to confidence.

• Oh, the flashbacks were flowing with those all-gold alternate sweaters, twinned with Mario Lemieux out on the ice for the ceremonial faceoff commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Lemieux Foundation. Not that I'm some fashion wiz, but it would have been all the nicer if the sweaters were the authentic model with the gold dipping down the shoulders. Always go throwback, not faux-back.

• Mario and Nathalie Lemieux created the Foundation in 1993 after Mario's victory over Hodgkin's disease, and it's since donated $25 million toward cancer research -- including $5 million in the past week toward immunotherapy studies -- and the 36 Austin's Playroom areas in hospitals. There aren't enough superlatives for the work of Mario, Nathalie, and foundation execs Tom Grealish and Nancy Angus over the past quarter-century. Lives well lived.

Here's where to donate.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY