When it comes to handing out blame for the ' poor start there is plenty of itto go around.Mike Johnston, , certainly deserves his share. His player usage and roster decisions were at times bizarre and without reason, and his ultra-conservative attack that stre sed defense and a 200-foot game from game-breaking offensive players like and didn't seem to play to their strengths. And that's to say nothing of the power play that is often times a bigger advantage Steven Matz Jersey for their shorthanded opponent.Given the offensive struggles of the team -- Crosby in particular -- there has been a ton of focus on the Penguins' system and whether or not it's changed from a year ago. And there is no question that the Penguins were playing a different style of hockey under Johnston this season than they were during the first half of last season.But anytime a team makes such a dramatic shift in the way it plays it's worth asking why that change happened. Sometimes it's because a team overreacted to a bad stretch of games or a disappointing end to a season and figured it was doing something wrong. Other times it's the result of the roster and the hand a particular coach has been dealt. And that is where some of the blame has to shift to the front office -- specifically the general manager's office -- for not a sembling a team that could make the coach's system work. That brings us Gary Carter Jersey to the biggest i sue with the 2015-16 version of the Penguins as currently constructed. . . . . . . . .Those are the players that have dre sed for games on their defense this season.Other than Letang (who has not played well, and is currently sidelined with an injury) and perhaps Maatta (who barely played last season because of cancer and then a shoulder injury) there isn't in that group that should be regularly skating on the top-two pairings of a Stanley Cup contending team. They've not only left on an island to fend for himself when it comes to preventing goals (and, thankfully for the Penguins, he has found a way to make it work), they've also served as an anchor on the team's offense because of their inability to make plays with the puck out of the defensive zone or contribute in the offensive zone. The apparent solution to that from a coaching perspective was to change things up to cover for an undermanned defense. Maybe the changes were wrong. Maybe they overcompensated in trying to cover up for the defense. But the bottom line is changed, and it didn't seem to be for the better.Rutherford acknowledged the shortcomings Mike Piazza Jersey on defense on Saturday when he said, "In fairne s to our coach, part of this falls on me because I didn't get the defensemen who were nece sary."That is an understatement.The biggest i sue the Penguins have had since their Stanley Cup win in 2009 has been piecing together a roster than can complement their superstar players. Under Ray Shero, the i sue was finding forwards, both top-line wingers and depth players that could make up a competent bottom-six. Rutherford has attempted to addre s that, and for the most part, he improved that area. But his failure to addre s the defense, including the lo ses of players like Paul Martin and Matt Niskanen, has crippled the team more than anything his coach did or did not do. And that, too, is a shared responsibility, only instead of sharing it with the coach, the new GM has to share it with the previous GM.Two or three years ago the Penguins loved to talk about their impre sive collection of prospects on defense and how much depth they had at the position. And in fairne s, they weren't wrong to do so. They had a good, very underrated group in the NHL, and Shero had spent every available resource at his disposal to acquire as many young, puck-moving defensemen as he could whether it be via trade or just about every top draft pick he had. The theory was that those prospects could either be developed into NHL players to replace the veterans that became too expensive in a salary cap Javier Báez Jersey league, or be used as trade chips to acquire forward depth (something that worked well in the trades of Ryan Whitney for and Alex Goligoski for James Neal and Niskanen several years back).But the plan turned out to be a spectacular failure in how it was executed.A lot of the young players have failed to pan out or simply weren't as good as the Penguins initially thought, and the ones that were traded were dealt for minimal return. Joe Morrow, the team's first-round pick in 2011, was traded by Shero for 29 games (including playoffs) of a washed up Brenden Morrow.Simon Despres, the first-round pick in 2009, was traded last year by Rutherford for Ben Lovejoy, a deal that Rutherford instantly admitted he knew was going to be a lo s for the team in the future.All of that, combined with the lack of moves to addre s the defense this past summer, has contributed to their current situation on defense. Fixing this in-season is going to be a major challenge. Pascal Dupuis' decision to step away from hockey gives them an opportunity to put him on the long-term injured list and clear a significant chunk of salary cap space, which will certainly help when it comes to adding a defenseman (or two). But for them to acquire the type of top-pairing player(s) they are going to need is going to require significant a sets -- likely prospects and draft picks -- that they simply do not have in their system at the moment.Given the way the season was going and the comments that were coming from Rutherford in recent weeks firing Johnston seemed to simply be a matter of when, and not if. But it's a cosmetic move that doesn't fix the biggest i sue. Maybe Mike Sullivan will turn their forwards loose more offensively, and maybe he will make the tough decision Johnston wouldn't make and sit a respected veteran like Rob Scuderi that just can't physically play at a high level anymore. They might even win a few games in the immediate aftermath, go on a winning streak and make it look like things are back on track.But unle s they can find a way addre s their biggest flaw and add a couple more defensemen that can move the puck and get it to their forwards it's not Jeurys Familia Jersey going to get them any closer to where they want to be. And the next coach will ultimately pay the price for that, too.