Pittsburgh Penguins star Evgeni Malkin apologizes to fans after embarrassing loss to the Dallas Stars

This season hasn't started too well for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they've turned their off-season moves into a 6-9-2 start through their first 17 games, with the team struggling for consistency all over the ice. The worst of it came on Monday however, as they would fall 7-1 to the Dallas Stars, allowing six goals in the first period, a record high for the Penguins franchise.

In the hours that have followed, it's become a very dark time in Pittsburgh, with fans and NHL personalities calling for the team to trade captain Sidney Crosby after the defeat. Now, star forward Evgeni Malkin has apologized to the fans following the defeat, acknowledging how bad of a game it must have been to watch.

This is something that we rarely if ever see in the NHL, as teams that play this badly are often in tanking mode and being accepting of such a result, but given that the Penguins have four massive veterans that are looking to help this team win, it gets even worse.

With the goaltending being poor all season and the team struggling to score consistently, it's hard to see how they can turn this around in a hurry, and with Sidney Crosby in the final three years of his career, the team could be looking to change things up.

Ultimately, this was one of the most embarrassing losses we've ever seen in NHL history, and it was brave of Malkin to apologize to the fans, but now after their team meeting, we will see if things on the ice can change.