The suddenly troubled Pittsburgh Penguins could well be short as many as three forwards when they take to the ice on Wednesday for Game Four of their first round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Philadelphia Flyers which they are trailing three-games-to-none.

Per a formal announcement by the NHL this morning, Arron Asham has been offered an in-person hearing Tuesday morning with the Department of Player Safety for his match penalty for cross-checking Brayden Schenn at 14:15 of the first period. Forty goal scorer James Neal is already scheduled to have a pair of hearings on Tuesday for two separate incidents in the game as well: his hit against Sean Couturier in the third period, and the charging penalty he received for a hit on Claude Giroux later in the period.

In addition Craig Adams has already been automatically suspended for one game under Rule 46.22 for being assessed an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the game (at 15:18 of the third period) which also subjected Pens coach Dan Bylsma to a $10,000 fine.

I must admit that the incredible lack of discipline on the part of the Pens -- especially in yesterday's Game 3 -- has been a huge surprise to me. I'm not sure I've seen anything quite like this total collapse in discipline and focus of a great team in just three games in over forty years and 3,000+ games of working in pro hockey. And the players on the Pens that should "know better" the most have also been among the worst offenders. Sidney Crosby's petulant comments after the game were more than a bit odd, especially coming from a team captain! Quite a puzzlement to be sure.

I am not (and never have been) for removing spontaneous fighting (or hitting) from hockey. ("Staged" fights are another matter, however.) It has always been a part of our game -- and a necessary one -- as a safety valve to prevent far worse in the ultimate of "contact" sports. What was engaged in yesterday, however, was head hunting, a lack of respect for the players on one team by those on another, and an apparent denial of any sense on the part of the perpetrators thereof of being accountable for that. What the Pens' captain and his teammates should "hate" is not the players on the opposing team, but their own losing to those players, particularly in the way they did so. Responding to their loss of discipline and focus on that objective with petulance, headhunting, self pity, hubris, disrespect, and/or ignoring the "code" were the Pens' true failings yesterday.

As I was on Sunday, I'll be taking in Game 4 on Wednesday sitting next to my decades long friend and colleague, Mike "Doc" Emrick, in the NBC broadcast booth as the Flyers go for a four game sweep of the Pens. As Doc quoted 1974 and 75 Flyer Stanley Cup coach Fred Shero yesterday, "Hockey is a child's game played by men." Unfortunately too many of those men reverted to childish antics yesterday. However Wednesday's game ends up, I hope that the Pens on the ice will at least do something to help them regain a little of the dignity, honor, and well earned good name of their distinguished franchise (which is managed by two of the classiest people in the game, Hall of Famer Mario Lemiex and Fred Shero's son, Ray, as GM) that far too many of those players so callously threw away yesterday.