PITTSBURGH -- The were 4-1 losers to their cro s-state rivals from Philadelphia on Wednesday night and continued their late season slump that has seen them win just four times in their past 11 games.When it comes to the play on the ice, things probably , especially given their recent string of injuries that has taken , , and out of the lineup at different times -- and in some cases, at the same time -- over the past couple of weeks. They're , especially when it comes to Malkin (in their past seven games without him in the lineup, is the only player on the roster that has more than two points in those games -- he has eight).But if there is a reason to be especially critical of the Penguins Bryce Huff Jersey right now, it's not nece sarily due to the play on the ice.One of their i sues, which isn't getting anywhere near enough attention, has been the fact they have had to play the past two games -- Sunday's shootout win over San Jose and Wednesday's lo s to the -- with only defensemen in the lineup. On Wednesday, they did not even have a full roster of players at their disposal, something that they have had to do twodifferent times over the past week with the playoffs just around the corner. It is entirely due to salary cap restraints, and it is completely absurd.Part of it is bad luck.Nobody ever plans to be without three of their top-four defensemen Wayne Chrebet Jersey (which the Penguins currently are) or a couple of their forwards -- including one of the best offensive players in the world -- all at the same time. But injuries happen. Over an 82-game season you're going to run into some weird situations that you have to work through. Sometimes you can't avoid that.What you can avoid, though, is putting yourself into a situation where you literally can not call up a single player on a league minimum contract to fill out an entire roster because you haven't given yourself enough salary cap space to work with. When that happens during the home stretch of the regular season with the playoffs just around the corner, making your remaining healthy defensemen take on an increased workload, it just puts the situation under an even brighter spotlight.Especially when three of the defensemen that have to take on those extra minutes are over the age of Just take a look at the minutes the Penguins defense has had to play in their past two games compared to their regular season averages.Penguins DefensemenPlayerAgeAvg TOI SeasonTOI vs. SJTOI vs. PHI3618:5125:3625:473422:3327:2520:243018:5427:4427:022615:2325:0523:522117:3918:2120:12It's never a good situation when 36-year-old Rob Scuderi has to play 25 minutes in back-to-back games, and Ben Lovejoy has to play 27 minutes in back-to-back games.When it comes to how the Penguins put themselves in this position it is a shared responsibility. With Crosby and Malkin in their late 20s the Penguins are in a win-now mode -- and should be -- and are going to do what they can to put a winning team on the ice around their two superstars. They are going to be a team that spends to the cap, which makes finding cheap, productive players all the more important. Former general manager Ray Shero didn't exactly leave a stocked cupboard of young, cheap talent ready to break into the NHL that could fill complementary roles, and he left more than one bad contract behind.But Rutherford hasn't really done anything to remedy the salary cap situation, and that's a problem.When it comes to the Penguins' cap all of the focus immediately goes to how much they are paying their top players lke Crosby, Malkin and Kris Letang. But those guys are not the i sue. They are getting more than their money's worth out of all of them them, Jermaine Johnson II Jersey and you could probably make the argument that they might actually be underpaid for the production they are getting out of them. The i sue is when you start looking at the bottom of the roster where they are overpaying guys like ($2.2 million), ($3 million) and Rob Scuderi ($3 million) to play at third-and fourth-line levels (and in the case of Scuderi, like a seventhd defensemen). That is more than $8 million in cap space, and even if you argue that Spaling and Sutter are useful players but just a little bit overpaid ... well, even a little bit of an overpay makes a big difference .This is where it becomes a shared responsibiilty between the new GM and the former GM.Shero left more than one bad contract behind (Scuderi; 's deal isn't going to look very good in the coming years, either), but Rutherford hasn't done anything to fix it. He has overturned more than half of the Penguins' roster since taking over the team back in June, and when you look at the moves individually, they for the most part look pretty good. Ehrhoff, and were all excellent free agent additions. Patric Hornqvist and David Perron are legitimate top-six wingers.But that salary cap situation. It's only getting worse worse. To the point that not only did they have to recently keep Pouliot in the minors due to his salary cap, but can't even put six healthy defensemen on the ice. How does a team with a GM that has been around the game as long as Jim Rutherford has been -- and during the entire salary cap era -- not give itself any wiggle room to allow for callups in case there is a run of injuries? Especially with this team where injuries seem to be a constant.Mike Johnston insisted that the i sue during Wednesday's lo s was more on the forwards than the undermanned defense, but that is a hard sell to make. The forwards weren't good, but the defense is in an impo sible situation right now. Playing that many minutes, John Franklin-Myers Jersey this late in the season (especially for the guys on the plus-side of 30) can't po Keelan Cole Jersey sibly be a good thing, especially when they have already been trying to limit the minutes of Martin, currently the only defenseman still in the lineup that started the season in their top-four. Not only can it wear them down physically, but it can also change the way they play."It takes away from us jumping up in the play, I think," Pouliot said before Wednesday's game when asked about the impact of having only five defensemen in the lineup. "That's a big part of our team, helping create that extra layer of attack. You might have to watch that a little bit and tone down your offensive changes and manage the game a little better."That is a major change, because defenseman joining the rush is a major part of Johnston's system, and if they can't do it because they have to manage their minutes because they're playing shorthanded, how can it be an i sue? Because the Penguins played Wednesday's game without a full roster ( against the Flyers) they can at least make an emergency callup before their game on Saturday against Columbus to at least put a sixth defensemen on the ice.This isn't something that is going to keep them out of the playoffs, and once the playoffs start and the salary cap goes away they can bring up all the defensemen they want in case of injury.But the fact it got to thi