A year ago at this time, Colby Armstrong was playing right wing on the Penguins' No. 1 line, and the only question about him seemed to be precisely how many goals he could score with Sidney Crosby feeding him pucks.

Turns out the answer was zero.

Armstrong didn't get his first goal until the 23rd game, weeks after he had been assigned to other duty.

And while no one is going to confuse Armstrong with Hall of Fame snipers such as Mike Bossy and Guy Lafleur, he understands that anyone who draws Crosby as a linemate is counted on to knock in an occasional goal.

Armstrong also figures that, while it isn't clear what triggered the most exasperating dry spell of his career, he's pretty sure what was responsible for it lasting so long.

"My own head," he said. "I beat myself up pretty hard over it, dug myself a deeper hole than I probably was in. It's something that happened, but I'll learn from it.

"If [a slump] happens again, next time I'll deal with it a little better. You learn from the things you go through."

The next time Armstrong slumps, it isn't likely to draw as much attention as his drought last autumn did, because he's filling a different niche these days. He has spent most of training camp working with Ryan Malone and Jordan Staal on what could be good No. 3 line.

"The idea of our line is to be a big force down low in other teams' ends, work the puck and work their [defense] and, obviously, get scoring chances," Armstrong said.

"You look at the three of us, I think we're pretty reliable defensively. Keep it simple, and I think our line should be fairly successful."

With Petr Sykora (nose) and Gary Roberts (illness) unavailable last night, coach Michel Therrien reconfigured his forward units for the Penguins' 6-5 loss to Buffalo at Mellon Arena, and Armstrong ended up with Jarkko Ruutu and Max Talbot.

Derek Roy of the Sabres got the game-winner with 28 seconds left in regulation when he beat Penguins goalie Dany Sabourin from the top of the right circle for his second goal of the evening.

While his job description has been modified a bit -- steady goal production isn't as important for someone on the third line as it is for a guy on the top unit, for example -- Armstrong says that his approach to his work doesn't change, regardless of where he's plugged in.

"The way I play has to be the same all the time, game in and game out, no matter who I'm playing with," he said.

Even though Armstrong's goal output last season -- 12 in 80 games, after he rang up 16 in 47 the previous season -- was a major disappointment, he still managed to turn up on the national highlights shows occasionally.

Usually not for anything he did with the puck, but for what he did to opposing players who had, or had just unloaded, it. He laid out at least four opposing forwards -- Trevor Letowski (Carolina), Jeff Carter (Philadelphia), Saku Koivu (Montreal) and Patrick Eaves (Ottawa) who had the misfortune of not realizing they had strayed into his cross-hairs.

While there isn't necessarily much malice in Armstrong's checks, based on the way he invariably phones players he has injured to check on their recoveries, there generally is enough force to rearrange the recipient's DNA.

And while he has been criticized for some of those hits, especially when his target's head absorbs much of the contact, Armstrong is adamant that he won't remove the big hit from his repertoire.

"You can't shy away," he said. "You can't make it easy on anyone out there."

And sometimes, as he showed last fall, Armstrong can't even take it easy on himself.

NOTES -- Crosby (two), Staal, Malone and Erik Christensen scored for the Penguins, who are 1-2-2 in exhibition play, while Thomas Vanek, Brian Campbell, Henrik Tallinder and Marek Zagrapan got the other Buffalo goals. ... The Penguins will close out the preseason with a game against Buffalo tonight at 7:08 at HSBC Arena.