Sometime today, the state Gaming Control Board will hand down a decision that could have a profound impact on the future of NHL hockey in this city.

Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Winger Evgeni Malkin gets pushed to the ice in the third period. He scored the Penguins only goal in that period on a feed from Sidney Crosby. Click photo for larger image. More hockey Penguins Notebook: Players low key about slots NHL Roundup: Early Lightning strikes bury Capitals, 5-4

Of course, if anyone from the board was paying attention last night, they might be wondering if there is an NHL team here to begin with.

Get past the ticket prices and the standing-room crowd of 17,017, and very little about the Penguins' 4-1 loss to St. Louis -- a team that had won two of its previous 16 games, and none of the previous 11 -- at Mellon Arena smacked of a major-league event.

The Penguins, who lost their second consecutive game to drop to 15-13-5, turned in an evening of hockey that probably did more to scare off prospective buyers than anything elected officials could include in Plan B, if it turns out one is needed to finance an arena.

"It's unacceptable, as far as I'm concerned," coach Michel Therrien said. "To come out and have a performance like this ... I'm really disappointed about a lot of guys."

It's not that most of his players didn't do anything well; just that all the things at which they were most proficient -- turning the puck over, losing one-on-one battles, passing up quality shots, etc. -- don't translate into points. Except for the other team.

"We just didn't have any intensity, or that will we had when we were winning," right winger Colby Armstrong said.

The Blues began the evening tied with Philadelphia for last place in the overall standings and with the fourth-worst goals-against average (3.37) in the league.

And while Therrien made a point of labeling them "a good team" -- apparently, he doesn't put undue emphasis on their 8-19-6 record -- the reality is that last night was the second time this season they have limited an opponent to one goal.

"We played three solid periods," said St. Louis coach Andy Murray, who earned his first victory in five games (1-2-2) since succeeding Mike Kitchen.

About the only consolation for the Penguins was that Sidney Crosby picked up an assist -- his 100th in the NHL -- to extend his scoring streak to nine games, one shy of his personal-best, but even he had a miserable night.

"I made two big mistakes that cost goals," Crosby said.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped just nine of 13 shots before being removed from the game, didn't fare any better. It was Fleury's second consecutive sub-par performance, as he allowed five goals on 32 shots during the Penguins' 6-3 loss in Montreal Saturday.

"He has to be better," Therrien said. "There's no doubt."

So do most of his teammates.

Consider how, even though the Blues entered the game in an 0-8-3 slump, they generated the first six shots of the game. And how they buried two of those behind Fleury.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead 44 seconds into the game when Doug Weight converted a Radek Dvorak feed, and Dan Hinote put the Blues up by two by scoring from along the goal line at 5:38.

"We were behind the 8-ball, right from the start," Therrien said. "They were not two quality scoring chances, but the puck was in the net."

After the Blues put up their six shots, the Penguins countered with nine in a row -- four during a double-minor Blues winger Jamal Mayers got for high-sticking Alain Nasreddine, who missed the rest of the game with facial injuries -- but St. Louis goalie Manny Legace turned them all aside.

Jason Bacashihua (gesundheit) replaced Legace at the start of the second -- Legace's problem was flu-like symptoms, not an allergic reaction to actually playing with a lead -- but that was the only thing that changed through the early part of the period.

At least until 6:01, when Therrien yanked Fleury and put in Jocelyn Thibault after Ryan Johnson made it 3-0 with a short-handed goal, beating Fleury on the short side after outfighting Crosby for a puck.

The Penguins got their only goal when Evgeni Malkin got a pass from Crosby and scored on a power play at 4:06 of the third, but Bill Guerin restored the Blues' three-goal advantage 87 seconds later. The Penguins subsequently failed to manufacture another goal -- or to find the urgency they lacked throughout the game.

"We just didn't have the jump, didn't have the fire we had before," Armstrong said. "And there's no explanation for that."